Journal of European Landscapes - Special Issue: 25 years European Landscape Convention, Oct 2025

In Europe, landscape cultures share common foundations while also reflecting the diversity of European societies and the landscapes shaped by natural features and human histories over the centuries. Although European countries have developed a wide range of landscape policies, the European Landscape Convention (ELC)-ratified by 44 of the 46 Council of Europe member states-serves as a common reference point and provides a unified framework for landscape policies, promoting shared concepts, approaches, and practices.

This text aims to reflect on current and future challenges in the implementation of the ELC. It examines the national landscape policies immediately prior to the adoption of the Convention; analyses the ELC implementation after 2000, especially in the ELC workshops organised by the Council of Europe; and develops various observations and findings in order to provide a stronger foundation for the future of European landscape culture, of which the ELC is the most recent and significant expression.

The article explores the application of the principles of the European Landscape Convention in urban contexts, with particular focus on participatory approaches such as shared mapping, community workshops, and educational activities. It highlights the central role of public involvement in the landscape protection and enhancement, through the creation of shared spaces and cultural pathways that promote sustainable management. The active participation of communities is essential to ensure long-lasting protection and conscious use of the landscape. Specific cases of the city of Rome (in the Appia Antica Park) will be examined, where concrete bottom-up experiences are taking place, aiming to understand how these can translate into new forms of governance for urban territories.

The European Landscape Convention (ELC) promotes actions to maintain or enhance the quality of European landscapes. Agricultural landscapes cover 38% of European land and face multiple spatial challenges, creating public concerns about their future quality. This also applies to the Netherlands, a country that signed the ELC and developed multiple policies to maintain and enhance spatial quality of landscapes. However, spatial quality can be an ambiguous concept, leading to miscommunication between stakeholders involved in the protection, management and planning of agricultural landscapes. To contribute to the communication of spatial quality, this literature review identified 18 aspects grouped into four dimensions of spatial quality: experiential, use, long-term and ecological quality. Based on these dimensions, we found that spatial quality is understood either as (1) ecological quality only, (2) experiential quality only, (3) the combination of experiential and ecological quality, and (4) the combination of all four dimensions. The consideration of all four dimensions allows the identification of synergies and trade-offs across spatial quality objectives, which is essential for the development of high quality agricultural landscapes.

In 2021, the Flemish Government decided to recognise for the first time a number of National Parks and Landscape Parks. The Flemish Land Agency was assigned to organise the designation of the landscape parks. This paper presents how this process took place, organised in two parallel tracks. The first track was an area-based approach with an emphasis on bottom-up initiatives and cross-sectoral cooperation. The designation process itself was organised as a call and a two-stage procedure in which an expert committee played a key role. The second track elaborates the legal basis for the parks and their governance, and a broader framework for transversal landscape care. Finally, both tracks are discussed in the light of the way the Landscape Parks in Flanders introduce innovative ways to implement the principles of the European Landscape Convention.

The knowledge of traditional irrigation was inscribed on UNESCO’s ”Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” on December 5, 2023. The multinational nomination by Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Switzerland highlights irrigation traditions such as those using “Suonen” in the Valais (CH), “Waale” in Tyrol (A), or the “Vloeiweiden” in Belgium. It emphasises the traditional knowledge of local communities, their use of natural resources, and their contributions to soil fertility, groundwater levels, flood protection, biodiversity, and landscape diversity. Such landscapes must be preserved as a heritage for future generations. This article describes the centuries-long changing history and challenges of traditional irrigation today. It highlights the cross-border co-operation over many years in connection with the UNESCO project, the commitment of a large number of supporting organisations and the associated continuous exchange of knowledge that have created an important basis for the future conservation of this heritage. In the conviction that the diverse traditionally irrigated landscapes are essential components of the well-being of individuals and society, we consider it necessary to continuously support and strengthen the local bearers of this knowledge and the various other committed organisations.

In European rural landscapes, particularly those intensively transformed by agricultural activities, the coexistence of high-value natural areas—mainly wetlands—represents a critical challenge for sustainable land planning. Following the principles of the European Landscape Convention (ELC), which promotes the protection, management, and planning of landscapes in all their forms, this study examines the role of planning and management strategies in the conservation and transformation of agricultural landscapes in wetland areas in the Guadalquivir Basin, Andalusia.

This research examines how public policies and landscape integration in land planning have shaped ecosystems, promoting sustainability, preserving traditional agricultural landscapes, and naturalizing abandoned farmland. Using various sources and fieldwork, it highlights key changes, achievements, and challenges, stressing the need for holistic, community-driven approaches aligned with the ELC’s guidelines.

This study offers an innovative perspective on the interaction between environmental conservation and agricultural dynamics, highlighting the importance of integrating wetlands into active landscape planning, not only to ensure their protection but also to optimize their ecological, social, and economic functionality within the European rural context. The study contributes to the operationalization of the European Landscape Convention, particularly through its emphasis on participatory governance (Articles 5 and 6) and the integration of landscape concerns into spatial planning.

The European Landscape Convention (ELC, 2000) has made it possible to re-examine the cultures of transformation and land management shaped by inherited practices of knowledge’ sectorisation. This reflection involves on tools and times required to transpose ELC principles into actions. The concept of project, as a hidden dimension, is being tested in a pilot area: the Vesdre valley (BE). In situ observations are used to experiment with the socio-spatial conditions of landscapes hitherto little considered. Observation, as a specificity of landscape approaches, allows to know what happened and to communicate with places and inhabitants.

Recognising the gaps between environmental conditions after functionalist management and the today need of systemic landscape’s knowledge has paved the way for design alternatives. In the absence of an institutionalised vision and forward-looking tools, research by design is an exploratory method that responds to the need for landscape-focused perspectives and makes the project a means of raising awareness of the local landscape.

This article aims to explore the new perspectives and opportunities that the European Landscape Convention opens up in the educational context, particularly in the framework of a strategy for designing the concept and theoretical foundation for students’ architectural projects.

Offering a broad, though not exhaustive, overview of the essential role played by ELC in the educational process, particularly in promoting a renewed understanding of the landscape, the paper addresses some theoretical aspects as well as new insights impacting the architectural education process.

Assimilating this new landscape paradigm promoted by ELC enables students to clarify their preferences for a specific site for their diploma project, specific architectural solutions, and specific attitudes toward the project’s intervention on the site, generating specific solutions within the architectural conceptual process. Therefore, the purpose of the Case Study section is to reflect how appropriating, integrating and assuming the perspectives opened up by ELC as a starting point of the study improve the students’ architectural design approach.

The Brie et Deux Morin Natural Park project in Île-de-France embodies the European Landscape Convention’s focus on local action and citizen engagement. Spanning 96,000 hectares and 82 municipalities near Paris, the initiative tackles territorial planning and climate adaptation by integrating diverse perspectives—from farmers to urban newcomers—through participatory workshops and expert analysis.

Central to the project is rebuilding territorial knowledge. By combining historical maps, geological studies, and resident insights, the team uncovered how past practices shaped the landscape, revealing solutions for modern challenges like flooding and biodiversity loss. For example, restoring traditional water storage systems and reviving diverse agricultural sectors (e.g., hemp, livestock) address both environmental and economic needs. The park fosters a sustainable local economy, partnering with businesses like organic mills to create value-added products tied to the region’s terroir. This approach not only preserves landscapes but also empowers residents to adapt their lifestyles to environmental realities.

Ultimately, the project transforms the Convention’s abstract principles into actionable, context-driven policies, proving that landscape management can unite ecology, economy, and community for resilient territorial development.