Highlighting blind spots: interfaces of landscapes and land use

This paper addresses parts of the landscape that are characterised by a transition in space, in time or in functionality. An example of a landscape element in temporal transition is an agricultural field reverting to an uncultivated stage. A space-type example can be found where rural and urban spaces meet, or at the boundary between a natural forest and a cultivated area. Functionality-types can be found in among other multifunctional areas or enterprises such as agroforestry or agrotouristic farms and greenroofs in cities.

Many of these interface-like land use or landscape conditions, whilst occurring in increasing frequency and magnitude, are insufficiently covered by the conventional land use nomenclature, and hence tend to remain unregistered and stay absent from planning policies and management practices. That is why they could be called blind spots.

We defined eleven interface categories, here with a short definition: hybrid: different uses in synergy, such as in agroforestry; guest: use at odds with expected use, such as hobbyhorse keeping on farmland; garden: expressions of green, intimately linked to the built up fabric; fallow: transitional stage after retreat of a regular use; overuse: places with risk of collapse because of an excessive use of e.g. pesticides; edges: abrupt boundaries between different uses or in time; reach: area of influence such as the extent of noise from a highway; connector: function consists mainly in linking two other areas; commons: landscape units of social and public meeting, such as village greens; and residuals: the 'tare' fraction of land use units. These categories are not exclusive in relation to one another, a certain place can belong to two or more interface categories simultaneously, or be an overlay over conventional land use categories such as 'agriculture'.

Our contribution will highlight how these interfaces, today too often ‘blind spots’, can be applied to a wide range of landscapes and at multiple scales. Particularly they provide an analytical and diagnostic tool for landscapes of high complexity such as peri-urban areas, natural areas in the process of fragmentation, etc. Then, they can be made instrumental in the dialogue between different land use stakeholders. Finally they provide inspiration in design, planning and management.