ABSTRACT
A landscape is composed of many interpenetrating biomes and cultural practices. Patterns in a landscape are arranged in relation to natural factors, including climate; elevation; and geographic features such as rivers and lakes, mountains, and canyons. The pattern continuously changes. Where two ecosystems adjoin, there is ecotone, a zone of transition that produces edge effects in both neighboring communities. Humans have a desire for order, leading to the imposition of artificial schemes of organization on the natural landscape. These schemes are in various cases religious, political, economic, or military. Maintaining the variety of elements within the mosaic and preventing effacement by large-scale, land-altering projects that injure nature is a moral and aesthetic imperative. The arrangement of tesserae in a particular landscape mosaic should make both cultural and natural sense, following the underlying geology and the places where myth and history resonate, harmonizing cultural meaning with the fabric of the land. A plan that accomplishes this is the traditional satoyama-satoumi in Japan. Although it has diminished in recent years, there are movements to revive it, and it has been recommended for adaptation in other countries. The landscape mosaic may serve as an organizing principle in a future when humans inhabit the Earth sustainably.
