ABSTRACT
The ecologist assigns a specific content to the concept of landscape, by which he or she distinguishes an object of study that is different from landscape as understood in other disciplines. Indeed, despite the semantic ambiguity linked to the visual and palpable connotation of the term landscape, a consensus has emerged on the object of study, and subsequently on the methods and objectives of this field of research. The first part of this chapter identifies the landscape as understood by the ecologist. In the second part, we show how the inputs of various disciplines are necessary to address problems of landscape ecology, particularly to understand human activities. In the last part, we address contributions of landscape ecology to the development of environment management. Thus, while having a conceptual and theoretical autonomy, landscape ecology has the objective of creating links with other disciplines, links drat are essential to an understanding of the phenomena that are the source of environmental problems and their solution.
