**Author details**

*Landscape Architecture - Processes and Practices Towards Sustainable Development*

prepared by determination of the following analytical features:

a single field; an agricultural plot; spatial structure);

communication objects);

of a landscape).

1.natural environmental (protected areas and species protection; valuable natural objects; forest and stand site types; boundaries with sea water; ecological corridors; linear bush and tree covers; area fragmentation; land cover;

2. cultural (archaeological sites, rural systems, rural and suburban building objects, objects related to former borders and relict ownership forms, objects connected with fortifications, mining, metallurgy, power industry, craft and industry, religious building complexes and places of worship, places of martyrdom and commemoration; objects of town and palace architecture; historical objects of architecture connected with transport, spa, tourism and recreation, leisure, sports, observation and navigation infrastructure; protected objects;

3. synthetic (tradition, identity, familiarity, basic and supplementary functions

Visible in recent years across Europe, a decline in small game has attracted the attention of practitioners and scientists to the causes of this regression. An indication of the reasons for this phenomenon constitutes the starting point for possible corrective actions; the next task should be to assess (valorise) adverse effects. This assessment is extremely important, because by ranking threats, it sets a schedule for corrective actions. Research methods that could be used in the situation described

valuable habitats.

understood as the identification and quantification of relationships occurring between the spatial structure of the landscape (e.g. the number of forest patches) and processes occurring within and between ecosystems [24]. What is particularly important is quantitative assessment of the impact of spatial heterogeneity of the landscape on such phenomena as distribution and movement of animals, which is crucial for conducting sustainable game management as well as active protection of

Due to the growing human impact on the landscape, in 2000 the Council of Europe adopted the European Landscape Convention, which Poland ratified on 27th September 2004, thus recognising the landscape as an important part of people's quality of life and a key element of the well-being of society. For the needs of the landscape audit, a special typology of landscapes has been developed [14] as well as a classification based in particular on criteria such as: the nature of the factors dominant in the landscape, land relief and land cover. The inventorying of landscape values consists in an analysis and assessment of the values of individual landscapes, taking into consideration the following resources: abiotic, biotic and anthropogenic, i.e. historical, cultural and aesthetic ones [25]. The goal of landscape audits is identification of landscapes which occur within a given voivodeship (province), determination of their characteristics, conducting their valorization and distinguishing the priority landscapes, i.e. those regarded as the most valuable and requiring special protection [26]. An important task is a detailed assessment and presentation of recommendations and conclusions regarding formation and landscape protection, which can be used in many other studies, e.g. in the categorisation of areas managed by hunting clubs. Conducting a landscape audit requires the use of multi-source data, environmental information and field inspections. The detailed results of an audit are to enable its practical application in spatial planning processes at the communal level, or in local strategic-planning documents, including those related to the valorization of landscapes at a microscale. Characteristics of landscapes are

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Szewczyk Grzegorz\*, Krzysztof Lipka, Piotr Wężyk, Karolina Zięba-Kulawik and Monika Winczek University of Agriculture in Krakow, Kraków, Poland

\*Address all correspondence to: rlszewcz@cyf-kr.edu.pl

© 2020 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
