Madara Markova

Natural grasslands are among the most endangered habitats in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe due to the agricultural intensification, land abandonment and afforestation, urban expansion, and the loss of traditional low-intensity management, on which their biodiversity depends. One way to increase the number of natural grasslands is by integrating them into urban green infrastructure as a nature-based solution to enhance ecological resilience and urban livability: diverse grassland systems support pollinators, improve soil structure and stormwater infiltration, mitigate urban heat and provide restorative, experience-rich public spaces. The aim of the study is to explore opportunities and barriers to integrating different types of grasslands into the green infrastructure of Latvian cities, with a primary focus on public perceptions and institutional aspects of urban grassland implementation and management. A mixed-methods approach was applied, combining resident surveys, interviews with municipal experts—territorial development specialists, planners and maintenance managers—and comparative policy analysis. Results show that although residents acknowledge the ecological benefits of urban grasslands, they prefer them in peripheral or underused areas rather than in city centres and residential zones, as these areas are often aesthetically perceived as “untidy” or neglected, conflicting with cultural norms that favour short, intensively mown lawns and raising concerns about insects. Acceptance increases through communication and participatory practices. Municipal approaches range from structured maintenance guidelines, including delayed mowing, biomass removal, and invasive species control, to flexible experimentation. The study contributes scientifically grounded insights into governance, perception, and management interfaces critical for mainstreaming socially accepted urban grasslands.

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) represent the non-material relationships between people and nature, yet their intangible nature poses challenges for spatial planning and policy integration. This study examines CES in Gauja National Park, Latvia, focusing on symbolic, sacred, educational, and cultural heritage values—types often underrepresented in CES assessments. Using a Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS) approach, a map-based public survey was conducted via ArcGIS Survey123, enabling respondents to mark and describe places of personal significance. While widely applied internationally, PGIS remains rarely used in Latvia, especially in planning and municipal decision-making. This study explores the use of the PGIS method for the assessment of CES, serving as a pilot application to test its suitability and potential for integration into spatial planning. Points of value were successfully georeferenced and reflect diverse associations. While well-known heritage sites were commonly mentioned, respondents also identified personally meaningful locations, sometimes situated outside the park’s formal boundaries. The findings highlight both the strengths and limitations of digital participatory methods, including issues related to response rates, accessibility, and digital literacy. The study demonstrates that mapping CES with PGIS can offer valuable insights for inclusive landscape governance and supports the incorporation of local perspectives into spatial planning.

Worship building landscapes, like others, are changing. The aspects that are studied about worship building landscapes are also changing. This study aims to create a context for the changes in Latvian worship building landscapes in the 21st century, by exploring and examining what changes in worship building landscapes have been recorded in studies in the anglophone research literature in Europe. Relevant peer-reviewed articles published in scientific journals were searched in the literature database “Web of Sciences”. In research was identified 106 publications about worship building landscape practices, which included 51 about physical changes in today’s worship building landscape, and also 38 about church politics, 62 about practices connected to the church, and 11 about pilgrimage. A widely explored topic in research is landscape change from a broad perspective, examining the influence of political, social, economic, and migration factors. Publications also show a strong focus on planning challenges, shifts in landscape perception, and how these perceptions evolve about worship building landscapes. The construction of new worship buildings, however, remains a less commonly studied subject. In certain parts of Europe, more specialized topics have gained attention, such as ruins, the risks posed by natural disasters, geotourism, and the role of worship buildings as habitats for owl nesting and bat nurseries. Research papers on changes in worship buildings vividly illustrate the intricate patterns shaping their landscapes, drawing the interest of scholars from diverse disciplines. When planning the development of landscapes surrounding places of worship, a holistic perspective is crucial. Traditionally, the focus has been heavily on the architectural values of these sites. However, in the 21st century, a broader approach is emerging, integrating economic, social, and environmental considerations alongside architectural aspects.

