Susanna Curioni on "Evaluation methods of landscape qualities"

1. Evaluation methods
of landscape qualities
Susanna Curioni
INPUT 10-12 May 2012

2. Landscape is a complex category founded on a multitude of different elements which all contribute to its definition:
strictly scientific factors pertaining to a vast range of established disciplines, and so-called cultural factors
combining the historical, cultural and aesthetic aspects which contribute to knowledge of territory.
Unlike the case of environment – a sector for which a series of scientific studies and methodological contributions
have been developed over past decades – only recently has a need emerged for research which is not limited to
the study of landscape as a simple object of perception but contributes to construction of an analytic task aimed
at establishing a common platform for all the disciplines that contribute to the understanding of landscape.
Definition of a rigorous methodology for the study of landscape offering criteria which are as objective as
possible and elements for assessment of project quality is therefore an innovative tool which, in response to the
current need for shared models to guide landscape policy, contributes to application of the European Convention
and thereby indicates a direction for action to be extended onto the international scene.

3. The Italian legislative tradition in the field of landscape
Constitution of the Italian Republic (1947, art. 9.2)
“the Republic protects the landscape and the historic and artistic heritage of the Nation”
Law n. 1497 / 1939 “Protection of natural beauties”
Law n. 431 / 1985 “Galasso law” Protection of areas with high environmental value
Law n. 349 / 1986 Institution of the Ministry of the Environment
and provisions in matter of environmental damage
European Landscape Convention
Florence 20 October 2000
Law n. 14 / 9 January 2006 ratification of Italy
Legislative Decree 22 January 2004 n. 42 and later reviews in 2006 and 2008)
“Cultural Heritage and Landscape Code”

4. European Landscape Convention
Florence, 20 October 2000
Article 1 - Definitions
a. "Landscape" means an area, as perceived by
people, whose character is the result of the action and
interaction of natural and/or human factors.
Article 2 - Scope
[ ] this Convention applies to the entire territory of the
Parties and covers natural, rural, urban and peri-urban
areas. It includes land, inland water and marine areas.
It concerns landscapes that might be considered
outstanding as well as everyday or degraded
landscapes.
Article 3 - Aims
The aims of this Convention are to promote landscape
protection, management and planning, and to organise
European co-operation on landscape issues.

5. Subscriptions of the European Landscape Convention
Total ratifications: 37
Total signatures not followed
by ratifications: 2

6. The European Landscape Convention: early applications
With numerous signatories, the Convention provides a sufficiently ample framework to permit application of its
directives in geographically and culturally diversified Europe. In the past decade numerous signatory nations
have implemented a series of measures promoting adoption of the guidelines and goals identified in it in their
own legislation.
Germany
Environmental and scientific approach deriving from the federal law on the protection of nature
Catalonia
Landscape Catalogues of the Landscape Observatory of Catalonia
Great Britain (England, Scotland, Galles)
LCA Landscape Character Assessment
HLCA Historic Landscape Character Assessment
France
Studies by traditional schools of landscape
Studies by public administration like the Method of the Ministère de l’Environment for the Atlas de Paysages
Switzerland
Paysage 2020 by OFEFP pour la Nature et le Paysage
Italy
Studies aimed at creation of planning tools on different regional, provincial and local levels
Researches by MiBAC Cultural Heritage Ministry

7. Catalonia_Landscape Catalogues
Instituted by Law 8/2005 for the protection,
Management and planning of the landscape in
Catalonia.
The Landscape Observatory of Catalonia
is entrusted with producing 7 of these documents,
one for each administrative and political region.
Prototype of Landscape Catalogues
The procedure for the preparation of the landscape
catalogues comprises five phases:
1. Identification and characterisation of the landscape
2. Evaluation of the landscape
3. Definition of the landscape quality objectives
4. Establishment of directives, measures and
proposals for action
5. Establishment of follow-up indicators

8. Great Britain
LCA Landscape Character Assesment
HLCA Historic Landscape Character Assesment
Methods aimed at interpretation and analysis of the
formal and geographic character and historic
elements or time-depth of the territory with the
aim of providing information of use for planning and
enhancement of landscape
Structure:
1. Characterisation
Step 1 Defining the scope
Step 2 Desk study
Step 3 Field Survey
Step 4 Classification and description
2. Making judgements
Step 5 Deciding the approach to judgements
Step 6 Making judgements
Characteristics:
Application to the entire territory examined
Indispensable role of stakeholders

