International Multidisciplinary Conference PROCEEDINGS Actual Problems of Landscape Sciences Environment Society Politics SEPTEMBER 9-13, 2019 TBILISI, GEORGIA IVANE JAVAKHISHVILI TBILISI STATE UNIVERSITY Actual Problems of Landscape Sciences: Environment, Society, Politics International Multidisciplinary Conference PROCEEDINGS SEPTEMBER 9-13, 2019 TBILISI, GEORGIA © Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, 2019 ISBN 978-9941-13-868-3 International Multidisciplinary Conference Actual Problems of Landscape Sciences: Environment, Society, Politics EDITORAL BOARD: Assoc. Prof. MARIAM ELIZBARASHVILI, Iv. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Georgia Prof. DALI NIKOLAISHVILI, Iv. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Georgia Prof. DAVID KERESELIDZE, Iv. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Georgia Dr. ROMAN MAISURADZE, Iv. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Georgia PhD candidate NINO CHIKHRADZE, Ilia State University, Georgia Dr. NELI JAMASPASHVILI, Iv. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Georgia Prof. ELIZBAR ELIZBARASHVILI, Georgian Technical University, Georgia Dr. GEORGE LOMINADZE, Iv. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Georgia Prof. CHRISTINE FÜRST, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany Prof. ECKART LANGE, University of Sheffield, UK Apl. Prof. Dr. Habil., Dipl. -Mel. -Ing. HOLGER BEHM, University of Rostock, Germany Prof. ISABEL LOUPA-RAMOS, University of Lisbon, Portugal Dr. JANA SPULEROVA, Institute of Landscape Ecology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences Prof. MARINA FROLOVA, University of Granada, Spain Dr. RALF-UWE SYRBE, Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development, Germany Assoc. Prof., Dr. KIRSTEN VON ELVERFELDT, Alpen-Adria-University, Klagenfurt City, Austria 3 International Multidisciplinary Conference Actual Problems of Landscape Sciences: Environment, Society, Politics P R E F A C E The European Landscape Convention of the European Council entered in force in Georgia in January 1, 2011. Affiliating the Convention and thus undertaken obligation of protection, care, restoration and development of landscape showed the new understanding of the concept of landscape and the need for new approaches to research and education. Thatis why the collecting and understanding of different scientific concepts of landscape has come up in agenda in the context of the landscapes in theprism of the European Convention view, which considers landscapes as a field that people perceive, and the nature of which is determined by the action and interaction of natural and human factors. Along with the affiliating to the Convention, the country faced a new challenge to create a national strategy of landscapes, which should be unquestionably based on scientific research. The European Council’s almost all member states are affiliated to the European Landscape Convention and at present are at different stages of introduction of the Convention. Among the states that are not affiliated to the Convention, are Germany and Austria, however, they independently have their national policy of landscapes and the relevant regularities and the great experience of research in landscape sciences. International multidisciplinary combined event "Actual Problems of Landscape Sciences: Environment, Society, Politics" to be held on September 9-13, 2019 at the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia, recognizesthe ideals and values stated in the European Landscape Convention and responds toitschallenges, which emerged in Georgia before science, society or countrywith the accession to the Convention. This international event combines natural, social, humanitarian and applieddirections and includes both,the Conference and Seasonal School. The event will gather the scientistsfrom the countries accessionedto the European Landscape Convention and also from those countries, which have not ratified the Convention document so far but have a broadexperience in landscape studies. The event objectives are as follows: –To promote the dialogue on landscape surveys and exchange/shareknowledge and experience; to present achievements of Georgian scientists, their integration into the international scientific sphere and to strengthen the cooperation in order to prioritize future research surveys and develop innovative directions; –To attract young people to science, represent young researchers, popularize the studies carried out by them and promote their professional growth in order to involve them in future international or local research projects; –To represent the role of multidisciplinary approaches in landscape studies. Assoc. Prof. Mariam Elizbarashvili, Iv. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Georgia The project was supported by Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia (SRNSFG), grant № MG-ISE-18-370 4 International Multidisciplinary Conference Actual Problems of Landscape Sciences: Environment, Society, Politics PLENARY SESSION COMMUNICATING LANDSCAPE FUTURES FOR PARTICIPATION AND DECISION-MAKING Eckart Lange Department of Landscape Architecture, the University of Sheffield Sheffield S10 2TN, United Kingdom [email protected] Abstract Planners and designers communicate their plans and designs within their own disciplines, to cognate disciplines involved in the relevant projects and also to the wider public and the lay people. It is typically assumed that the involved parties are able to understand what is communicated by the planning and design experts. However, the ‘language’ of planners and designers, i.e. plans, requires a certain level of expertise and understanding. There is a broad palette of technologies available to represent landscape futures. In recent years digital landscape representations showing the results of planning and design in perspective view have been widely used. These representations are typically shown as static visualizations or as animations at its best. While they may appear highly realistic, human perception is neither static nor is it fixed to a certain animated sequence. Humans perceive their environment in a dynamic way, and they also perceive the environment beyond the visual sense, including all the senses for a comprehensive sensory experience. There is a strong prospect that this limitation might be overcome by new developments in augmented reality permitting the user to experience landscape futures while on site and in the real multisensory world. Key words: landscape planning, landscape visualization, sensory experiences, public participation, decisionmaking. Introduction In the planning and design disciplines in recent years there is a noticeable paradigm shift moving away from the traditional top-down approaches to a more inclusive bottom-up approach [1] in which planners and designers communicate their plans and designs to the general public. While in an ideal world this bottom-up process would lead to an iterative virtuous circle of how planning and design proposals are prepared, in practice limited project finances would not normally allow this, and also there is a certain limitation in terms of the willingness and interest of the general public to be involved on an ongoing basis [2]. Exceptions from this are highly political projects such as large-scale wind power projects, large-scale mineral extraction, hydropower projects etc. [3]. In addition to the requirement of communicating with the general public, planners and designers will also need to communicate with other disciplines including ecologists, geographers, biologists, civil engineers, transportation engineers etc. Similar to the language of planners and designers, other academic disciplines use their own expert language. E.g. while planners and designers typically communicate their ideas using graphics, engineers typically use mathematical formulae. In either case, when communicating beyond one’s own discipline or when communicating, to the general public a certain level of expertise and understanding is essential. Human perception of their environment Humans possess a range of senses that they use to sense their environments. These include an auditive, tactile, kinaesthetic, vestibulary, olfactory, gustatory and visual system. By far the most dominant sense is the visual sense [4]. There are of course atypical situations in which a certain stimulus might overwhelmingly influence all other sensory experiences such as in a smelly landscape where manure is spread or loud noise generated e.g. through heavy traffic. The dominance of the visual sense is represented in our everyday language, such as in expressions like ‘what you see is what you get’ or ‘a picture is worth a 5 International Multidisciplinary Conference Actual Problems of Landscape Sciences: Environment, Society, Politics thousand words’. Unlike in a static framed picture the world is not static and neither are the people moving through the real world. The environmental psychologist Gibson highlighted this issue in his theory of ecological perception [5], in essence stating that human perception is a dynamic process in which it is key perceiving the environment while moving through it. Landscape representation for communication There is a very long tradition of how to represent landscapes. Techniques include physical models, freehand drawings, constructed perspectives, etc. to name just a few. In planning and design practice and research in most cases only visual representations are used for communicating with experts and lay people. Typically, these approaches will exclude other sensory stimuli. Recently,