Tartu ülikooli Doctorate honoris causa prof. Marc Antrop loeng

Geograafia osakonna seminar / Department of Geography seminar

Tartu ülikooli Doctorate honoris causa prof. Marc Antrop loeng / lecture of Doctorate honoris causa of Tartu University, prof. Marc Antrop

inglise keeles / in English

Quo vadis, Landscape?

Summary:

Landscape research has experienced significant advancement since 1950, reaching its peak at the start of the new millennium. That growth has been like a tree with diverging branches and has gone through various phases. Landscape research began inherently interdisciplinary in geography and history during the post-war Golden Sixties. In the 1970s and 80s, research broadened due to the environmental movement, adding landscape ecology and focussing on (sub)urban planning, sustainability and conservation. In the 1990s, other disciplines such as landscape architecture, urban planning, and environmental planning became involved, making more interdisciplinarity necessary to address complex environmental and social issues. future. The implementation of these seems becoming increasingly difficult. Landscape research and disciplines had to undergo fundamental changes. Social, political, and environmental crises of different natures cause shifting priorities, and new goals are constantly set. Landscape and heritage became 'soft' objects, while climate change and the global economy became 'hard' objects. The funding, applications, publications, and education have been modified accordingly. Landscapes change, naturally, and there will be always landscape, so what? What is the destination of landscape research?

Prof. Dr. h.c. Marc Antrop (1946) is the leading landscape researcher of the world and the of the University of Tartu. He is a geographer specialising in landscape sciences, remote sensing, GIS and planning. He is a professor who lectured courses at the University of Ghent (Belgium) in landscape science, landscape management and planning, environmental impact assessment and GIS. He is a member of the National Committee of Geography of the Academy of Sciences and Honorary Chairman of the Royal Committee for Protection of Monuments and Landscapes in Flanders. He was member of the Scientific Committee of the research-action programme PTT of the French Ministry of Environment, and member of the Belgian Scientific Committee of ICOMOS-IFLA. In 2003, he received the Distinguished Scholarship Award of the International Association for Landscape Ecology and was proclaimed Doctorate honoris causa at the University of Tartu in 2007.

His landscape research is integrated and holistic, covering and integrating aspects of landscape genesis (in particular focusing upon the natural and cultural aspects of the European landscapes), landscape perception, landscape evaluation and land assessment, landscape ecology and landscape architecture. Practical application of this knowledge is achieved in planning and environmental impact assessment and monitoring land degradation. His main work areas are Europe, the Mediterranean, and Egypt.