Landscape planning and management

Slovenian landscapes are that type of the national heritage that is particularly important because of the landscape quality and the level of their preservation. The awareness of their importance is becoming more and more a part of the general public value system. The knowledge about the landscape, about the processes that are behind its actual changes and those that may occur in the future are not sufficiently explored so far. The methods and activities that should be used for landscape protection and development are not sufficiently developed as well. The fields of research that the researchers working together within the program are (1) The typology and values of Slovenian landscapes with special respect to their distribution on the national territory. An important inventory has been developed in the last years and the main typology classes have been defined as well. The problem that has to be elaborated is the distribution of the types within the national territory. (2) The changing of landscapes, particularly within the process of globalization, and in respect to the struggle common in the entire Europe for landscape heritage and landscape identity preservation. Because of specific historical and natural conditions Slovenian landscapes have preserved many of the traditional landscape characteristics which may be lost due to the changes that Slovenian agriculture has to face in the near future. (3) Methods and activities needed for development and conservation of basic values of cultural landscapes. The area has been an important issue in the past research activity of the group. The introduction of planning approaches and techniques, e.g. the normative approach, the involvement of the general public into the decision making process, the use of geographic information systems, etc. as well as changes in planning systems require that this field of research is kept in the focus of the research interest. The research program tends to covers landscape design and landscape planning as well as landscape management issues.