Landscape Character Mapping in Cyprus and Lesvos, Greece: towards a common methodology

Landscape classifications employed in the Euro-Mediterranean area have, so far, been similar in philosophy and application to the ones developed in Northern Europe, despite contextual differences which have resulted in distinct Mediterranean landscapes. The Eastern Mediterranean region is endowed with a great diversity of landscapes, reflecting the mosaic of the peoples who created them and lived in them, for millennia. In the context of increasing interest in the application of such landscape classification schemes, in this region, we turn to landscape character assessment applications to the Greek-speaking world, set apart from the other cultural realms of the Eastern Mediterranean, on the basis of its language, history, and culture in general. These linguistic, cultural, social and historical particularities also signal and reveal different ways of local societies interrelating with their landscapes, which emerge and become explicit in any undertaking concerning the landscape.
The paper discusses the conceptual and methodological issues faced during the landscape mapping and characterization process, in the context of the MEDSCAPES project, in two study areas: Cyprus and the island of Lesvos, Greece. We review the approaches which have been used to-date in existing Mediterranean landscape typologies, specifically for the case of islands, and describes the process of developing a common landscape mapping and characterization methodology for the Eastern Mediterranean. Mapping was carried out in a hierarchical manner, at two levels, the 1:250.000 and 1:50.000 scales, encompassing a series of physical (geology, landform, soils) and cultural attributes (land cover and settlement pattern). This was followed by a field survey which, in addition to validation of mapping, recorded visual qualities of the landscape not apparent during the mapping process. Emphasis was placed on the coastal character of the two study areas, as well as on settlement patterns, since the latter are considered to be distinctive elements of island landscapes.
We present and compare the outcomes of the methodology implementation in the two pilot areas, as well as how they relate to the overall methodology. In the process, unique landscape characteristics and dimensions of this cultural realm – Greece and Cyprus – come to the fore, offering a better understanding of humans-landscape interrelationships in this part of the world. Finally, we discuss the major hurdles which had to be overcome, during the various phases of the methodology development, and provide insights for future island landscape characterization attempts and potential applications.