Rural landscape character: continental, national and regional appraisal

The increasing interest towards natural and cultural heritage as a result of the interaction between man and nature, as underlined by UNESCO, has encouraged a holistic approach to landscape conservation. Moreover, the indication of the European Landscape Convention to enlarge the perspective from pristine areas to ordinary landscapes, has suggested extending landscape analysis to the full territory. Furthermore, the European Rural Development Policy has urged to improve aspects regarding the economic, environmental and social situation of the EU's rural areas. Accordingly, the new European Agricultural Policy has focused the future rural development on multifunctional farms, supporting a greening economy, nature conservation and agro-ecosystem biodiversity. European countries have carried out rural landscape character assessment independently or adapting it to European and global strategies. In Italy, landscape character assessment has been taken into account in a few studies (e.g. 1). Previously, landscape evaluation and planning has been implemented since the 1980s at both national and regional level, to support international and national legislation (see 2; 3). At national level, the Heritage and Landscape Code (Codice Urbani) required in 2004 the 20 Italian Regions to produce their Landscape Plans. At regional level, the first Italian Landscape Plan was approved in 2006 by the Autonomous Region of Sardinia (RAS). After dividing the island in 51 Local Landscape Areas (LLA), RAS developed a two-step methodology on landscape assessment and planning. Firstly, 27 LLA for the coastal areas with intense development pressure were analysed and regulated, and secondly the remaining 24 LLA with prevalent rural character were considered. In this context, a research on Sardinian rural landscape has been recently carried out, as the first rural landscape character assessment of the entire island (Fig. 1). The Sardinian landscape has been studied, evaluated and classified focussing on its rural character. A unique biocultural diversity has emerged in the rural areas (Fig. 2), together with extended unpopulated rural landscape. Here, agriculture and pastoralism are the main activities (Fig. 3), and traditional culture is still a distinctive element to imprint the landscape. The methodological framework of the research, based on landscape units and types, has produced a first step to the identification of the rural landscape character of Sardinia.