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Historic Landscape and Soil Sustainability

Project description

Mapping how people shaped ancient landscapes informs strategies for sustainable futures

What was the impact of human activities during the late Holocene period? The answer to this question can be used to inform the development of sustainable conservation strategies for rural landscape heritage. The EU-funded HiLSS project will study this issue by considering both the cultural and natural values of landscape. It will focus on the relationships between sustainability and landscape heritage with particular reference to soil loss and degradation over the long term. Specifically, land use will be researched in two historically and culturally similar mountainous regions located in different climatic zones of Europe (Tuscan-Emilian Apennines in Italy and northern-mid Galicia in Spain). The project will identify the key historic characteristics of each region's landscape and quantify the effect on soil loss to examine how different management practices have affected them.

Objective

The HiLSS Project aims to investigate the relationships between sustainability and landscape heritage with particular reference to soil loss and degradation over the long term. The project will take a multidisciplinary approach that combines archaeology, Historical Landscape Characterisation (HLC), geosciences, and computer-based geospatial analysis (GIS - Geographical Information Systems) and modelling (RUSLE - Revisited Universal Soil Loss Equation). The research objectives of the HiLSS project are to quantify the impact of human activities during the Late Holocene in order to create spatial models which can inform the development of sustainable conservation strategies for rural landscape heritage.
This project will focus on two mountainous regions that present historical and cultural similarities but located in different climatic zones of Europe (1- Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, Italy; 2- Northern-mid Galicia, Spain). In previous HLC studies, land-use has been evaluated from the perspective of cultural heritage, whereas RUSLE have used it as a proxy for the land-cover of an area and its effect on soil erosion. The HiLSS project will propose an innovative methodology that combines both the historic/cultural values and the environmental values of land-use to inform development of a model for the sustainable conservation. By considering the different agricultural land-use HLC types in GIS-RUSLE modelling, it will be possible to quantify the effect on soil loss for each HLC type and consequently to devise more environmentally sustainable management for each type.
Environmental sustainability and historic landscape conservation are typically treated as two separate fields, but the HiLSS project will develop a transformative model for interdisciplinary research, proposing a new way to embrace both cultural and natural values as components of the same landscape management plans.

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MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2019

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Coordinator

UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 212 933,76
Address
KINGS GATE
NE1 7RU Newcastle Upon Tyne
United Kingdom

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Region
North East (England) Northumberland and Tyne and Wear Tyneside
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 212 933,76
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