Browsing by Author "Mäkinen, Niko"

Landscape inventories are essential studies and reports supporting land use planning at every level of the system adequate to the Land Use and Building Act (132/1999). In spatial planning and building, protection of landscapes and assessment of impacts are vitally important for sustainable use and utilization of landscapes. The aim of this thesis is to draw up a landscape inventory of the Ruuhijärvi region, Lahti that is to be included in the new master plan, covering the City of Lahti in its entirety. The inventory was implemented as an assignment from the land use department in the City of Lahti. In addition, the aim was to discuss the geographic aspect of landscape, the characteristics and interpretation of landscape and the ontological differences of landscape research. The primary research method of this thesis was landscape analysis in which the landscape and its structure is being analysed and described in the study area. Both natural and human processes are taken into account. The landscape analysis included 1) collecting and analysing initial data, 2) field work, 3) analysis and synthesis of the results and 4) dividing the types of landscape. Finally, general recommendations for landscape and land use planning were drawn up. Initial data consisted of previous literature and reports together with GIS data. The field work was implemented in three periods. The landscape analysis produced information on natural conditions, historical events and current land use in Ruuhijärvi. The rural Ruuhijärvi was divided in four landscape types based on landscape and landscape structure. These landscape types were Ruuhijärvi Lake Village, Agricultural Landscape of Northern Ruuhijärvi and Saviste together with surrounding Forest Ridges. In conclusion, landscape analysis recommended that further development in the area should be executed in the conditions given by countryside, cultural landscape and historical layers. Maintaining the living countryside and cultural landscapes requires high quality, openness and expertise of land use planning. Interpreting and evaluating landscape is always subjective and dependant on the observer. ‘Landscape’ is a wide geographical concept and studying it is never simple or generalizable to a narrow perspective. Everyone who senses the physical landscape is interpreting it subjectively, guided by one’s own values, experiences and memories – thus giving the landscape its mental dimension and meaning. Physically, landscapes exist independently, apart from the observer. But it is the observer who gives the landscape its meaning and reality. The holistic perspective aims to observe the diversity and dichotomy of the term ‘landscape’: both the objective landscape apart from its observer and the subjective landscape created by the observer.