Abstract

Since the end of the 19th century the study of the landscape was the core business in regional geography. The study of the landscape was integrating natural and human sciences as well as chorology with history. Geographers were pioneers in using air photo-interpretation, surveying and mapping landscapes. With the new orientation in the 1960-70s specialization, spa­tial analysis and quantitative modeling ended monographic description of regions and gradually the interest for the landscape became lost by many geographers. This « gap » was rapidly filled by landscape ecologists and later archaeologists who discovered the landscape scale as well as some specific techniques in spatial analysis and modeling initially developed by geographers. The rise of GIS-technology, which became rapidly user-friendly and thus was generalized in all domains. The increasingly faster and important environmental changes marked since the 1990s a renewed interest for the landscape which became the perceivable result of all impacts and became considered as a important heritage in danger. International conventions offered formal definitions of the landscape, introducing many new concepts and initiating new ways for research, planning and management. Very few geographers were involved in this development. Nevertheless, many are « doing geography » now. Today, landscape became interesting for many and demands inter- and even transdisciplinary studies. Future landscape studies focus on several, often overlapping research fields : landscape classification including characterization and typology, landscape change in the past (landscape archaeology, historical geography) and future (scenarios and models), landscape metrics relating quantitatively spatial patterns and processes (landscape ecology), landscape visualization including re-photography, monitoring (urban planning, (landscape) architecture), landscape preference and narratives (psychological, humanistic approaches), landscape economics.

Pour citer cet article