LANDSCAPE AS A SUBJECT OF HUMAN IMPACT

A continuing critique of the Soviet school of anthropogenic landscape science (see Soviet Geography, October 1974) questions whether man is, in fact, capable of creating “new” landscapes or his intervention in the natural environment simply tends to “modify” existing natural landscapes. The author rejects the view that significant modification of anyone of the components of landscape (including flora and fauna) is sufficient to produce an anthropogenic landscape or that a cutover forest area or a cattle trail, for example, represents a newly created landscape. A genuine modification of landscape requires an alteration of the basic structure of landscape, and this can be achieved only through modification of primary landscape components, such as the geomorphic foundation and climate. These are precisely the components that are less susceptible to human intervention than secondary components like plant and animal communities. Another criterion of basic landscape modification is stability; most anthropogenic landscapes turn out to be unstable when abandoned. Man achieves the most stable results in landscape modification by acting in concert with natural dynamic tendencies in the landscape.