Landscape Interpretation

Reading the Landscape

The foundation of landscape interpretation is the skill of simply reading a landscape. Two skills are developed in reading the landscape—seeing with the eyes and thinking about what is seen. Few disciplines, however, encourage students to study the world in this informal fashion. Geography's chorological approach values a holistic examination of particular regions and is a fertile ground for landscape reading.

The process of landscape interpretation examines three general ideas, namely, structure, function, and change. Structure refers to the spatial relationships among distinctive components of the environment, such as energy or resources. Function is the interactions among spatial elements, such as the flows of energy within an ecosystem. Change is the temporal alterations of structure and function.

The American geographer Peirce Lewis developed more specific principles (which he called axioms and corollaries) for reading the landscape in a systematic way. Among these principles is the observation that landscape is an indication of culture, history, geography, and environmental controls. Human-created structures such as roads and places of worship are evidence that document the imprint of culture, providing explanations of who we were, who we are, and who we will become. For example, in Toronto, Canada, it is not uncommon to see a church juxtaposed with a temple and a synagogue. Such a landscape suggests not only that religion is an important part of the culture but moreover that religious diversity is accepted, with all three religious landmarks equally important in the lives of Torontonians. Peirce also argues that the reading of landscapes, whether contemporary or not, must take into [Page 1714]consideration the historical context in which they were created. For example, a barn that stands in isolation in a field tells the story of a farming community that has since disintegrated in an urban settlement. Another of Peirce's principles is that reading landscapes is tightly tied up with the geography context, as culture and history are location and place specific. For example, shopping malls are not located randomly or throughout a city; rather, they are located in specific parts of the city with transportation and access to a residential catchment area. Peirce also insisted that understanding a landscape is closely related to knowing its physical environment; thus, some basic knowledge of physical landscape is needed. For example, terraces rather than flat farmland are built in some parts of the world where landscapes are too steep for traditional agriculture. Finally, although landscapes convey messages, they do so in a subtle way. As a reader of the surroundings, one should learn to ask questions regarding the appearance and form of the landscape, for example, who designed it, why it was designed, how the structure adds to the story of the location and to the surrounding landscapes, and how the society functions. These questions will unearth information that brings to light the less obvious meanings of landscapes.

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