Approaches to cultural landscape regionalization

Abstract

Cultural landscape regionalization is a method of modeling the spatial specificity of the area associated with its development in past and present. The article analyzes national experience of the cultural landscape regionalization on different territorial levels. An approach to the regionalization is proposed, that reflects the organization of the landscape as a process and result of its development and understanding by a certain culture, including both modern and inherited traits. Cultural landscape regionalization is mainly based on structural features, visualized in modern landscapes and/or objectively determined by topographic and thematic maps and remote images. The proposed approach is applied to cultural landscape regionalization of the Leningrad Region (oblast), the territory on the contact of two physical-geographical countries (Fennoscandia and the East-European plain), which has a rich political and ethnic history and is situated in the ever-expanding zone of influence of St. Petersburg. On the territory of two subjects of the Russian Federation (Leningrad Region and St. Petersburg) 14 cultural-landscape areas are identified; their brief description is given. Cultural landscape areas reflect the current state of development of territory and are more or less dynamic. In the nearest decades we should expect, for example, changing the borders of Saint Petersburg central area and Saint Petersburg peripheral area in the direction of extension due to the increase of built-up areas and reducing the areas of other land use especially agriculture.