ABSTRACT
Although unaffected wilderness areas still exist, much of our landscape is the result of human activity that has shaped our urban and rural surroundings over past centuries. Mountains, moors, coasts, rivers and forests all bear witness to the influence of fire, grazing, cropping and urbanisation. The visual nature of the landscape has a direct link with our social, environmental, and economic fabric, making it an important element of a national or regional sustainable development agenda. We only need to think of the importance of ‘beautiful places’ as a foundation for much of the tourism on which millions of livelihoods depend to understand the direct economic value of landscape. Yet, careless maintenance and insensitive development often destroy the very resource on which regional prosperity is founded. The recent situation in Dresden (Germany) is an important case in point: the city gained world heritage listing for its scenic river valley and then lost it through inattention to the importance of landscape management.
