Resumen
This paper discusses the way in which climate emergency-related
strategies and the concepts of climate adaptation, sustainability and
governance are being introduced into rural and agricultural landscapes.
To investigate environmental impacts on climate change, it uses examples
from the ?Landscape Observatory? (Catalonia) and the ?Room for the
River? (the Netherlands) landscape programmes. Noordwaard is the largest
rural project of the Room for the River programme, dealing with
agricultural land, farming and nature reserves at a strategic scale. It
demonstrates the potential and significance of addressing the sea rising
water levels by creating landscape climate adaptation projects by
introducing the ideas of landscape, low carbon, ecosystem services and
governance as vital aspects of rural infrastructure, which underpin the
ways in which agricultural land and water are managed. The Landscape
Observatory has had a significant impact on the development of landscape
policies in Catalonia and has been influential in a global level.
Focusing on Lluçanès and the establishment of a Landscape Charter
protecting the agricultural land and examining the natural area of La
Cerdanya in Pyrenees, the research extracts best practices in policy and
legislation as well as participatory methods on climate and landscape
awareness. This research concludes that a communication strategy
strongly supported by policies, legislation and governance structures,
in conjunction with a wider understanding of the role of landscape,
results in significantly improved responses to deal with the challenges
of the climate crisis in rural and agricultural areas.