Landscape Analysis and Planning

This book presents recent advances in landscape analysis and landscape planning based on selected landscape studies conducted in different parts of Europe. Included are methodological problems and case studies presented and discussed during scientific sessions organized by the Commission of Landscape Analysis and Landscape Planning of the International Geographical Union (IGU) within the framework of the IGU Regional Conference in Kraków, Poland, 18-22 August, 2014.§§The subject of landscape analysis and landscape planning has been of interest to geographers since the beginning of the twentieth century. This relatively new area of study, which focuses on the landscape resource patches and spatial interconnections, was introduced as landscape ecology (Landschaftsoekologie) by Carl Troll, one of the twentieth century's most influential physical geographers. Nowadays, landscape studies refer to a holistic view to geographic environment and are closely connected to rapidly developing ideas of ecosystem approach, sustainable landscape and ecosystem services. Modern techniques of Geographical Information Systems support the spatial landscape analyses.§