ABSTRACT
An underlying theme of our discussion has been the operation of a vicious circle of deterioration and homogenisation leading to the progressive erosion of integrity and legibility of cultural landscapes. In places, the main driver of this vicious circle is a process of obsolescence, where the factors which gradually created distinctiveness over a period of centuries no longer have a raison d’être in a period of globalising economy and culture. Elsewhere, the principal driver is that of dysfunction, where discordant new land uses punctuate and fragment formerly cohesive landscapes. The main argument of this final chapter is that the object of landscape scale planning should be to re-instil a virtuous circle of sustainable development that reconnects socio-economy and landscape quality, in a way that is both selfsustaining and mutually reinforcing.
