Tadeusz Chmielewski

Abstract

This article sets out a proposal for a new typology of the landscapes identifiable in Poland contemporarily. The ”current” situation relevant to the work is considered to relate to a period lasting no longer than the last 10 years. The authors undertook the work in the light of numerous academic discussions accompanying the preparation of a Poland-wide project on ”The identification and evaluation of landscapes – methodology and main assumptions”. The work thus represented a methodological prelude to the anticipated draft version of the Act amending certain Acts in connection with the Strengthening of the Landscape Protection Instrument, which was adopted on April 24th 2015 (the Dziennik Ustaw Official Journal of Laws of 2015, item 774). Arising out of this is an obligation that landscape audits be drawn up at the level of the voivodship(province-region). The article first reviews approaches taken hitherto where the classification of landscapes is concerned. It also seeks to bring some order to the terminological chaos holding away in the literature, and to present a better-developed typology of contemporary landscapes against that background. The proposed classification is based around two main groups of criteria. The first group relates to a scale of anthropogenic transformation of the landscape. It entails structural and process-related (functional) criteria which serve to order landscapes along a gradient of the progressive replacement of natural forms and processes shaping the landscape by anthropogenic forms and processes. The application of this approach led to the identification of landscape groups A,B and C, where: Group A comprises natural landscapes of which cultural use is made, though functioning mainly as a reflection of natural process, only to some (varying) extent modified by human activity; Group B comprises natural/cultural landscapes shaped through the joint action of natural processes and conscious modification of land cover and spatial structure by human beings; Group C comprises cultural landscapes in which the structure and functions are fully shaped by human activity. The second typological level entailed criteria relating to the dominance of defined forms of cover, as well as the structure and intensity of land management. A basis for the identification or types and sub-types of contemporary landscape was provided in this way, with the attendant reconnaissance of the current diversity of landscapes in Poland allowing for the identification of the aforesaid 3 groups, as well as 15 types and 49 subtypes of currently-existing landscape. Using numerous quantitative criteria, including through the defining and application of the criterion of the landscape matrix (in relation to landscapes shaped anthropogenically, in the case of groups B and C), the presented typology of current landscapes is far more formalised and objectivised than its predecessors.

Keywords: typologia krajobrazu, krajobrazy aktualne, Europejska Konwencja Krajobrazowa, audyt krajobrazowy

Urszula Myga-Piątek, University of Silesia Faculty of Earth Sciences Będzińska 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec: Poland
Jerzy Solon [j.solon@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Citation

APA: Chmielewski, T., Myga-Piątek, U., & Solon, J. (2015). Typologia aktualnych krajobrazów Polski. Przegląd Geograficzny, 87(3), 377-408. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2015.3.0
MLA: Chmielewski, Tadeusz, et al. "Typologia aktualnych krajobrazów Polski". Przegląd Geograficzny, vol. 87, no. 3, 2015, pp. 377-408. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2015.3.0
Chicago: Chmielewski, Tadeusz, Myga-Piątek, Urszula, and Solon, Jerzy. "Typologia aktualnych krajobrazów Polski". Przegląd Geograficzny 87, no. 3 (2015): 377-408. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2015.3.0
Harvard: Chmielewski, T., Myga-Piątek, U., & Solon, J. 2015. "Typologia aktualnych krajobrazów Polski". Przegląd Geograficzny, vol. 87, no. 3, pp. 377-408. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2015.3.0