Our lives in the
21st century are under increasing threat as our cities overheat, flash floods
wreak havoc, forest fires blaze out of control and climate change moves on
apace after a summer of increasingly strange weather patterns across the world.
As we adjust to
dealing with more extremes, what are the solutions to tackle some of these
issues, and the interventions that the landscape profession can make to help
mitigate some of these problems?
Issues such as
population growth, increasing urbanisation, social inequality, increasing
obesity levels, digital and technological innovation, food and water security
and climate change, do not respect national or professional boundaries.
These trends and
consideration of how we respond to them will be the focus of a two-day
international conference Valuing Landscape,
organised by the Landscape
Institute and IFLA Europe at the University of Greenwich this week (6th
& 7th September 2018). The event will give attendees the opportunity to
listen, engage and debate many different viewpoints that are held on this
topic.
Daniel Cook, CEO of
the Landscape Institute, will argue that the importance of valuing landscape is
key to ensuring that the landscape profession can win the debate with central
and local government policymakers, developers, investors and communities about
the benefits that their work brings to people.
The profession has
extensive experience across many attributes of landscape, including character,
beauty and visual impacts, to name just a few. It wants to explore what more
will it needs to do in light of these major global trends & challenges – in
fields like health, resilience, landscape management and also emerging fields
like natural capital and more intangible aspects like soundscape mapping.
The longer term aim
of this event is to develop the landscape profession’s view, in response to
major external changes, as to what can and can’t be measured, and how best to
create consistent professional standards and principles going forward.
Ahead of the
conference Dan Cook said: “We want to ensure that landscape led solutions are
sought after by city and rural leaders globally to mitigate the growing
pressure on people, place & nature."
He outlined five key
priorities we need to address:
- To be bolder with our
nature-based solutions
- Increase collaboration across
different disciplines to solve complex problems
- Identify the most important
attributes that landscape led solutions can bring to society, through the
understanding of design, planning, management and science
- Consistently measure,
quantify and value the outcomes and efforts that make the greatest
difference to people, place & nature
- Communicate clearly the
benefits and outcomes achieved.
Also speaking at the
Valuing Landscape conference is the
newly appointed President of the Landscape Institute Adam White who will say:
“There is already solid evidence that points to the fact that good, well
designed and implemented landscapes can have a profound effect on our mental
and physical health and on our quality of life. With the increasing pressure on
our health services this will only become more pressing, yet we still see bad
design, poor management and inadequate funding. Health & wellbeing is one
area where we as landscape architects can really make a huge difference.”
Perhaps the most
important question this conference seeks to ask, lies in how landscape
professionals can live up to their promises around connecting people, places
and nature and the answer must be by better engaging with local communities
from the bottom-up, to inform decision-making and drive best practice and
innovation.
Tony Williams IFLA
Europe President said: “Together IFLA
Europe & the Landscape Institute have brought together a range of experts
with different experiences from around the world. This will help us explore
setting internationally agreed standards in landscape practices; putting in
place the practical and policy frameworks required to plan, design and manage
our landscapes and health services over the next 50 years.”
Placing a value on
the landscape is not simply about money, yet it is often the key driver for
those signing off on masterplans and developments. It’s vital we think about
the future role we can play.
Sessions at the
event include:
- Understanding and responding
to future trends
- The evolving definition of
landscape value
- Valuing the intangible – what
should we measure?
- Opportunities around Natural
Capital
- Creating value for people and
their wellbeing through green infrastructure
- Lessons from place-makers
around the world
- Real world case studies and
site visits with experts
Key speakers
include: Jan Christian Vestre, CEO of Vestre; Sarah Weir, CEO of the Design
Council; Ursula Hartenberger, Global Head of Sustainability, RICS Brussels; and
Professor Ian Hodge, Professor of Land Economy at Cambridge University.
