Themes and sessions information

Following the main theme of the conference, we would like to create a space for discussion about why we need the term “landscape” and how, why, and when we decide to use, adapt, or replace it in our research, research proposals, and scientific papers. What does the term enable us to capture, and what might it obscure or exclude? When is “landscape” the most appropriate concept, and when might alternative terms better reflect our research questions and approaches? The roundtable discussion will be preceded by a survey of conference participants addressing the same questions. The survey findings will provide a starting point for the discussion and help us reflect collectively on the changing meanings, uses, and relevance of the term “landscape” across different research contexts and disciplines.

This session welcomes general contributions focused on the fundamental concepts, role, and relevance of landscape and landscape ecology, and other contributions to the theme that do not correspond to the above specified session.

Landscapes face increasing pressures from human overexploitation in some areas and abandonment in the others. Both these processes run in the time of climate change, which results not only in the loss in biodiversity but also loss of other ecosystem functions and services from biological to cultural. To resolve these challenges, landscape restoration has become an essential tool. Restoration could be inspired by the past landscape structures, features or processes that can reflect to some degree harmonious landscapes with functional ecosystems. Or can it? We seek contributions that explore possibilities of using landscape legacies to inform or even help in restoring all functions landscape can offer, from biological to cultural.

This session frames agricultural landscapes as dynamic socio-ecological systems, applying landscape ecology to balance food production with biodiversity, climate resilience, and ecosystem services. By leveraging GIS and remote sensing to map green infrastructure and environmental risks, the session demonstrates how landscape-ecology research can support policy implementation, biodiversity-friendly farming, and climate mitigation.

Significant changes to the landscape—changes in landscape structure and land use—have occurred in the past and continue to take place today, which in turn have a significant impact on the overall condition of the landscape and its components, affecting, for example, biodiversity and, ultimately, the human environment as a whole. The impacts of these changes will continue to manifest, and it is anticipated that these phenomena will be accompanied by additional forms arising from the overall development of society. Landscape ecology is an interdisciplinary field that provides a comprehensive view of the state and development of the landscape, as well as a perspective on assessing both positive and negative changes. In doing so, it also serves as an important tool for the objective assessment of processes occurring in the landscape. At the same time, it can provide relevant proposals for the restoration of disturbed areas that have been affected in the past or are currently affected by natural or anthropogenic disturbances.

The Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) responds to the challenge of understanding the complex interactions between people and nature over the long term. The pan-European eLTER network uses Whole System Approach (WAILS) and a set of Standard Observations (eLTER SO) for standardized, consistent and comparable in-depth research on the ecosystem structure and functioning across diverse spatial and temporal scales. eLTER uses besides observational also experimental approach. The manipulative experiments performed test the response of studied ecosystem to disturbances or altered environmental conditions/factors. They are organised either on site level or as multi-site experiments that test impact of experiment across ecosystem types, biomes, environmental gradients, or biogeographical regions. Both observational and experimental approaches yield knowledge relevant to decisions on adaptation and/or restoration measures to be implemented at ecosystem or landscape level. Platforms for socio-ecological research (LTSER) operate on regional level and are relevant for planning and implementing restoration and adaptation measures at landscape scale as well as for stakeholder engagement. The mission of LTER is “to provide a solid foundation to inform evidence-based policy making and management solutions for addressing current and emerging environmental challenges”. The proposed session will address this mission from a landscape restoration and adaptation perspective.

For more than 30 years, processes and legislative instruments for assessing the environmental impacts of strategic documents, plans, and activities (SEA—Strategic Environmental Assessment and EIA—Environmental Impact Assessment) have been used in Slovakia and throughout Europe. In recent years, increased attention has been paid to appropriate assessment, which involves a professional evaluation of the impacts of plans, programs, or projects on Natura 2000 sites (Sites of Community Importance, Special Protection Areas) and the objects of protection within these sites, which primarily consist of species or habitats of European and national significance. The impact assessment process must involve a relatively broad range of experts in flora, fauna, habitats, the abiotic components of the environment, and other relevant areas. Landscape ecology provides a comprehensive view of the landscape, its components, and the processes occurring within it; as such, it can also offer a comprehensive approach to assessing impacts on the environment, on the Natura 2000 sites themselves, and on the objects of their protection.

This session welcomes general contributions focused on landscape and ecosystem restoration, management strategies, and adaptation to climate and global changes, and other contributions to the theme that do not correspond to the above specified sessions.

This session explores how migration reshapes landscapes through everyday practices, mobility, settlement, commerce, public-space use, memory, and negotiations of belonging. Moving beyond approaches that treat landscape as a passive backdrop, the session invites contributions that examine landscape as continuously remade through migration-related socio-spatial transformations. We welcome conceptual, empirical, and comparative papers addressing migration-shaped urban, peri-urban, and rural landscapes; arrival contexts; changing place identities; shared and contested spaces; housing and neighbourhood change; migrant entrepreneurship; landscape representation; and new methods for studying lived landscapes. Particular attention will be given to post-transformation contexts in Central, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, while contributions from other regions are also welcome. By bringing together perspectives from landscape ecology, geography, planning, sociology, and related fields, the session aims to advance interdisciplinary discussion on how mobility and migration participate in the making, negotiation, and transformation of landscapes.

