Recent Landscape Architectural Masters graduate, Colette Lemaire-Brady frames the European Landscape Convention in context with the wider landscape sector
The aftermath of World War World War II gave birth to inspirational ideas to improve our societies. The European Landscape Convention (ELC) is one of these inspirational ideas and was a response to ecological threats and vanishing farming and rural traditions. The ELC’s main objectives are not there to freeze the landscape but to manage it in a sustainable and democratic way. As such, it will have a significant impact on the wider landscape sector.
The ELC was issued by the Council of Europe and signed on 20 October 2000 in Florence by member states. The Convention was ratified by Ireland in 2002 and came into
force in 2004.
In 2016, the National Landscape Strategy (NLS) was published in the Republic of Ireland. It is a policy framework to organise supporting actions for the objectives of the ELC, which are: the landscape must be protected, managed and planned; it must be recognised in law; a national landscape character assessment must take place; landscape policies must be developed; landscape awareness needs to be increased and public participation needs to be improved.
THE ELC DEFINITION OF LANDSCAPE
The ELC landscape definition and its legal recognition are done by its inclusion in the Planning and Development Act 2010 (amended). Since the ratification of the ELC, the definition of Irish landscape has departed from the restrictive notion of “outstanding landscape” (An Foras Forbartha, 1976). The ELC now defines landscape as “an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of action and interaction of natural and/or human factors” (Europe, 2000).
The wording “natural and/or human factors” is calling for biology, humanities, and social sciences. The wording “action and interaction” is calling for extra knowledge in geography
and history.
The main challenge of this new landscape definition is perception. The objective study of the people’s perception is difficult as the perception is a subjective appraisal of the landscape. This personal assessment of the landscape could be influenced by the personal or professional use of the place, the liking or disliking of colours, noises, primal instincts, local legends associated with the place, or other societal beliefs. This list of influences is not exhaustive. The perception could be an individual perception or a group perception.
Landscape perception can be influenced by our professional bias or knowledge, so we now have the responsibility of not manipulating the public when we are involved in collecting the public perception through landscape assessment activities.
Nevertheless, I believe that as professionals, we will have our own valued subjective perception to add to the mix. Perception could be dangerously false and should be kept in check by scientific knowledge if we want a sustainable landscape.
Another challenge of the ELC relates to pinning down the definitions of those involved in the shaping of our landscapes.
WHO ARE THE LANDSCAPE PROFESSIONALS?
Can you define your role in the landscape? Most people in the field struggle with this due to the range of their activities and interests. I like the term “landscape practitioner” because it helps to portray a multidisciplinary education and approach to the landscape. It can include natural science experts, human science and applied science experts, and also horticulture experts, Landscape Architects, foresters, farmers, contractors without trying to fit them into one category or another. Pinning down roles is most certainly a challenge but getting the various sectors to agree and work together is a whole other ball game.
LANDSCAPE ASSESSMENTS PRESENT AN OPPORTUNITY TO SHARE KNOWLEDGE
Achieving agreement and collaboration begins with shared understanding of what we are talking about and the route to this is defining our understanding of Irish landscape. The process used for this is a ELC landscape assessment.
Most of us would have heard or stumbled upon the necessity to have Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA), Environment Impact Assessments (EIA) or Appropriate Assessments (AA) for various human interventions. I do not especially assimilate these assessments with an opportunity to share knowledge. The EIA or SEA are usually engaging head-on with a conflict of interests and are not always conducive to peaceful discussions.
The objects of these assessments are a development project, a spatial plan or a specified policy. The object of the ELC assessments is different, in that they are not giving a value or deciding the fate of a landscape, but are allowing a thorough knowledge of the landscape.
EIA and SEA are made to assess the adequacy of the implantation and the scale of a new development in a predetermined site. The quality of the site must stay environmentally stable. The ELC landscape assessments required from the member states are made to help in formulating policies and to understand not an environmental site background but an area in all its complexity with cultural, tangible, and intangible elements.
The AA are protecting the conservation object of nature 2000 site but the ELC protects all landscapes including degraded areas. The ELC is interested by the variations between the different European landscapes and by the observation of the forces and pressures at work. The Heritage Council guidelines call ELC assessments “landscape character assessments”. They are a thorough study of the landscape and what it means for all the stakeholders.
“Landscape character assessment – This is the process of identifying and describing variation in the character of the landscape. It seeks to identify and explain the unique combination of elements and features (characteristics) that make landscapes distinctive. This process results in the production of a landscape character assessment.” (Christine Tudor, Natural England, 2014)
The ELC convention is a legal tool, which leaves the signatories to work out the practical aspects of their engagement. It means, for example, that each government can experiment and choose the techniques used for landscape assessments, and can also be inspired by the techniques used by our European counterparts. New Irish statutory guidelines are expected to be issued in 2017. As a landscape practitioner, I believe it is our duty to make sure that the administrative process does not become void of practical meaning.
