scholarly journals Landscape Works. Balancing Nature and Culture in the Pantelleria National Park

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 13371
Author(s):  
Romina D’Ascanio ◽  
Lorenzo Barbieri ◽  
Giorgia De Pasquale ◽  
Andrea Filpa ◽  
Anna Laura Palazzo

Traditional agricultural practice and peculiar geographical features in the Mediterranean basin have not only moulded cultural and heritage values, but also created the conditions for the development of habitats to be protected. Therefore, Landscape proves a suitable concept both for the enhancement of cultural features and for nature conservation. The aim of this work is to apply the landscape approach to the Pantelleria National Park, providing the opportunity to reflect upon and discuss whether and how to encompass rural landscape planning and management within the broader context of natural values, offering a frame of reference for the zoning of the future Park Plan. Specifically, the research aims to define zoning categories, typical to protected areas planning, using criteria related to landscape features and patterns, environmental quality, traditional agriculture, architectural heritage. Established in 2016, the Pantelleria National Park is the most recent Italian National Park and the first one in Sicily. The Park covers 79% of the island, encompassing two sites of Community Importance as well as one Special Protection Area belonging to the Natura 2000 network. Pantelleria is a microcosm gathering a great variety of natural and human-made landscapes characterized by high levels of complexity embodying the antagonism of two protected ‘noble interests’: Nature and the environment on the one hand, Culture framed as traditional rural practices on the other. The main challenge of the new-founded National Park is to combine quality and values relating to the domain of Nature, which is expanding, with those expressed by Culture, represented by a wide array of historical rural values at risk due to ongoing abandonment of most remote areas.

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Jing Li ◽  
Tao Hou

From the construction of “new socialist countryside” to the proposal of “full coverage of village planning,” rural construction has gradually been pushed to a climax. However, the current situation of rural landscape construction in China is not optimistic. On the one hand, the rural landscape deviates from its rural and regional characteristics due to deliberately seeking novelty and differences. Based on these two extreme development trends, this article uses virtual reality technology to construct a rural landscape virtual-roaming system, and randomly select 25 people, each group of 5 people, a total of 3 groups, enter the system in batches with a real reduction degree of 30%, 45%, 60%, 75%, and 80% for experimentation and score the system after the experience. The true reduction degree of the first group is 30%; the true reduction degree of the second group is 45%; the true reduction degree of the third group is 60%; the true reduction degree of the fourth group is 75%; and the true reduction degree of the fifth group is 80%. After analyzing the experimental data, it is concluded that when the true reduction degree of the system goes from low to high, people’s satisfaction is higher; when the true reduction degree is as high as 80%, the satisfaction is as high as 9 points; when the true reduction degree of the system goes from low to high, people’s sense of immersion is getting deeper and deeper. When the true reduction degree is 30%, the lowest score for immersion is 1 point; when the true reduction degree is 80%, the lowest score for immersion is 7.5 points; the true reduction of the system decreases from high to low; when it is high, people’s interaction degree becomes stronger and stronger. When the true reduction degree is 30%, the lowest interaction degree score is 2 points; when the true reduction degree is 80%, the lowest interaction degree score is 9 points; it can be seen from this that, with the increase in the degree of realism of the rural landscape virtual-roaming system, it is extremely difficult for people to find whether they are in the virtual or the reality, and their immersion in virtual reality is getting deeper and deeper. This test also confirmed the superiority of the virtual roaming system in rural landscapes, and the experience is extremely effective.


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 374
Author(s):  
Piotr Brewczyński ◽  
Kamil Grałek ◽  
Piotr Bilański