9. Switzerland_Paysage 2020
Vision of the evolution of landscape oriented
towards the goals of sustainable development
Aim of protecting vital space for future generations
and permitting balanced development of human
society and of the 45,000 or so plant and animal
species with whom we share the land
Through definition of thirty-two quality goals and a
grid of criteria and indicators, the study presents
the essential trends in evolution of Swiss landscapes
between 2000 and 2020 with the goal of enunciating
concrete results regarding the current state of the
landscape and coming up with hypotheses for its
evolution in Switzerland

10. Italy_MiBAC Cultural Heritage Ministry
Council of Europe’s Landscape Award
(Art. 11 European Landscape Convention)
Assessment procedures based on the Award
Regulations (CM/Res Resolution (2008)3)
with the purpose of rewarding exemplary practical
initiatives for the achievement of landscape quality
objectives on the territories of parties
to the Convention
Characteristics:
Announcement
Spreading of the initiative in the specific target
Sharing with government bodies, associations and
institutions
Participation
Clarity of the selection procedure
Introduction of an objective evaluation method
Promotion of the results

11. Assessment methodology_preparation
Parameters articulating an assessment procedure in the field of landscape:
- capable of analysing scientific data and different factors not always easily quantifiable and measurable.
- breadth of their scope of application, resulting in significant heterogeneity in the possible cases to be analysed.
Founding principles of the proposed methodology:
Guidelines of the European Landscape Convention as valid support for the creation of common rules which may
be shared within the international scientific community
The basic criteria stated by the Convention, along with identification of the key quantitative and qualitative
elements identifying an intervention, offer valid tools for assessing the quality of landscape projects.

12. Assessment methodology_criteria
Sustainability: actions aimed at safeguarding and enhancing natural and cultural resources.
Exemplary value: identification of cultural organisational and relational models that may be reproduced in the
cognitive process of the identities of places.
Public participation: procedures aimed at getting the local population involved in the process of recognisability of
a place.
Awareness-raising: communications and educational strategies for the promotion and increased awareness of
landscape.
The parameters identified on the basis of these criteria determine the path of the assessment methodology and,
through analysis of the constituent elements, structural processes and relational aspects of the projects studied,
reveal the cultural and scientific values of quality of landscape and of intervention aimed at transforming it, on the
basis of which we may identify an exemplary, replicable organisational model.

13. Assessment form_structure
The assessment form permits analysis of a vast range of different kinds of projects
Direct projects
projects overseeing a specific physical and structural transformation of the landscape in a given territory
Indirect projects
tangible and intangible actions (plans, programmes, regulations, etc.) aimed at safeguarding,
enhancing and redefining the character of the landscape
Part I
Data collection:
- information identifying the project (project head, type of project head, planning);
- information identifying and describing the project (title, type, administrative territory where the project will be
implemented, location in a landscape area or unit, location in an area subject to specific conditions of protection,
project area, cultural heritage, iconography, visual and social perception, degradation/pressure, use, description).
Part II
Parameters which develop and explicitly state the four criteria set forth above

14. Assessment form_criteria
Sustainability (environmental and socio-economic)
Environmental sustainability
- use of sustainable resources, materials and technologies
- use of environmental accounting analyses
- implementation of sustainable development processes
- actions for protecting and enhancing the quality of the landscape
- actions opposing or remedying any previously existing conditions of degradation
- use of landscape sustainability indicators
- presence of regulations regarding landscape planning in the guidelines for sustainable development
Socio-economic sustainability
- cost of implementing and managing the project
- type of funding to be used
- economic impact on the area
- presence and type of participants
- implementation of models of cooperation between different organisations
- participation in a convention or a network of international conventions regarding safeguarding of cultural and
natural heritage

15. Assessment form_criteria
Exemplarity
- identification of organisational management models and organisational practices
- feasibility of replicating the project and transferring the experience
- documentation used and preliminary studies conducted
Public participation
- implementation of participatory processes based on the Local Agenda 21 model
- opening of public relations points
- presence of standards and rules governing the transparency of the decision-making process
Awareness-raising
- creation of information points, both tangible and intangible
- presence of communicative, educational and promotional actions
- generation of printed and web publications.
Filling in the assessment form described therefore permits collection of information which, appropriately
organised and possibly computer processed, will provide useful indicators permitting identification of the qualities
of a given design context and help make the reading of the character of the landscape as objective as possible in
a shared model which may constitute a highly exemplary scientific tool on the international scene.