Landscape consultants will need to have a wide knowledge of the different elements of all landscapes, not only rural (i.e. ancient walls, stiles, hunting copses, Victorian letter boxes etc.) but also a knowledge of their functions. Professional bodies like the Irish Landscape Institute have been advising and discussing these matters with their members. One would hope that farming and other sectoral organisations will engage.
But assessment will not simply be the product of expert insight. Public participation will be needed too. ELC associations such as Civil Scape or Irish associations such as Landscape Alliance Ireland encourage their citizens to participate in the study of their everyday landscape.
Landscape assessments and the study of landscape trends both present opportunities to improve multidisciplinary cooperation and education. These studies should contain photos, drawings, historical facts, statistics, and even cultural information such as poems. These studies will be made easily accessible and will contribute to inspire the designers and inform our work.
Proper assessment and definition of the trends will depend on multilayers of expertise such as archeology, geology, geography, forestry, plant and farming experts to name a few. As landscape practitioners, we must make sure that all the interesting elements and functions are listed because the landscape assessments will influence the landscape policies.
LANDSCAPE PROFESSIONALS AND LANDSCAPE POLICIES
The convention asks the governments to relay the public aspirations through the competent authorities and define some landscape policies. This implies that the professionals will study the public aspirations issued from the public perceptions. This will be the task of landscape consultants, but they will need to be helped by sociologists, historians and other experts able to understand the population psyche.
Nowadays, the participation of Irish citizens in landscape character assessments is restricted to the public consultation of a draft as a supplementary planning guidance to the County Council’s Development Plan. After my studies on the interpretation of the ELC by academics and its practice by other member states, I can conclude that the public participation envisaged by the ELC means interactive processes and partnership. Consequently in a reformed system, the advice of our landscape practitioners will be sought as a balance to public opinion.
Public aspirations will need to be realistic and sustainable, otherwise, they will or should be discarded by the government. Professional views will be necessary to ascertain the viability of public aspirations. As an example, we could take the population’s wishes to have policies preventing flooding by building walls and piping rivers. The industry will be consulted on the feasibility of such projects. The practitioners should follow public debates and suggest best practice solutions. Should the industry actively promote water retention gardens and parks, which could provide jobs for our horticulture specialists, nurseries and contractors? I think so but the landscape practitioners are already walking a fine line between being a custodian of the landscape and trying to make a living.
LANDSCAPE PROFESSIONALS AND THE EVOLUTION OF AN EVERYDAY LANDSCAPE
The everyday landscape is an area visited every day and susceptible to a daily attachment. Outside or during our professional schedule, we all try to appreciate our everyday landscape and we all appreciate some of its elements better than others. As professionals involved in all aspects of landscape, we probably have an important role or duty to participate in assessment consultation processes even as simple citizens. Without the energy of local experts, many battles would have been lost. An everyday landscape is not always ordinary, and you may find an interesting local monument to fight for.
The ordinary landscape is a term which is not found in the ELC, yet it exists de facto. In Ireland, most of our landscape is a rural landscape. Ordinary rural landscape, or what I call badly defined landscape, is usually chosen for the site of new infrastructure.
This convention emphasises the importance of the citizen’s everyday surroundings and public education. It will create awareness at the local level and it will put pressure planting, rebuilding walls or local features, managing local ruins or rivers, enhancing hamlets, local monuments or items perceived as such. This should be creating opportunities for Irish horticulture and Irish landscape contractors. Once the ELC has been acted upon, not many places or local landscapes will be ordinary any more.
The everyday landscape being a limited resource with multi-functions, it is becoming necessary to have landscape practitioners with good negotiation skills when confronted with sustainable policies not suitable to the short-term interests or wishes of their clients. The retailers must inform their clients of the ethic planting and maintenance choices they should make in their garden or in their commercial plantations. The retailers should advise on genus and origin of trees and plants to avoid spreading disease. The growers could favour and offer a wide choice of plants providing food for the bees and other pollinators. The NLS does not make new landscape policies concerning sectorial activities a requirement. Professional bodies such as the GLDA or the IHNSA could try to have their
own landscape policy or guidelines.
The garden creations or ‘landscaping endeavours’ of the GLDA members will have also to be judged beyond the garden gate. In some places, the choice of the hedging plant genus could be restrained by the rural context. Horticultural trends bring variety, but should not destroy the character of a traditional landscape such as Tara or the Burren. The activities of our bulldozers should take account of the landscape forms and their functions and also of the natural habitats and the new symbiosis between the flora, fauna and town dwellers
In conclusion, managing the landscape by planning its development and protecting its identity is a collective responsibility but I believe that the implementation of the European Landscape Convention and the awareness of its existence should overall create a positive climate for our professions. ✽
COLETTE LEMAIREBRADY is a landscape consultant and a medal
winner at Bloom. Her focus is on rural, fringe rural/urban landscapes and garden designs. Colette has a wide range of qualifications
including French rural planning (1984, IHEDREA, Paris) and European laws (1987, Diploma in European Laws, UCD) to garden and landscape design (2013, BTEC, SCD) and landscape studies (2017, MArch.Sc, UCD). She can be contacted through her email:
colettelemairebrady@gmail.com
