Geografie 1974, 79, 82-93
The Landscape Evaluation of the Territory (Aesthetic of the Landscape)
The conflicts between antagonist social interests are permanently growing in consequence of the enormous increase of technical means by which man acquired the wealth of nature even in the most remote parts of the world. The concerns about increasing of material wealth are in heavy conflicts with concerns defending the most elementary requirements of man on healthy air, pure water and not noisy environment. These conflicts are growing on the world scale into a tragic form today. Even the technically very developed ČSSR did not evade this process. That was paied by several thousands km of heavy polluted river waters, and by a number of thousands square km of air pollution areas and heavy damaged woods. Nevertheless, it's only a very small part of the total extent of the state and on the whole the landscape, due to its natural conditions, remained attractive and habitable up to the present time. In the future development of urbanisation there is from the view point of the aesthetics more dangerous the large-scale agricultural production than the industry for its parallel developing on the prevailing part of the total extent of the state. Under these circumstances there is necessary to demarcate the areas of higher aesthetic value and save them from the further development by any investment activity (of industry, agriculture, transport and recreation). The material of this kind is being worked out in the "Territorial Projection of Important Elements of the Landscape" in the Institute for Regional Planning. A consciousness about the aesthetic value of landscape may be of a subjective nature. Of course, a society accepts on a certain degree of its development in a frame work of its actual conditions and as one of the components of its view of life a commonly available aesthetic standart (norm). This is essentially acknowledged and in a certain period of the time may he come obligatory one. From this reason the norm of the aesthetic value of a landscape was being changed as in its content, as in its nature in the course of social development according to the civilisation and technical level, standard and way of Life. The main shapes and elements determining the physiognomy of a landscape and its forming are results of functioning of forces that are modeling the picture of this landscape. The main part of the nature is man too, who is dependent on common conditions, but at the same time changes the picture of the landscape in an outstanding way, unconsciously or purposefully. The aesthetic value is to be adjucated to a landscape partly, if it fulfils the basic anthropologic requirements of man on his living environment, partly if it evades with its nature conditions the possibility to be able changed into the arable land. According to it that was said it is possible to distinguish the landscape in two basic lines from the aesthetic viewpoint; the harmonic and the antagonistic one. The first includes the whole nature biotop of man or a landscape changed by man in such a biotop. The antagonistic line of a landscape remains to be for man the nature in the proper sense of the word e. i. "the other world" for him. Man fundamentally ascribes an aesthetic value to those parts of the landscape that fulfil his basic requirements of contrast and rythm and their changes in time and space. The two mentioned lines of aesthetic values are the starting points for a practical distinguishing of any area into three basic types, e. i. the landscape predominantly for residing and production, the harmonic and antagonistic one. Every from those three types can be characterised by their expressively different either nature, or artificiel marks. In all of them, there exist the spots or areas qeerly different with their hightened aesthetic value. This can be caused by a more outstanding rythm of repetition and variation of shapes, contrasts and colours, by their vertical and horizontal dynamic. The very important meaning for this hightened value have the outstanding works of architecture and technics of the past but of the present time, too. A special category of significant elements from the view point of aethetic are the landscape dominants (nature or artificial) and mountain sky-lines especially seen from distance. On the other side, there are taken the spots and areas of a lower value in aesthetic evaluation as e. g. devastated mining areas, large congestions of the weekend houses etc. A passive role have the observation points, especially on tourist pathes, roads and highways. As a rule, these do not create any aesthetic motive, nevertheless they are important means for its perceiving. All these evaluated elements are drawn on the map. From those are the areas of higher or lower aesthetic value and also the elements maked by man are numbered 1,00-3,00+) in map and in tables briefly described. This evaluation of the country ought to be one the most important work material of the state nature conservancy or for any work in a landscape. Hitherto high aesthetic value of the predominant extent of ČSSR it fully deserves.
