Our visual landscape
Managing the landscape under special
consideration of visual aspects
Christian L. Krause*
Institute of Landscape Ecology and Landscape Planning, Aachen University of Technology, D-52056 Lochnerstrasse 4-20, Aachen, Germany
Received 3 March 2000; received in revised form 9 May 2000; accepted 24 May 2000
Abstract
Comprehensive landscape valuation requires an integration of ecological, economical and social values. Landscape image
does not only comprise its spatial and structural parts but also the formal visual and cultural aesthetic expression of the
landscape. In accordance with this holistic image of the landscape the manifestation of these special elements and visual
functions is re¯ective of the natural and cultural coherence and beauty of long functioning natural and cultivated landscape
systems.
Landscape image and identity on the one hand and its natural or cultural variety (singular appearances of elements, local
peculiarities or particulars) on the other hand are the most important criteria for evaluation, classifying and protecting against
possible impacts on the local and regional landscape.
However, in addition to the desirability of preserving existing landscape identity, the protection of existing elements, space
and functions should not blindly rule out the possibility of new developments emerging with new values.
Based on this basic idea value ranking of landscape features and individual expression of partial image sectors can be
performed on the level of ecological and sustainable land use and planning culture. In landscape planning it is recognised that
such a ranking requires a combination with professional judgement, informed opinion and public preferences as well.
To ensure the aims of preservation and development of a high-quality nature and culture beauty special methods of analysis
and demonstration of the landscape structure and image are requested. The demonstrated methodical steps should correspond
to the objective of a sustainable nature and landscape preservation and development on an aesthetic landscape planning level
with guidelines and helpful data for the impact assessment and intervention rule (German nature conservation act).
# 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Landscape identity; Valuation; Perception; Impairment; Wind mill power plant effects; Wind mill power plant location
1. Introduction and concepts
A landscape can change signi®cantly with or without
being in¯uenced by man. Examples of natural
causes are varying sea levels, earthquakes, storms or
changes in the vegetation layer which happen slowly
or all of a sudden with a disaster. During the past
centuries, human activities have increasingly caused
alterations of the landscape partly by intended and
direct war, mining, settlement, agriculture, transportation
in infrastructure, etc. The change of the landscape
character by wind energy stations will be explained
instead of other kinds of impacts by use of alien
Landscape and Urban Planning 54 (2001) 239±254
*
Tel.: ‡49-241-805050; fax: ‡49-241-8888274.
E-mail address: krause@landeco.rwth-aachen.de (C.L. Krause).
0169-2046/01/$20.00 # 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 1 6 9 - 2 0 4 6 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 1 3 9 - 6
building forms or by creation of new structures or
activities, etc.
The methodical frame and the steps necessary for
analysing a site with regard to the sensitivity of its
image attributes and need for protection have to refer
and outline.
 Delimiting landscape units with a characteristic
configuration of space, structural elements (topography,
water, vegetation, colonisation) and their
landscape mosaic pattern.
 Differentiating between macro, meso, microstructure
within a single landscape unit (the image of
which can be isolated according to spatial aspects
and scenery building blocks).
 Determining the conservation-demands and sensitivities
for certain types of interference and impair-
ment.
 Examining the degree of impairment caused by a
proposed development and showing ways to avoid,
minimise and compensate considerable and sustainable
impairments.
Landscape planning therefore ought to be formulated
in a way that exceeds simply meeting the
requirements of nature conservation and building
regulations, it should rather be considered an important
part necessary for the success of the agenda 21
process.
Using the following references, methods and criteria
landscape architects should be able to take up a
signi®cant role in monitoring the communal action
procedures.
2. Background of landscape identity valuation
Despite a considerable variety of general and expert
interpretations, a comparison between different
approaches allows the following de®nition Ð landscape
scenery expresses the concrete and characteristic
products of the interaction between human
societies and culture with the natural environment.
As such, landscape features can be identi®ed as spatial
units where region-speci®c elements, subjects and
processes re¯ect the immobile structure and the
dynamic ecosystem with typical alterations.
So, units of landscape expression have been de®ned
on the level of nature systems and cultural identity for
Germany by Krause and Adam (1983), in this survey
the character of the feature can vary within the landscape
unit.
According to the high diversity of landscape types
various methods for the description, evaluation and
impact assessment have been developed. Numerous
publications on this topic from single elements (Feller,
1981) to the complexity of urban, peri-urban and rural
appearance of landscapes are published (Adam et al.,
1989).
The totality of natural and cultural landscape is the
subject of evaluation processes in Krause and Adam
(1983); Krause and Kloeppel (1996).
