A Focus on Pedagogy
Abstract
Some words are actually used by different disciplines to focus on contemporary challenges, such as “sustainability”, “resilience” and “ecosystem services”, becoming trendy slogans, but the real understanding of these concepts in Landscape Ecology is necessary to add effectiveness to ecological based projects and actions. Landscape architects must be aware of the political dilution of the sustainability concept: the need for clear analysis of the different components of sustainability in landscape architecture in order to avoid supporting simple green-washing projects. If the mission of landscape architects is “to create a globally sustainable and balanced living environment for the benefit of human worldwide” (as reported from IFLA World Council 2020), the collaborative partnership between Landscape Ecology and Landscape Architecture is a fundamental opportunity. Landscape Ecology is a necessary topic for landscape architects’ education and its application becomes a tool for landscape projects. A good landscape architect can play a meaningful role in the promotion of people’s appreciation of landscape in terms of resources. This paper presents the situation of teaching landscape ecology in the master’s degree courses in Landscape Architecture of Italian Universities, starting from the experience of more than thirty years of the Genoese Landscape Architecture School, to get to the present day. In the inter-university (Genoa/Turin/Milan) master’s degree course, the teaching of Landscape Ecology is carried out also in its application aspects and provides necessary tools to face the challenges of contemporary society, in terms of resources and needs, such as water, food production, ecosystem services, socio-ecological relations, safeness of everyday landscapes.
Adriana Ghersi, Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Genoa, deals with Landscape Planning at regional level, European Landscape Policies, Landscape Design in the contemporary age, at different scales, Therapeutic Landscapes, Historical Gardens, Terraced Rural Landscapes.
Ilda Vagge, Professor of Environmental and Applied Botany at the University of Milan, teacher in Landscape Ecology for the inter-university master’s degree in Designing Green Areas and Landscapes, deals with: vegetation and landscape patterns in coastal areas, in river areas, in mountain areas with the integration of geomorphological and pedological data; cartography of vegetation, assessment of environmental quality in natural, semi-natural and anthropogenic habitats, estimation and analysis of biodiversity at the level of species and ecosystems, nature conservation, control and monitoring of invasive species, ecological characterization of landraces and CWR; Landscape ecology, environmental design, urban ecology.