Landscape modelling integrates the differing perspectives of the many disciplines that deal with the landscape. It is motivated not only by the desire for scientific understanding, but also by the real-time demands of 21st century postindustrial society, which include the twin imperatives of stabilizing damaged ecosystems on the one hand, and finding effective ways to use the landscape on the other. The discipline has the specific goal of designing and assessing future scenarios of landscape development, while not losing sight of its past history, both ecological and socio-cultural.
This book encompasses the interrelated disciplines of geography, landscape ecology and geoinformatics, and by drawing on their theories and methodologies introduces the concept of a living landscape with human action an inseparable part of its evolution. It offers researchers and decision-makers a number of ideas on how our landscape can best be utilized.
The content reflects the need for sustainable landscape development, at the same time as considering long-term continuity as a major condition which enables us to maintain the diversity and multifunctionality of landscapes at regional and macro-regional scales. Employing advanced terminology and methods, this book provides specific results especially for scientists and landscape professionals. The methodological approaches include environmental analyses, sociological inquiries (landscape perception), heuristic methods (landscape histories) and sophisticated statistical modelling and geoinformatic tools.
Jirí Andel graduated from Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. Currently he is a Professor in the Department of Geography, Jan Evangelista Purkyne University, and a member of the Demographic Society of the Czech Academy of Sciences.
Ivan Bicík received his doctorate at Charles University in Prague. He is the Chairman of the IGU LUCC Commission (International Geographical Union Commission on Land Use/Cover Change).
Petr Dostál is Professor of Geography at Charles University in Prague. His research focuses on regional development, risk processes and European integration.
Zdenek Lipský is a Landscape Ecologist and Geoecologist who received his doctorate at Charles University in Prague. His research interests are landscape change, typology and assessment in relation to the overall face of a landscape as well as to its specific functions.
Siamak G. Shahneshin is Professor of Urban Planning, Ecological Landscape Architecture, and Sustainable Architecture. Educated at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, and Politecnico di Torino, S.G. Shahneshin worked with many renowned architects before he co-founded SHAGAL/iodaa, Interdisciplinary Office for Design Architecture & Arts, based in Zurich.