2024
Landscape Ecology
Name: Landscape Ecology
Code: PAO10613M
6 ECTS
Duration: 15 weeks/156 hours
Scientific Area:
Landscape and Planning Sciences
Teaching languages: Portuguese
Languages of tutoring support: Portuguese, English
Regime de Frequência: Presencial
Sustainable Development Goals
Learning Goals
To place students into the realm of Landscape Ecology (LE) today, so that they feel acquainted with the LE perspective within research and practice and can feel confident about which theories, concepts and methods to use when being placed within the LE approach. The course will led the students to understand the different lines of work that have developed along the last years within the LE scientific community, and grasp their differences and complementarities. In particular the specificity of the European LE, related to the complex dimensions of the European landscape, will be highlighted and worked with. The course will lead the students to understand the roots of Landscape Ecology, and the ways it has developed in several directions and embedded in different disciplines, until the multiple approaches that are there today, including the most novel conceptual and methodological developments. The practical and applied dimension of LE will be discussed as much as the research dimension.
Contents
The roots of a new science, between Ecology and Geography. Integration of disciplines for progresses in a problem solving, applied scientific approach. The concept of landscape and its evolution within Landscape Ecology (LE) and associated disciplines. The novelty of spatial landscape analysis. Progresses in LE since the middle of the 20th century. The role of the International Association for LE.Particularities of the European approach and the enlargement of the LE community. The emergence of the European Association for LE and its background. The fundaments of the LE analysis. The classical literature and authors. Developments. The spatial approach and the local landscape as the specific context of work. Integration of natural and human sciences, and integration of quantitative and qualitative methods. Examples. Research and analysis, planning and design, decision support, the integration of the human and social perspectives. Novel developments in research and design.
Teaching Methods
The course will be based on lectures by the responsible teacher but also invited lecturers. The integration of the teaching staff in the community of LE in Europe will make this participation of external lecturers easily accessible. Further, the students will read selected classical texts from the most significant authors, and their different perspectives to LE will be analysed and discussed in class. Practical landscape analysis will be discussed and the students will develop simple landscape ecology exercises, based on different LE perspectives and using different methods, so that they grasp and feel confident with the multiple approaches that can be used in LE studies, as well as in practice. Field work will be used to illustrate the differences and the need to apply different methods to different landscape types and different problems.
Teaching Staff (2023/2024 )
