While there is general consensus on the importance of landscape perception in urban studies, there is still a need to broaden the toolkit for researchers and practitioners to document, analyse and interpret these inputs, in line with the postulates of the European Landscape Convention and overcoming conventional formats based on descriptions and static photography. This becomes particularly pertinent in the peri-urban landscapes of large cities, bearers of the relations and contradictions between urban growth, resource consumption and landscape protection, and especially vulnerable to tabula rasa approaches. We case study the surrounding landscapes of Madrid at a metropolitan scale, addressing the gap between scopes and scales of recent landscape reports and focusing on two elements connecting (visually, or physically) the city with its commuting zone: lookouts and roads. An expert-based methodology presents the criteria for their selection and a description of desk and field work. A sample for each local approach is further developed to exemplify the application, combining cartography, 3D modelling, visual basins, on-site photography and interpretive drawings. This results in a multifaceted vision of how the city and its hinterland is perceived, illustrating both outstanding and everyday landscapes and how they interweave in a continuous experience.
Providing conditions for health and well-being, especially for those most exposed to social and environmental inequalities, is a precondition for sustainable development. Green infrastructures in peri-urban areas have the potential to improve the quality of life of locals by fostering healthy practices, providing views, or bringing nature closer to the city. This work explores the local perception of well-being within urban green infrastructures (UGI) in the peri-urban fringe of Madrid (Spain) through a combination of qualitative methods: “go-alongs” and “semi-structured static interviews”. The grounded-theory based codification of the data using NVivo software and their subsequent analysis results in the identification of social, natural, and perceptual elements that prove to play a relevant role in locals’ perception of well-being. Among these, connectivity with other green spaces, panoramic views and place-based memories are aspects that seem to make UGI serve the community at its full potential, including perceived physical and psychological well-being. We identify in each case study both positive characteristics of UGI and dysfunctional aspects and areas of opportunity. Lastly, a methodological, geographical, and theoretical discussion is made on the relevance of the case studies and pertinence of the two interview methods as valuable tools for analysis and intervention in the peri-urban landscape.
The datasets generated and analysed during the current study are available in the Open Science Framework repository [https://osf.io/bjk9f/quickfiles].de Tejada Granados in its FPU Program, and San Pablo-CEU University Foundation for the predoctoral scholarship granted to co-author Rocío Santo-Tomás Muro in its FPI Program.We thank the school liaisons for their collaboration and willingness to make the workshop happen and, above all, we thank the participants whose enthusiasm, fresh perspectives and comments have made this work possible.
Tabula non-rasa: go-along interviews and memory mapping in a postmining landscape designated for urban expansion. Peri-urban areas have long and diverse histories but when targeted for large scale housing expansion, they are at risk of becoming a blank slate for development, a potential loss to both existing inhabitants and potential newcomers. In this paper we develop a method to recover and narrate the sense of place of members of the pre-existing local community and map those memories onto specific locations and views within the landscape. Situated in a post-mining landscape on the edge of the city of Edinburgh, designated for urban expansion, our case study reveals the rich and diverse memories associated with seemingly ordinary landscape features; a stark contrast with the generic selling slogans and housing typologies presented by the developers. Deployment of methods like ours can help planners of urban redevelopment and expansion to better appreciate the sense of place of long-term residents and stimulate the process of place-making on new housing estates.
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