Such approaches are based on the idea that each
landscape is worth being protected, even if one only
®nds residual attributes of its natural space and
adapted forms of culture. Following this, landscape
structure can be distinguished between nature and
technical expression (Fig. 1). An adequate reference
scheme for landscape valuation is feasible on the level
of units (Fig. 2, big white line for main unit; thin white
line for compartmental units in accordance with the
visual character of the main unit).
3. Perception of the spatial landscape structure
and consequences for landscape planning in
relation to visual qualities
The local landscape image consists not only of its
spatial and structural parts but also of the formal
expression of the landscape's general spatial character
in an area or a region. It re¯ects the characteristics of
natural and cultural space and the variety and beauty
of a long-term operating natural and cultivated landscape.
These are the most important standards for
evaluating and classifying the landscape-related aesthetic
qualities of a site. In addition to this, there are
local peculiarities or particulars. These should correspond
to the objective of a sustainable nature and
landscape protection.
Landscape planning is taking place on all levels of
spatial planning, including the making and supervision
of development planning. It is setting the scale for
a sustainable utilisation. Other environment related
planning disciplines can align with it, such as water
management, agricultural planning and forestry.
Landscape planning makes a substantial contribution
240 C.L. Krause / Landscape and Urban Planning 54 (2001) 239±254
Fig. 1. Landscape classi®cation according to appearance between nature and technology.
C.L. Krause / Landscape and Urban Planning 54 (2001) 239±254 241
Fig. 2. Structure of the complex landscape image according to its natural features and degree of cultural development as well as technical±industrial remodelling.
242C.L.Krause/LandscapeandUrbanPlanning54(2001)239±254
Fig. 3. A model. Visually effective correspondence-areas of the landscape.
C.L.Krause/LandscapeandUrbanPlanning54(2001)239±254243
Fig. 4. Integrative and complex sets of interaction in the landscape image.
244C.L.Krause/LandscapeandUrbanPlanning54(2001)239±254
Fig. 5. A model. Impairments on the local landscape image penetrate neighbouring regions along view axes and spoil the wide-ranging enjoyment of landscape.
C.L.Krause/LandscapeandUrbanPlanning54(2001)239±254245
to the supervision of a spatial utilisation, that is
compatible with nature, environment and landscape.
Therefore, landscape planning is the planning
instrument to put the targets of the nature conservation
act spatially into practice. It comprises all phases of
spatial planning from targeted stock taking and evaluation,
formulation of spatial models, qualitative
aims and objectives to proposed actions and the
monitoring during realisation and success-balancing.
3.1. Planning consequences
The protection of any particular landscape image
can only be effectual, if not only just the single
Fig. 6. Shape gradation of individual elements: changes in growth and incremental increase due to the observer's spatial approach.
246 C.L. Krause / Landscape and Urban Planning 54 (2001) 239±254
Fig. 7. Scheme of proportion and harmony regarding landscape extent and shape.
C.L. Krause / Landscape and Urban Planning 54 (2001) 239±254 247
Fig. 8. Types of scenery: multi-functional implications for spatial distribution, orientation, af®rmation of identity between action,
complementary and reference-area.
248 C.L. Krause / Landscape and Urban Planning 54 (2001) 239±254
elements and structures are taken into account but also
the con®guration of the wide-ranging spatial pattern
and interconnection (Fig. 3).
In order to evaluate the impairment on the landscape
image one has to examine more than just the
single components of its appearance. Therefore, the
landscape's overall character and speci®c nature have
to be described also by integrative image functions and
structural facts. In the activated landscape it is not just
features of composition that become signi®cant but
biodynamic aspects and aspects of change, too (Fig. 4).
4. Impairment of coherent features
The essential characteristics of a truly coherent
landscape is a state where all functions and processes
are irreplaceable parts of its internal `unity', a condition
which is often regarded as harmonious in time and
space. Such coherence can be affected by certain types
of urbanisation, by the use of alien-building materials,
or by the creation of new structures or activities that
are intrusive or disruptive of the landscape. Large
tracts of traditional European landscapes have
Fig. 9. Biotic and other dynamic components: evolution, life impulse, sensory stimulus and cognitive indication of the ecosystem's capability
to survive.
C.L. Krause / Landscape and Urban Planning 54 (2001) 239±254 249
Fig. 10. Distribution and dominance of structures on the basal area.
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Fig. 11. Spatial relations and variability of the landscape image in the vegetational modi®cation cycle.
C.L. Krause / Landscape and Urban Planning 54 (2001) 239±254 251
fortunately, retained a relatively high level of coherence
(Wascher et al., 1999).
