Understanding Pre-industrial Structures in Rural and Mining Landscapes
Status: COST Action A27
Duration: 2004–2008
Funding: European Science Foundation
Austrian MC delegates: PD Dr. Oliver Bender, Dr. Alenka Krek (Vienna University)
National coordinator: PD Dr. Oliver Bender
LANDMARKS is a network coordinating research activities and value-adding measures for cultural landscapes and cultural heritage in Europe. COST A27 works with a broad theoretical, methodological and practical approach and understands cultural landscapes as a synthesis of social and political relationships, historical production methods (particularly agriculture and mining) and differentiated spatial perceptions. The COST A27 approach also relates directly to tourism and appeals to the economy to establish and support communication between “world heritage” and planning in tourism. As of December 2005, 78 institutions in 20 countries were participating in the project. Dr. A. Orejas from Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) in Madrid was responsible for the overall coordination.
The participating scientists organized themselves in four working groups:
- mining landscapes
- rural areas
- geoinformation
- transversal activities
The Austrian delegation was involved in working groups 2 and 3. In 2006, on the initiative of the Austrian delegation, the Management Committee (MC) decided to produce a book called “Geoinformation Technology for Geo-Cultural Landscape Analysis”. The Austrian (PD Dr. O. Bender und Dr. A. Krek) and the Greek (Prof. N. Evelpidou, Prof. A. Vassilopoulos) members were in charge of the publication. The book was published in 2009.