Urszula Myga-Piątek
Articles
Investigating openness of the cultural landscape: a methodological proposal
Geographia Polonica (2016) vol. 89, iss. 2, pp. 129-140 | 
Full text
doi: https://doi.org/GPol.0050
Abstract
Openness and closure, understood as a physiognomic property of landscape, characterises the possibility of observing far out horizons and broad vistas. The degree of openness of landscape can be treated as a synthetic indicator of the evolution of the natural-cultural environment. A change in the degree of openness / closure of landscape is a lengthy historical-cultural process, lasting hundreds or even thousands of years. It has different course and dynamics in various climatic and vegetation zones. This process displays fluctuations, depends upon the population number inhabiting a given area, technological advancement, ways of economic management, historical events, and numerous other factors. It is also conditioned by the natural processes. The purpose of the present article is to propose and describe a method of assessment and interpretation of the degree of actual openness of the cultural landscape and to discuss the results obtained, and of comparing the methodology proposed with analogous European elaborates. The average percentage of openness of landscape was assessed according to five classes. The proposed method was tested in Poland areas. The source base for the study was constituted by the satellite images, Corine Land Cover maps, made legible through comparison with the land use maps presenting the state as of the turn of the 21st century. The method here proposed allows for the assessment of the continuous variability of landscapes, expressing the gradient from open to closed landscapes.
Keywords: landscape physiognomy, indicator of openness, closure of landscape, Poland
[plitjo@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
, University of Silesia Faculty of Earth Sciences Będzińska 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec: Poland
Scenic Values of the Częstochowa-Katowice Section of National Road No 1
Geographia Polonica (2014) vol. 87, iss. 1, pp. 113-126 | Full text
doi: https://doi.org/GPol.2014.7
Abstract
The road investment stage is always preceded with projects, which relate to multifaceted economic, environmentaland spatial analyses. The visual values of the surroundings are usually neglected when designing and building motorways and express roads. The authors believe that the increasingly large-space range of motorway construction requires that more attention be paid to the landscape context of such investments. Functioning of all objects of the accompanying infrastructure of the transportation system affect the way the space is organized. The aim of the article is to assess, in detail, the scenic values of a selected section of the Pan-European Transport Road Corridor – National Road No. 1, in the Silesian Voivodship. The Pan-European Transport Road Corridor runs through Poland from south to north.
Keywords: landscape assessment, landscape aesthetic, scenic values, visibility map, motorway, Silesian Voivodship
, University of Silesia Faculty of Earth Sciences Będzińska 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec: Poland
, University of Silesia Faculty of Earth Sciences Będzińska 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec: Poland