R. Eisenbeiß
Since the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is supporting the conversion of agricultural land into forest, it is also alleviating a change of the landscape – in terms of structure and composition as well as in appearance. A number of different land-user groups are affected by these changes. Thus steering of the process is subject to interdisciplinary planning, in order to integrate all kinds of public and private interest.
The INTERREG IIC – Project “Natural Resources” (97005/A) aimed at investigation of various aspects to be considered in concer for increasing forest cover in sparsely forested regions. For this matter, authorities and research institutions of Austria, Germany, Greece and Hungary have been working closely on this topic, thereby improving transnational collaboration and exchange of knowledge / eyperience.
18 sub-projects have been grouped around four major subjects. The first being collection and supply of basic information for spatial planning, the second to assess the effects of land-use conversion on the site and the regional ecosystem. The third subject was finally combining the gathered information and joining it with public interest into a new method to evaluate landscape functions that are generated by agricultural cultivation of forests.
A supplementary role, but still connected to ecologically sound spatial planning, played the foruth subject: management of urban forest for recreation.
During the three years of the project, many interdisciplinary and international discussion have been performed. In the beginning, it has been essential to find a common language for all disciplines. The succes of these discussions can be seen in the definition of landscape functions that are agreed upon by all partners of different countries and disciplines. From these definitions derived a new understanding of multifuncional land-use, which can be stated for agricultural land as well as for forests. Furthermore, the project has been able to develop a set of common criteria, that are to be applied for different land-use forms and or different kinds of ecosystems, from the North-Sea to the Island of Crete. The evaluation method is adapted to the land-use form in question and to the regionalconditions ba the appropriate choice of indicators.
Supported by the results of different sub-projects, the new method bilds upon elementary data, e.g. soil maps, and refers to experiences about impacts of afforestations o regional water bodies, wind erosion of climatic stability. Thus the recently developed method ca be applied in order to supply a valuable basis for interdisciplinary spatial planning.
There are many important and useful results from the international project. Nevertheless, these results have to be further verified, and to be applied in other regions. The method for evaluation of landscape functions can be immediately applied in areas with similar conditions – public interest, forest-cover, availability of basic information, similar land-use forms. However, for regions of differing natural or political conditions, the indicators of this method might have to be adjusted before application. This may demand for preliminary research. It also has to be checked, if other land-use forms have to be respected. For mountainous regions, the problem of natural hazard should be integrated in the scheme. Last but not least, although the results purport, that the chosen set of criteria and landscape functions is widely applicable in different regions, this will have to be proofen by research and application in other countries.
The projects on management of urban forests – in Vienna, Budapest, and Athens – showed that these cities share a common set of problems and public interest. The way to respond to citizens’ expectations in planning for recreation is an important field for intermunicipal and international cooperation. Joint efforts will have to go much further than simple exchange of experiences. Common projects, preferably by the use of new media and information technologies, will bring the cities closer together – enhancing planning for green spaces in urban environments.