The small-sized gametophytes and sporophytes of the green shield-moss Buxbaumia viridis (Moug.) Brid. make it difficult to study. However, in Europe, there has been increasing interest in this species in the past few years, mostly as a result of the implementation of the Natura 2000 network. In Poland, B. viridis has only been reported in isolated studies that have been limited in terms of area and the number of participating workers. One of the Polish regions where B. viridis was recently recorded is the Bieszczady Mountains, but there have been no large-scale surveys of that region to date. The objective of the current work was to describe the B. viridis population in the Bieszczady Mountains in terms of its spatial distribution and abundance, investigate its selected microhabitat preferences, and evaluate the conservation status of this moss species within the Natura 2000 site Bieszczady PLC180001. The studied region encompassed 93,490.44 ha, including 69,056.23 ha of managed forests and 24,434.21 ha of forests belonging to the Bieszczady National Park. A preliminary survey was conducted in the Cisna Forest District (forest area of 19,555.82 ha) on 15–17 November 2017, while the main survey was performed in selected forest subcompartments of four forest districts—Baligród, Komańcza, Lutowiska, and Stuposiany—as well as the Bieszczady National Park from 5 to 16 November 2018. The field work consisted of searching for B. viridis sporophytes and setae and recording selected population and locality characteristics. The study led to the discovery of 353 new B. viridis localities in 202 study areas, with 9197 diploid individuals (sporophytes or setae only) growing in 545 microhabitats. The number of B. viridis localities discovered in the Bieszczady Mountains during 17 days of survey in 2017 and 2018 was two times higher than the combined number of localities previously found in Poland over more than 150 years (159 localities). Additionally, the number of sporophytes and setae identified was two times greater than their overall number in previous records. In addition, this study provides information about selected microhabitat preferences and the conservation status of this moss in the Bieszczady Natura 2000 site.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 194008292110147
Author(s):  
Dipto Sarkar ◽  
Colin A. Chapman

The term ‘smart forest’ is not yet common, but the proliferation of sensors, algorithms, and technocentric thinking in conservation, as in most other aspects of our lives, suggests we are at the brink of this evolution. While there has been some critical discussion about the value of using smart technology in conservation, a holistic discussion about the broader technological, social, and economic interactions involved with using big data, sensors, artificial intelligence, and global corporations is largely missing. Here, we explore the pitfalls that are useful to consider as forests are gradually converted to technological sites of data production for optimized biodiversity conservation and are consequently incorporated in the digital economy. We consider who are the enablers of the technologically enhanced forests and how the gradual operationalization of smart forests will impact the traditional stakeholders of conservation. We also look at the implications of carpeting forests with sensors and the type of questions that will be encouraged. To contextualize our arguments, we provide examples from our work in Kibale National Park, Uganda which hosts the one of the longest continuously running research field station in Africa.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosana Silva Lana ◽  
Érika Monteiro Michalsky ◽  
Consuelo Latorre Fortes-Dias ◽  
João Carlos França-Silva ◽  
Fabiana de Oliveira Lara-Silva ◽  
...  

In the New World, the leishmaniases are primarily transmitted to humans through the bites ofLeishmania-infectedLutzomyia(Diptera: Psychodidae) phlebotomine sand flies. Any or both of two basic clinical forms of these diseases are endemic to several cities in Brazil—the American cutaneous leishmaniasis (ACL) and the American visceral leishmaniasis (AVL). The present study was conducted in the urban area of a small-sized Brazilian municipality (Jaboticatubas), in which three cases of AVL and nine of ACL have been reported in the last five years. Jaboticatubas is an important tourism hub, as it includes a major part of the Serra do Cipó National Park. Currently, no local data is available on the entomological fauna or circulatingLeishmania. During the one-year period of this study, we captured 3,104 phlebotomine sand flies belonging to sixteenLutzomyiaspecies. In addition to identifying incriminated or suspected vectors of ACL with DNA of the etiological agent of AVL and vice versa, we also detectedLeishmaniaDNA in unexpectedLutzomyiaspecies. The expressive presence of vectors and naturalLeishmaniainfection indicates favorable conditions for the spreading of leishmaniases in the vicinity of the Serra do Cipó National Park.


Oryx ◽  
1955 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 64-70
Author(s):  
G. N. Zimmerli

The idea of a Swiss national park originated with the Swiss Society for Nature Research and this Society played the leading part in its realization. In 1906 the Society set up as part of its own organization a Swiss Nature Protection Commission and charged it to search for an area in Switzerland suitable for establishment as a reserve, in which all the animal and plant life could be protected against interference by man and so could be left entirely to the play of natural forces. It was not easy to find in Switzerland a suitably large area which still retained its original characteristics, was virtually free from human settlement, and contained some wealth of fauna and flora. After a careful survey of the whole country it became clear that the most suitable region was the Lower Engadine, with its isolated valleys on the eastern border of the country. The district in which, at the beginning of the century, bears had still lived was the one in which primitive nature could be found in its truest state.


