Europe's Living Landscapes - Essays Exploring our Identity in the Countryside

Cultural landscapes can be considered as centres for multifunctionality and sustainability at the regional scale; some of the most striking and characteristic examples of European cultural landscapes are disappearing or losing essential functions; among these, farmland areas of High Nature Value (HNV) are subjected to strong pressure for change. The need to safeguard, promote or guide the transformation of Europe¿s cultural landscapes can be considered as an opportunity and challenge for European policy makers and stakeholders to develop adequate strategies and support mechanisms; therefore, in order to develop Europe¿s cultural landscape into the future, European policy makers and stakeholders need to have access to structured information at different scales. Existing (traditional) knowledge and new research tools can provide the basis for developing cultural landscapes towards models for future land use, furthermore, the potential role of new functions for the development of new living landscapes should be put forward to overcome the feeling of loss and grief with the cultural landscapes in Europe.JRC.H.5-Rural, water and ecosystem resource