Landscapes in the Eastern Mediterranean between the Future and the PastIoannis N. Vogiatzakis, Theano S. Terkenli, Maria Gabriella Trovato, Nizar Abu-Jaber Landscapes have long been viewed as ‘multifunctional’, integrating ecological, economic, sociocultural, historical, and aesthetic dimensions. Landscape science and public awareness in Europe have been progressing in leaps and bounds. The challenges involved in landscape-related issues and fields, however, are multiple and refer to landscape stewardship and protection, as well as to the development of comprehensive theoretical and methodological approaches, in tandem with public sensitization and participatory governance and in coordination with appropriate top-down planning and policy instruments. Landscape-scale approaches are fundamental to the understanding of past and present cultural evolution, and are now considered to be an appropriate spatial framework for the analysis of sustainability. Methods and tools of landscape analysis and intervention have also gone a long way since their early development in Europe and the United States. Although significant progress has been made, there remain many issues which are understudied or not investigated at all—at least in a Mediterranean context. This Special Issue addresses the application of landscape theory and practice in the Eastern Mediterranean and mainly, but not exclusively, reports on the outcomes of an international conference held in Jordan, in December 2015, with the title “Landscapes of Eastern Mediterranean: Challenges, Opportunities, Prospects and Accomplishments”. The focus of this Special Issue, landscapes of the Eastern Mediterranean region, thus constitutes a timely area of research interest, not only because these landscapes have so far been understudied, but also as a rich site of strikingly variegated, long-standing multicultural human–environmental interactions. These interactions, resting on and taking shape through millennia of continuity in tradition, have been striving to adapt to technological advances, while currently juggling with manifold and multilayered socioeconomic and climate–environmental crises. |
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activities agricultural analysis applied approach Arabic Archaeology assessment authors Byzantine century coastal common comparative concept context continuity countries cover CrossRef cultivated cultural Cypriot Cyprus decision diversity East Eastern Mediterranean ecological economic Environment environmental European evaluation example Figure forest four framework garden governance Greece Greek hazards hills historical human identified important includes indicated integrated interest issues Italy Jordan Kofinou land landscape character Landscape Ecology Landscape Value LDUs Lebanon maps methods Middle mountain Mujib municipality natural patterns period planning plateau political practices present rangelands refer region representatives risk river rural sacred Saida scale Settled settlement social space spatial stakeholders study area survey sustainable Table territory tool types understanding units University Unsettled urban valley values visual Western Yarmouk