Local impacts can impair the visual and aesthetic
value of parts or the entire structure of neighbouring
sites, by spoiling the outstanding beauty over view
axis. Visual information and aesthetic in¯uences from
outside can be interrupted or affected (Figs. 5 and 6).
The methodical approach to analyse and evaluate
the degree of impairments by wind mill power plants
is shown in Figs. 7 and 8.
Fig. 12. Systematic search for alternative locations using spatial distance, hiding the wind power stations or minimising their impact by
distance.
252 C.L. Krause / Landscape and Urban Planning 54 (2001) 239±254
5. Impairment of the local natural and cultural
identity, singular features and diversity
The value of a landscape is expressed by the general
presence of nature (wilderness), historic and other
cultural features, providing a sense of cultural±historical
continuity (speci®c land uses, ®eld patterns, traditional
architecture, etc.). This quality often has more
to do with feeling and knowledge than visual perception
alone. The diversity of natural and cultural
impressions in the local area makes this category of
qualities speci®c for different units.
Local areas are sometimes strongly marked and
perceived physically, visually or culturally, by individual
physiognomies such as a particular landform, a
special building, a historical landmark. Such features
can be small, yet serving as ``attractors'' to the wider
landscape context. Old trees, virgin woods or rare
habitats between ®elds and gardens can be typical
examples. Fig. 9 shows a biotic landscape element that
may be located in the neighbourhood of a town and
provides numberless basic experiences with nature for
children and adults, too.
Diversity within landscapes can be an important
quality aspect. So it is worth recognising the presence
and expression just as in biodiversity or in the different
appearances of soil, rocks, water, etc.
Fig. 10 demonstrates the variety of such and other
landscape elements as structures with a typical and
identi®able local physiognomy. Nevertheless, just as
in different elements, diversity within landscape
spaces can be an important quality aspect that is worth
being respected in impact assessments and landscape
planning (Fig. 11).
6. Blending or searching alternative locations for
alien buildings as wind power plants
Today already, ef®cient stock-taking and evaluation
as components of landscape planning are making it an
essential basis for environmental impact assessment,
as well as the evaluation of consequential impacts and
interventions in nature and landscape. It complies with
the requirements of a planning±environmental impact
assessment.
Wind power stations can scarcely be matched to the
existing image of a landscape because of their technical±industrial
character and appearance, just for
instance in places with missing or degraded landscape
elements of its formerly natural appearance or in
technically remodelled locations without any spatial
and optical connections to the outside. The startingpoint
for a solution is given by the function of spatial
distance from sensitive units of the landscape image.
In that case the alternative location has to be far less
vulnerable.
Fig. 12 shows systematic search for alternative
locations using spatial distance, hiding the wind power
stations or minimising their impact by distance. Additionally,
limited possibilities should be explored
regarding the reduction of speci®c trigger-effects.
7. Conclusions
The change of landscape is characterised by urban
culture. If one was to judge the future image of the
landscape, undeveloped as nowadays, by mono-cultural
sectors living, working and enjoying the land, the
picture would appear rather unfavourable. Actual
development is nevertheless still dependent on our
visions and how we transform past experiences into a
new life in harmony with nature.
A few concrete starting-points towards a new orientation
are given in the following.
 Ascertaining the value of ecologically and aesthetically
favoured landscapes by reference numbers
of use, existence, options and heritage. Consideration
of this general ecological value for the good of
landscape aesthetics in environmental compatibility
tests and profit±cost-analysis of projects in the
fields of energy supply, traffic, tourism and production
facilities.
 Improving the quality of life and leisure in our
villages, towns and landscapes by regaining their
characteristic features and special aesthetic qualities
and thus making them lively, unique and
endearing. This may, under certain circumstances
also help to reduce the constantly increasing urge to
travel (Krause and Langer, 1999).
Landscape planning has to be worked out and
realised by quali®ed experts. The different steps,
criteria and methods for the analysis and evaluation
are explained using the example of a proposed wind
C.L. Krause / Landscape and Urban Planning 54 (2001) 239±254 253
energy station. The following image aspects and
means to avoid impairments by keeping appropriate
safety distances shall be introduced exemplary for
other con¯ict solving strategies.
 Sensitive units and spaces of landscape image and
distances.
 Mosaic patterns of landscape structures and dis-
tances.
 Conflicts of formal identity and distances.
 Landscape image scenery and distances.
 Distances to view axes, corridors and sectors.
 Distances of proportion and shadow lines.
 Distances to safe vitality and the basis for a biological
landscape design.
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