16. Computer processing
Data processing procedure
- computer entry of the form document
- creation of a database organising the information collected
- statistical processing of the data
- definition of parameters and scores providing a synthetic indication of the principal characteristics of the
projects analysed and contributing to their assessment
- conducting statistical and graphic analyses in order to produce a summary and a rational representation of the
information obtained
Potential for application
Creation of a database which will provide a base for experimentation with statistical analyses
aggregation the data by project type, area project size, or other significant variables
Definition of a possible series of cross-references and statistical processing of the data
- behaviour of the parties in comparison with a partnership with the national administration
- if and what kind of projects the people in charge are normally associated with
- relationship between the project date, the European Convention and correspondence with the four criteria
pertaining to the second part of the form
- relationship between the presence of valuable elements and the territorial scale of the project
- relationship between accessibility and the type of project
- presences defining its identity, tourist flows
- relationship between investment costs and operating and maintenance costs

17. Potential for application_experiments in Sardinia
Sardinia, the first region in Italy to have come up with a regional landscape plan in conformity with the
Cultural Heritage and Landscape Code and the European Convention, is an interesting field for
experimentation with the assessment methods and planning models thus prepared.
The region is characterised by a series of territorial areas with different architectural and landscape features:
- industrial landscapes places with a long tradition of extraction and mining industry
- rural agrarian landscapes an essential component of the structure and morphology of the land
- natural landscapes offering a rich heritage of elements of environmental, geological and ecological value
- coastal landscapes popular tourist destinations for decades and, while constituting an important engine driving
the regional economy, place significant anthropic and urban pressure on the land.
Experimental application of the study pursues two ultimate aims:
- measurement of the principal features of the landscape of different areas in Sardinia and analysis of the
quality of specific projects included in it
- exploration of possible ways of implementing models of sustainability in different types of landscape

18. Case study_Carbonia
Carbonia, the project which won the second Council
of Europe Landscape Award is an example of broad,
complete interpretation of the principles underlying the
Convention, expressed in different aspects of cultural,
social and environmental policy.
Carbonia is a new city established in the first half of
the twentieth century, representing the biggest
initiative of its type taken by the fascist regime
anywhere in Italy.
Located in the Sulcis Iglesiente geo-mineral park,
the city was established as an industrial, residential
and administrative centre linked with the island’s
biggest mine Serbariu.
Accelerated growth in industrial production in the post-
war period and the changes in Italy’s strategic policies
led to closure of the mine, followed by economic and
social decline which have compromised the town’s
identity.
The result is landscapes that have strong connotations
but include vast abandoned industrial areas, often
associated with ecological problems which make it
difficult to convert these sites for new uses

19. Case study_Carbonia

20. Case study_Carbonia

21. Carbonia Landscape Machine
Key aims
Preserving the area’s historic industrial vocation
Implementing a model for sustainable development
Goals
Reclamation and redevelopment of the abandoned
mining landscape for cultural, research
and industrial uses
Creation of a new model of sustainable territorial
development based on the preservation and
development of the mining landscape and the
foundation city
Promotion of research and higher education
Reconversion and transformation of the industrial
sector with initiatives in the field of alternative energy
and clean energy and energy efficiency of buildings,
in order to generate new employment and business
opportunities
Promotion of new cultural identity based on the
identity-memory-innovation relationship

22. Carbonia Landscape Machine

23. Carbonia Landscape Machine

24. Carbonia Landscape Machine
The project was an important milestone in undertaking
a new policy for the island’s new towns, setting up
a network which has also been extended abroad
through protocols for joint activities
In the context of the strategic policies undertaken in
Sardinia, Carbonia therefore represents a concrete,
exemplary model which, through actions aimed at
achieving sustainable development with public
participation and encouraging public awareness,
has triggered processes and implemented projects
which will result in the redevelopment and re-launching
of the features identifying a significant cultural
landscape.