Landscape Indicators: Assessing and Monitoring Landscape Quality

With studies on landscape indicators being as rare as they are, this volume is an attempt to fill the gap, dealing as it does with the definition and use of specific indicators for landscape assessment and monitoring. To tackle the diverse dimensions of the landscape (whose complexity is well known), the subject is approached by a multidisciplinary team of experts in landscape ecology, landscape history, landscape perception, regional planning, strategic environmental assessment and environmental impact assessment procedures, and multi-criteria assessmentmethods. Individual chapters include comparative assessments of studies conducted thus far in the EU, as well as detailed analyses of ecological, historical, perceptive, land-use, and economic ways of looking at landscape.

As well as providing a rich source of references for researchers studying the landscape from a variety of perspectives, the book will be required reading for European officials involved at any level in planning or assessing the landscape or environment.