NOTES ON LANDSCAPE AT RISK AND POST-PANDEMIC IMPLICATIONS

A new concept of risk for Landscapes The choice of landscape at risk as a research topic arises from the belief that landscape design and landscape policies should no longer be considered external to risk reduction strategies but they ought to be considered a basic part of each action, as one of the sides of a multifaceted problem.
In this book, the concept of risk affecting landscapes concerns all the different hazardous phenomena threatening “the significant or characteristic features of a landscape, justified by its heritage value derived from its natural configuration and/or from human activity” (ELC, 2000). Starting from the concept of landscape proposed by the European Landscape Convention (ELC), risk is here conceived as risk of alteration or interruption of the relationship between community and places, which leads to the creation of landscape features. Therefore, everything that can cause alteration, degradation, depletion or loss of tangible and intangible resources that mark landscape out constitutes risk factor for landscapes. “Landscapes at risk” will then acquire many different meanings, starting from landscapes hit by natural disaster and Climate Change effects, moving to those suffering from shrinkage, abandonment or gentrification, or even overexploitation and/or congestion, up to landscapes in transition. […]