2016 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Bacher ◽  
Janette F. Walde ◽  
Caroline Pecher ◽  
Erich Tasser ◽  
Ulrike Tappeiner

In the last decades, rural landscape in Europe has evolved from an agricultural by-product to an important public good. This development creates not only new challenges to farming practices, it also makes participation and public involvement an indispensable tool for sustainable landscape planning. This is especially true for many European mountain regions, where tourism represents an important source of income and conflicts between locals’ and tourists’ interests should be avoided. In our study, we analyze whether discrepancies in the perception of the Alpine landscape can be located between locals and tourists and, if these differences exist, in which aspects these two groups are differing. A model employing three general factors able to describe landscape preferences regardless of the personal background is suggested and validated by confirmatory factor analysis. Our major finding shows that an attractive landscape for tourists does not have to be contradictory to a landscape that supports a high living quality for locals. Compromises in landscape planning between locals’ and tourists’ requirements seem often not to be necessary as they, generally, do not differ in the way they experience and assess the  landscape.


Author(s):  
Ilariya Kashutyna ◽  
Olga Stepochkyna

Landscape structure is considered forests of the national park «Ugra» Kaluga region. Are identified relationships between location, which is determined by the shape mesorelief and composition of the top layer of soil-forming rocks - on the one hand, and long-term conditions of vegetation and soil - on the other. Key words: structure of forest landscapes, location, long-term condition, mesorelief, parent rocks, vegetation, soil cover.


2010 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 9-19
Author(s):  
Priscilla Ananian ◽  
Bernard Declève

Brussels Capital Region has to deal with urban conflicts arising from the different kinds of land uses. On the one hand the process of metropolisation has intensified the inner city's land use through residential, economic and urban development and on the other hand this same process has contributed to the expansion and sprawling of the city beyond its administrative borders. The city's main challenge is to ensure the cohabitation of different urban forms and densities in a multi-scale level related to metropolitan and local functions (Ananian P. 2010). Brussels, originally an industrial city, has become an administrative centre, generating a series of disaffected areas. Urban regeneration and sustainable development policies aim to improve the standard of living through urban, social and economic enhancements. Indeed, these policies deal with the construction, renovation and requalification of obsolete areas into new dwelling complexes. In this context, the present article shows the results of a broader research commissioned by the Brussels Capital Region on residential densification between 1989 and 2007(Declève B. Ananian P. et al 2009). Through the analysis of this inventory, we have identified three main techniques concerning the requalification of old places into residential uses: firstly the reurbanisation of brownfields generated by the delocalisation of large facilities; secondly the requalification and reconversion of isolated buildings (abandoned and obsolete industrial and office buildings) and last but not least, the recycling of terrains merged into the urban fabric of old neighbourhoods. Following two methodological approaches (morphological observation and analysis of social perception), this research has shown us that, in the last twenty years of housing production in Brussels, the main abandoned buildings and sites that were available were requalified, increasing density and improving urbanity through the diversity of the urban forms adopted for the public and private spaces.


Author(s):  
Gulsun Yildirim

This study finds out how the balance of use and protection of Kackar Mountains National Park is from the perspective of visitors. In the study, a method based on tourist perception was used by using the website reviews of the tourists. The data was obtained using Trip Advisor, which is one of the most visited travel sites. Website reviews of the tourists for Kackar Mountains National Park is primarily collected through this website. 150 visitor comments were content analyzed. The themes were defined based on the report of Kackar Mountains National Park Directorate. The results show that Ayder plateau is the one which is under high risk related to the protection and usage balance in Kackar Mountains National Park, and it was found that the capacity of the ecological carriage and the administrative / physical carrying capacity were exceeded in that plateau. Ecological indicators have warned against significant danger. Therefore, authorities should take urgent measures as soon as possible.


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