Preface

Landscape reclamation is generally considered a multidisciplinary field, which incorporates several branches of knowledge, integrating at the same time science, technology, and arts. For this reason, each and every specialist willing to reclaim derelict landscape should be perceived as someone who is able to promote the definition of multifunctional land uses, while enabling landscape alterations to ensure sustainable development, protect the environment, preserve natural and cultural assets, and improve people's quality of life.

In this regard it is increasingly important to reuse and rethink previously developed areas that are now abandoned or underused. Instead of consuming green lands, brown and gray lands need to be redeveloped and given new life, achieving a more sustainable urban setting. In this sense, although landscape reclamation plays a very important role in societal development, the continuous use of green fields continues to have deep economic, social, and ecological impacts that require special attention. The new environmental paradigms associated with globalization, progressive climate change, and increasing food production needs will certainly intensify the entropy and instability in most of the existing natural lands. This reality creates the perfect momentum to assess these issues.

By highlighting a body of knowledge related to the discussion of the opportunities and challenges associated with the development of new sustainable landscapes raised out of ruins, and considering current and future challenges related to landscape reclamation, planning, and development, the present book focuses not only on the different sustainability pillars, but also on the impacts these changes might have on each one of them.

Crossing a wide range of research domains and issues associated with derelict landscape redevelopment such as landscape reclamation, public involvement, landscape quality assessment, land use resilience, land policies, and urban planning, among others, this book intends to assess the impact of contemporary needs, constraints, landscape reclamation methods, and strategies on planning, ecosystem, and landscape design.

As a landscape architect and agronomic engineer with research interests deeply embedded in the fields of sustainability, postindustrial landscape planning, and design, my main investigation goals are directly connected to fitting design, especially that related to landscape transformation of previously developed or derelict areas, to the needs and desires of contemporary life, while addressing in equal measure society, the natural landscape, heritage and culture, and economic issues.

I truly believe that landscape reclamation processes are still missing the vision of circular planning, which differs from many contemporaries in its philosophical grounding in the social as well as creative matrices. This calls for a comprehensive view of the different components of landscape design, acknowledging the need for an interrelated analysis of the ecologic, cultural, and socioeconomic issues in landscape reclamation processes.

> **Luis Loures** Instituto Politécnico de Portalegre, Portalegre, Portugal

> > **1**

Section 1

Introduction

Section 1 Introduction

**3**

[8, 17, 18].

**Chapter 1**

*Luis Loures*

Introductory Chapter: Landscape

Reclamation as a Key Factor for

Sustainable Development

**1. Landscape reclamation: theoretical evolution vs. practical** 

and given new life, achieving a more sustainable urban setting [5–7].

*dustrial era remake and redefine their outdoor spaces*" (**Figures 1-4**).

values, economic opportunities, and social needs.

Landscape is continuously changing [1, 2] as a result of complex and interacting natural processes coupled with planned and unplanned actions by man [3]. This scenario of landscape transformation worldwide "*has raised global concerns*" ([4], p. 326), as it is the need to rethink landscape while protecting the environment. This is especially true for previously developed areas that are now abandoned or underused. Instead of consuming green lands, the brown lands need to be redeveloped

In fact "*it has long been realized that urban planning and open space preservation are part of the same process*" ([8, 9], p. 273), "*and that the most effective way to protect open space is by effectively containing and managing urban growth*" ([8, 10], p. 273). In this regard, land transformation policies, strategies, methodologies and processes have been considered an important tool for urban containment, fostering urban

Still, has shown by Loures [16] it is clear that these contributions and the principles they integrate, have not been adequately assessed regarding land transformation efforts. However, this approach may be considered a proficient method to address urban sprawl, increasingly viewed as significant and growing land-use problem that encompass a wide range of social, economic and environmental issues

The relevance and popularity of landscape reclamation and landscape transformation approaches and projects are increasingly recognized and as referred by Reed [19] "*nearly every significant new landscape designed in recent years occupies a site that has been reinvented and reclaimed from obsolescence or degradation, as cities in postin-*

Consequently, questions such as: What should be done with these landscapes? Which functions might these areas acquire in the future? What makes these spaces underutilized? What obstacles keep these landscapes from being transformed? Who is responsible for transforming them? Who is best qualified to do it? Is this process a single profession endeavor? Among others, remain to be answered. For this reason, new methodologies and frameworks are needed. In a period when "*(…) that seemingly old-fashioned term landscape has curiously come back to vogue*" ([23] in [24], p. 23), it is urgent to reinvent the way in which these derelict landscapes are transformed, considering not only environmental issues but also historic and cultural

**achievements: a brief overview**

redevelopment and revitalization [11–15].
