Landscape Characterization of the Uusimaa Region: Updating the Finnish Method

Landscape Characterization of the Uusimaa Region: Updating the Finnish Method

GIS in Landscape Planning: Landscape Characterization of the Uusimaa Region

Aalto University

The scope of traditional landscape characterization methods is limited to the non-urban realm. While the European Landscape Convention has broadened the concept of landscape character to include built components in the landscape definition, methodologies to characterize such in-between landscapes are scarce.

The objective of the studio course was to maximize the use of GIS software in the definition of landscape units, character areas, regional networks and to explore existing or new methods for Landscape Characterization.

The Uusimaa region located on the south coast of Finland is home to around 1.6 million inhabitants – 30 percent of the country’s total population. It also contains the only metropolitan area in Finland. The methodological approach developed particularly for this project involved identifying territories within the Uusimaa region where urban and rural areas merge, forming so-called 'hybrid' landscapes that currently fall outside the scope of characterization methods. In order to identify the landscape character areas, both quantitative and qualitative methods were used.

ARTS/Architecture/Landscape Architecture
Academic year
2017/2018
City
Espoo
国家
芬兰