This session welcomes general contributions addressing the processes, history, and socio-ecological changes of post-transformation landscapes, with a focus on Central and Eastern Europe, and other contributions to the theme that do not correspond to the above specified session.

Primarily, landscape ecology attempts to decode the complex, reciprocal relationship between society and nature and to translate science into actionable policy across all levels of governance. Despite the field’s inherently interdisciplinary roots, the social sciences are often relegated to the periphery. Unlocking the full potential of the social demands appropriate methodologies that capture human values, perceptions, and dynamic socio-economic drivers in specific biophysical contexts. This session positions landscape ecology as an essential spatial anchor for mapping, scaling, and operationalising social data (e.g., values, identities, and sustainable value chains) into concrete spatial planning and policy frameworks. Conversely, robust social science grounds spatial patterns in real-world human behaviour, governance, and multi-actor decision-making. By leveraging insights of the social sciences, this session aims to demonstrate how landscape ecology can serve as a spatially explicit platform for meaningful socio-ecological transformations.

Landscape perception is a complex and multifaceted research field that has attracted increasing attention across disciplines. Landscapes are not merely physical environments but also social, cultural, ecological, and symbolic spaces that shape human experiences, well-being, identity, and decision-making. Their perception is influenced by ecological processes, cultural values, historical context, aesthetic preferences, psychological mechanisms, and socio-economic conditions, making interdisciplinary approaches essential for a comprehensive understanding of human–landscape relationships. This session aims to provide a forum for researchers representing diverse scientific disciplines, including geography, landscape architecture, environmental sciences, ecology, spatial planning, urban studies, environmental psychology, sociology, anthropology, heritage studies, cultural studies, environmental accounting, tourism, and related fields. Contributions integrating multiple disciplinary perspectives, as well as innovative methodologies and new technologies, such as virtual reality tools, eye tracking, biosensors, also including multisensory approach, or cross-sectoral applications are particularly encouraged.

This session will explore the relationships between landscape transformation, landscape use and human well-being. Particular attention will be given to how landscape transformation can support recreation, contact with nature, social interaction, sense of place, cultural identity and everyday quality of life. We welcome studies examining the ecological, social and spatial dimensions of landscape studies, including the role of ecosystem and landscape services, accessibility, landscape perception and preferences, as well as public participation in shaping new landscape functions. The session aims to bring together different disciplinary perspectives and methodological approaches to better understand how transformed landscapes can become valuable resources for both people and nature, and how their planning and management can contribute to healthier, more inclusive and resilient living environments.

This session welcomes general contributions focused on human-landscape interactions, cultural dimensions, and social aspects of landscape ecology, and other contributions to the theme that do not correspond to the above specified sessions.

Ecological dynamics is shaped by interacting environmental drivers, ecological processes, natural disturbances, and human activities, while climate change is rapidly shifting the conditions under which these interactions unfold. Projecting these dynamics requires approaches that can integrate multiple drivers, processes, spatial and temporal scales, and diverse sources of ecological information.
This session will bring together recent advances in modelling ecological dynamics and explore how different modelling approaches can improve our understanding and predictions of changes in ecosystems, biodiversity, and landscapes. We welcome contributions addressing the integration of ecological processes, climate variability, disturbances, land-use and land-cover changes.
A particular focus will be placed on coupling models with observations and emerging data sources, including remote sensing, field observations, long-term monitoring, and other environmental datasets. Contributions addressing model–data fusion, model initialisation and parameterisation, uncertainty, model validation and evaluation, and model transferability across spatial and temporal scales are especially encouraged.
The session will provide a forum for discussing how empirical, statistical, process-based, individual-based, and machine-learning approaches can complement each other and contribute to a better understanding of ecological dynamics under changing environment. We welcome both methodological developments and applications addressing real-world ecological and landscape-management challenges.

Publicly available GIS data for cultural and natural heritage in Slovenia have provided us insight into past landscapes and cognition that today’s landscapes are just one of the landscapes created by humans in past historical periods and remnant of past landscapes are still present in today’s landscapes. Unfortunately people are not aware of them although these are structures which people see and are passing by everyday – hidden in plain sight. We are looking but we don’t see – only non-material heritage (stories, legends, myths…) is providing us insight what these structures are and the Lidar data are showing us wider picture. All of these have been determine by Pleterski as cultural genome. Landscapes are materialization of mythical believes of people from past historical periods and old spirituality has been preserved in Slovenia, Catholic Church was not able to erase it despite 1000 years of systematic pressure. Unfortunately in today’s time we are losing it due to modern day of live and agricultural policies of EU and Slovenia. We are not only loosing traditional cultural landscapes – we are losing cultural genome of these landscapes together with culture and its spirituality. In this paper we will statistical present relation between natural and cultural heritage in Slovenia.

This session welcomes general contributions highlighting innovative methodologies, modeling approaches, GIS tools, and emerging technologies applied to landscape ecology, and other contributions to the theme that do not correspond to the above specified sessions.

This session welcomes contributions focusing on educational initiatives, public engagement projects, and citizen science activities related to landscapes.

This session welcomes contributions exploring creative, artistic, and traditional craft-based perspectives on landscape.