Living Landscapes

Introduction: The Landscape Lens

Imagine standing at the edge of a vast landscape—perhaps a rolling countryside, a dense urban park, or a coastal village. What you're seeing isn't just a static picture but a dynamic living system where rocks, water, plants, animals, and human communities interact in complex ways. Today, as we face unprecedented environmental challenges, scientists are discovering that the key to sustainability lies in understanding these intricate connections through the combined power of geosciences and place-based ecology. This innovative approach doesn't just study landscapes as physical entities but explores how human values, memories, and relationships shape and are shaped by these environments ^{2 3} .

The significance of this integrated approach has never been more urgent. With climate change accelerating, biodiversity declining at alarming rates, and communities struggling with environmental injustices, we need solutions that are both scientifically robust and culturally relevant. Landscape sustainability science emerges as a powerful framework that bridges global aspirations like the Sustainable Development Goals with local realities and practices ¹ . By combining the analytical strength of geosciences with the deeply rooted understanding of "ecology of place," we're developing new pathways to sustain the diverse benefits that landscapes provide to people, now and into the future.

Key Concepts: Where Geosciences Meet Place

What is Landscape Sustainability Science?

Landscape sustainability science (LSS) is an emerging field that focuses on understanding and supporting the capacity of landscapes to consistently provide ecosystem services essential for human wellbeing—both now and for future generations . Rather than studying isolated components, LSS examines the pattern-process relationships in landscapes, considering how the spatial arrangement of physical and ecological elements influences environmental functions and human benefits ¹ . Think of it as a form of holistic diagnostics for environmental health—one that considers not just the physical symptoms but the historical, cultural, and functional context too.

The Geoscience Connection

Geosciences provide the foundational understanding of Earth's physical systems that underpin landscape sustainability. This includes:

The Ecology of Place

While geosciences provide the physical foundation, the ecology of place brings in the human dimension—the cultural, historical, and emotional connections that people have with their environments ^{2 3} . This concept recognizes that landscapes aren't just collections of species and physical processes; they're also repositories of meaning shaped by human perception, values, and experience.

Stakeholders and Systems: Why Inclusion Matters

The Governance Challenge

Landscape sustainability isn't just a technical problem—it's a social and political challenge that requires inclusive governance. Different stakeholders often have competing interests, knowledge systems, and values regarding landscapes. For example, an urban planner might view a forest primarily for its recreation value, a forestry company for its timber resources, and an Indigenous community as a sacred ancestral territory with multidimensional significance ³ .

Indigenous Knowledge and Place-Based Values

Recent research has highlighted the critical importance of Indigenous knowledge systems in landscape sustainability. For millennia, Indigenous communities around the world have developed sophisticated practices for managing landscapes based on deep observation and intergenerational learning. These practices are guided by place-based values—ethical principles that emphasize respect, reciprocity, and responsibility toward all ecosystem components ³ .

Experimental Spotlight: Restoring Clam Gardens

Methodology: Blending Science and Tradition

One compelling example of how geosciences and ecology of place can combine to enhance landscape sustainability comes from a groundbreaking clam garden restoration project in British Columbia, Canada ³ . Clam gardens are ancient Indigenous mariculture systems—rock-walled terraces built in intertidal zones to enhance clam production—that represent centuries of sophisticated ecological engineering.

Restoration work at a traditional clam garden site

Sediment analysis provides insights into garden productivity

Knowledge sharing between scientists and Indigenous elders

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Results and Analysis: Science Validates Traditional Knowledge

The findings were remarkable. Restored clam gardens showed significantly higher clam densities and growth rates compared to control sites—demonstrating the effectiveness of ancient Indigenous mariculture techniques. Sediment analysis revealed that the rock walls created optimal conditions for clam development by enhancing water retention and nutrient availability during low tide.

The Scientist's Toolkit: Research Reagents for Landscape Sustainability

Investigating landscape sustainability requires diverse methodological approaches and tools. Here are some key "research reagents"—methods and frameworks that scientists use to understand and enhance sustainability across diverse landscapes:

Challenges and Future Directions: The Path Forward

Navigating Open Boundaries

One of the most significant challenges in landscape sustainability is dealing with open and connected boundaries . Landscapes aren't closed systems—they're influenced by processes operating at multiple scales, from local to global. A management decision in one landscape (e.g., urban densification) can create unintended consequences in distant landscapes (e.g., agricultural intensification to feed the growing urban population) .

Embracing Value Diversity

Another critical challenge is incorporating the diversity of values that different stakeholders hold regarding landscapes . Standard economic approaches that reduce everything to monetary value often fail to capture the deep cultural, spiritual, and relational values that people associate with places—what researchers call "sense of place" ² .

Conclusion: Thinking Like a Landscape

As we navigate the complex environmental challenges of the 21st century, we need approaches that combine the analytical power of geosciences with the contextual understanding of place-based ecology. The emerging science of landscape sustainability offers a promising framework for developing solutions that are both scientifically rigorous and culturally appropriate.

The key insight from this field is that achieving sustainability requires us to "think and act like a landscape" ¹ —to understand the interconnected patterns and processes that shape social-ecological systems, and to recognize our place within these systems rather than as external controllers. This means respecting the physical constraints identified by geoscientists, valuing the ecological relationships uncovered by ecologists, and honoring the place-based knowledge held by local and Indigenous communities.

By integrating these diverse ways of knowing, we can develop more effective strategies for sustaining the ecosystem services that support human wellbeing—from clean water and fertile soil to cultural identity and spiritual fulfillment. The path to sustainability lies not in technological fixes alone, but in rebuilding our relationships with the landscapes that sustain us—combining ancient wisdom with modern science to create flourishing futures for all life.