Landscape Planning under Political Instability – Palestine as a case study

Abstract

Landscape is a terminology that is refereeing to an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors" (European Landscape Convention, 2000: Article 1: a). In many instance, such characters are being altered by different natural uncontrollable (i.e. flooding, earthquakes, erosion, etc.) or human controllable activities (i.e. urban expansion, industrial and agricultural activities, built up related infrastructures and services). Landscape changes, as a result of inter-correlated socio economic and political factors, necessitates the future landscape planning that is concerned with the use of diversified landscape recourses and with how to assign such resources in a way consistent with the people’s interests and the nation’s goals (Naveh, 1994, Marsh,1991: 2). As a consequence of the strong relations of the landscape with the existing resources, landscape planning is though linked to different related sciences such as landscape ecology, environmental planning, land use planning, spatial planning, and landscape management, for the final aim of attaining a sustainable landscape use.