Current trends in landscape research

Landscape is defined as the material-physical entity comprising the structures of nature and land use and their mutual relationship. This reduced but more precise specification of the landscape includes certain geo- and bioscientific problems as well as socio-economic conditions, motives and functions in the sense of a system approach, which have to be considered, but to do not belong to its object sphere directly. For landscape research a multi-stage procedure is introduced. It includes (a) the scientific and technical analysis of natural and land use structures inclusive their spatial and temporal dynamics (and genesis), (b) the functional analysis of landscape within the processes of socio-economic reproduction, i.e. landscape as an object of socio-economic activities and (c) the comparison of landscape structures with standardized parameters set by society under consideration of natural regularities leading to the evaluation and prognosis of these structures or certain parts of them.