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| Key topics |
| Processes and outcomes |
| Biodiversity |
| Scientific topics |
| Fields and applications |
| Practices |
Organizations
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| Initiatives |
| Awareness |
A natural landscape is a landscape that is is mainly shaped by natural processes with an absence of obvious signs of human modification. However a natural landscape a natural landscape is impossible to identify reliably since virtually all enviornemnts on Earth have been disturbed by humans. Instead, wehther an area is a natural landscape is an individual opinion with each person making a subjective opinion based upon factors such as remoteness, perceptions of human activity and ability to read the landscape to classify a landscape as natural or otherwise. As a result, natural landscapes may encompass farmland, parkland, wasteland and other highly anthropogenic landscapes, in addition to areas of wilderness.
History of natural landscape
No place on earth is unaffected by people and our culture. However, there is no place on earth that cannot return to natural landscape if abandoned by culture. People are part of biodiversity, but people exert forces on biodiversity, which destroy the natural landscape. Terms such as semi-natural are used to describe landscapes with both cultural and natural features. People have altered landscape to such an extent that few places on earth remain pristine. Being pristine, though, is not a prerequisite for natural landscape designation. Once abandoned by human influences, the landscape is again under the control of natural processes which accommodate interruptions, resulting in a new variant of the natural landscape.
Examples of cultural forces
Cultural forces are those that, intentionally or unintentionally, influence the landscape. Cultural landscapes are places or artifacts currently maintained by people whether directly or indirectly. Examples of cultural disruptions are: fences, roads, sand pits, trails, species under human management, invasive species introduced by people, extraction or removal of species and objects, vegetation alteration, alterations of animal populations, natural landscaping, buildings, agricultural areas, pollution, paved areas. Areas that may be confused with natural landscape include parks for people, agricultural areas, orchards, maintained views (use of aesthetic judgments), artificial lakes, managed forests, golf courses, nature center trails, back yards, and flower beds.
Conflict between cultural forces and the natural landscape
For a place to return to the natural landscape, all cultural artifacts attracting people must be removed. Natural landscape is the equilibrium that existed prior to significant human impact. The time necessary for an area to return to the natural landscape depends upon the environment, and it may be termed the period of neglect. Neglect, in this context, means the absence of any management whatsoever. Most people can easily recognize a neglected landscape. Human impact on the natural landscape may result in episodes of extinction of native species, episodes of stalled equilibrium, total species destruction and even the putrification of soil and water.
The case for returning land to the natural landscape has been championed by those who recognize the harm resulting from people’s actions on this planet. Popular movies such as Avatar (2009 film) and Life After People focus on potential natural landscape controls or lack thereof. The return of the natural landscape has been opposed by those who wish to groom the natural landscape or simply to demonstrate that the natural landscape has some practical value.
See also
- Cityscapes
- Landscape art
- Mother Earth
- Natural environment
- Panorama
- Seascapes
- Skyscape art
- Soundscape
References
- Küster, Hansjörg. "Cultural landscapes." Cultural landscapes and land use. Springer Netherlands, 2004. 1-11.
- Funch, Roy R., and Raymond M. Harley. "Reconfiguring the boundaries of the Chapada Diamantina National Park (Brazil) using ecological criteria in the context of a human-dominated landscape." Landscape and Urban Planning 83.4 (2007): 355-362.
- Lugo, A. E., and Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC (EUA). Soil Conservation Service. "Managing tropical forests in a time of climate change." Southern Regional Technical Work-Planning Conference of the National Cooperative Soil Survey. San Juan (Puerto Rico). 18-22 Jun (1990).. 1990.
- Woods, Michael. "Conflicting environmental visions of the rural: windfarm development in Mid Wales." Sociologia ruralis 43.3 (2003): 271-288.
- Fisher, Christopher T., and Gary M. Feinman. "Introduction to “landscapes over time”." American Anthropologist 107.1 (2005): 62-69.
- YouTube, Professor James Lovelock, We can't save the planet, BBC NEWS, 2010/03/30
- Holmes Rolston III, Technology versus nature, What is natural, Journal of Philosophy and Technology, Ends and Means, Vol 2 No.2 Spring 1998, University of Aberdeen, Edinburgh University Press