Session 19. Reflections on the new models of economic exploitation of the territory and their impact on landscapes, and proposals of management from an archaeological perspective

7th Edition of Landscape Archaeology Conference

Iasi. Rumanía
Conference. 2022

Along with many of its key environmental functions, soils consist of a unique archive for natural and Since the European Landscape Convention and its ratification by the Member States of the Council of Europe, landscapes are recognised as a key element in our societies, as a document of the past, as a place where socio-economic and environmental actions take place in the present, and as a key tool for the future as the place where we live. For this reason, landscape policies must establish strategies and guidelines that allow for the adoption of measures for the protection, management and planning of landscapes from a sustainable development perspective.

However, despite the fact that more and more member states are drawing up regulations for the protection and management of landscapes, the volume of new

models of land use is leading to an accelerated transformation of landscapes that

entails the destruction of the cultural information they contain and of their heritage

values, as well as a deterioration in the quality of landscapes caused by an extractive

and predatory model of land use that does not take into account the agreements of

the European Landscape Convention.

This phenomenon is particularly intense on the Iberian Peninsula, where, moreover, in some communities it is being strongly contested by society. Precisely these models of landscape management must include an environmental impact assessment, which in turn includes an archaeological assessment, which identifies the elements of the past that form part of the territory to be intervened, characterises these landscapes and prevents their destruction, but different modifications in the regulations are preventing this from happening.

In this session we intend to reflect on all these aspects taking into account

the following topics:

- New models of exploitation of the territory and their impact on cultural landscapes, generating new landscapes that, among other things, entail the rupture of the connectivity of the territory and its landscape integrity: exploitation of fastgrowing

species, new generation wind farms, mining operations, estuary drainage, new agricultural practices....

- Legislative and conceptual changes that directly affect the protection and safeguarding of archaeological heritage and landscapes.

- Changes in environmental impact assessment models that include archaeological

impact assessment.

- Analysis of different models of archaeological management of cultural landscapes

that address this issue.

- Proposals for a more inclusive, sensitive, integrated and sustainable management

of cultural landscapes.

The final objective of this session would be to carry out a comparative analysis of this situation in different European contexts, to review different management models that have addressed this problem in order to outline a proposal that guarantees the maintenance of cultural landscapes and the archaeological heritage that forms part of them, harmonising with the transformations generated by socio-economic and environmental processes.

Landscape transformation. Sustainable development. Landscape. Protection. Legislation. Sustainable management.