From Landscape Ecology to Landscape Science

European landscapes can boast of a wealth of cultural and ecological values that express a long and geographically varied land use history. Many present-day landscapes are, however, subject to land use changes that are unequalled in rate, extension and impacts. The main driving forces include intensification of agriculture in some regions in contrast to land abandonment and marginalisation elsewhere. Urbanisation and an expansion of infrastructures are also taking place, together with a booming tourist industry and an expansion of nature conservation. Landscape ecologists are accustomed to analyse these land use changes and their impacts within the beaten pathways of traditional natural sciences but are often limited to local or regional scales.

On the occasion of its 25th anniversary, the Dutch Association of Landscape Ecologists (WLO) organised exchanges of ideas and visions with the intention of stimulating the role of landscape ecologists for the forthcoming decades. The challenges are broadening the scope to higher scale levels, building bridges with social and political sciences, involving designers, planners and artists, as well as disseminating insights. This book presents discussions on some of these challenges for the future. As such it is a state of the art, but it is more than that: it formulates also pro-active thoughts on the expected role of natural sciences and other disciplines. Thirteen chapters contain varying views from leading scientists and policy makers from several European countries. Moreover, two chapters link landscapes and the arts in historical and current time scales The numerous illustrations mirror the rich variety of landscapes in Europe that deserve adequate landscape research and policymaking.