Can Simple Tools for Mapping Landscape Value Convey Insider Perspectives?

Abstract

The rhetoric of landscape planning increasingly speaks of landscape as a perceived entity, an understanding that is reliant on those who directly engage and experience the landscape. Yet it is an expert or outsiders view, which tends to dominate in landscape planning. In this paper, we address multiple values in the landscape, using the Pin Mapping of Values approach. Through revealing a complex mosaic of values across the landscape, we question how an understanding of this complexity can inform planning and highlight potential conflicts in the landscape. We also use the Pin Mapping of Values approach to question the relevance of simple tools for attaining complex knowledge. We conclude that simple tools can provide important knowledge on the landscape, for informing expert assessments, highlighting and legitimising potentially conflicting landscape values. Although limited in its scope, this study reveals the potential for such approaches to influence professional landscape assessments constructively.