Over time, street landscapes have changed their meaning, from significant gathering, socializing and movement places they have become intense traffic corridors dominated by street transport. Today, however, more and more people are once again beginning to identify streets as more than just corridors for movement and transport, but also as important multifunctional outdoor spaces. Social habits have also changed as the needs for a healthy and safe environment have increased, and people are increasingly choosing environmentally friendly ways of moving, active lifestyles, being outdoors, in nature. The implementation of the needs of modern society on the streets of the historic city centres is complex, influenced by a number of factors: the historical identity of the place, the historic character and elements of the streetscape that are often protected by legal acts; the needs and interests of various interested parties, including accessibility of the streetscape for people with disabilities; the growing need to solve problems of climate in cities – mitigation of heat islands, air pollution, flooding caused by intensive rainfalls, which is complicated by the lack of green areas in the historic city centre. In order to develop the most appropriate solutions for the development of historic streets, it is necessary to identify all the limiting and promotive aspects. The purpose of this study is to develop and to test the methodological framework for the research of historical streetscape as the basis for the development of public space compliant with modern requirements, by performing streetscape analysis based on public needs, historical, ecological and socioeconomic criteria. The developed methodology has been tested in the context of Terbatas Street in Riga city, Latvia. Key results from the study showed that for historic streets it is essential to identify those elements of the streetscape that can be transformed and adapted to modern requirements and societal needs, and those elements that are essential to preserve in order to maintain the historical character and identity of the place. As one of the main conclusions of the study – the overall development strategy of the historic city centre plays an important role in research and development of historic streetscape, which includes both mobility, green infrastructure, public space network, tourism development, as well as functional and ecological links with other parts of the city.

The proportion of intensive building and pavement of the urban environment reduces the level of comfort of the population, thus, the streets are nowadays considered to be the essential public outdoor space, where it is necessary to increase the comfort and well-being of the population by reducing the transport load. Historic urban centres are often characterised by relatively narrow streets, without planting and with the intensive traffic, consequently, solutions need to be found to humanise these outdoor spaces. The publication provides the authors’ experience in working with the planning of the preliminary research of Riga Terbatas Street and choosing a scenario method that is important for decision-making – because opportunities and options have to be evaluated according to the needs of the city residents and further development of the urban environment. The limited outdoor space of the street is a major challenge where it is necessary to realize both safety, environmental accessibility, ecological, aesthetic and cultural and historical ambitions and tasks. In the times of urban dynamism and variability, there is an important discussion with the public and non-governmental organisations: for this purpose, the scenario method allows some action plans to be evaluated and a decision to be taken for further design. The publication also contains a number of street planning principles to be used in the landscape architecture as validation for concepts and analytical summary of good practice examples. In the planning example, Terbatas Street in Riga has been chosen, which is one of the typical streets of historic centre of Riga, but with its charm and history. The research was carried out within the framework of the project for development of the initial technical documentation of the construction intention “The development of the public outdoor space and promotion of accessibility of Riga Centre and the neighbourhood of Brasa”.

European countries have different experience in landscape characterisation and assessment. Comparing the different approaches used in different European countries, it is proposed to use the method developed and validated in the United Kingdom - Landscape Character Assessment, adapted and modified for the Latvian situation. This approach has also been used in most other European countries, which have chosen to use the UK approach to landscape characterisation, adapting it to their specific national situation. The need for a landscape assessment in Latvia is highlighted in the Latvian Landscape Policy Guidelines 2013-2019 and Latvian Landscape Policy Implementation Plan 2024-2027, taking into account the actions set out in the European Landscape Convention to be taken by all Parties to the Convention. The purpose of the research was to carry out the analysis of Latvian landscape sensitivity within spatial planning scenarios important for local municipalities. It is of high importance to assess landscape sensitivity for changes of build and natural environment influencing pace and scale of development of the rural areas of Latvia. As local municipalities set different goals for their spatial development, common spatial development scenarios were chosen to make analysis of landscape sensitivity in Latvian landscapes. Results from the analysis of landscape sensitivity show variation of suitable actions to be implemented if different places in Latvia. The results also can be used for defining landscape quality goals to harmonise scope of activities to be implemented by local municipalities of Latvia.

In the 20th century, built airfields and airports, have significantly impacted the European landscape and environmental quality today. Territories that have lost their former function can now be considered as a stimulus for the creation of new landscapes and for urban development. The publication covers the history of Latvian aviation through time, where a total of 97 airfields have been established, which served as military, agricultural, sports, and civil aviation airfields. Scientific literature, popular scientific literature were used to gather information. For mapping was used ArcGIS. Nowadays, according to the data of the Civil Aviation Agency, 9 airfields are certified – 7 civil aviation airfields, and 2 air transportation airfields. As well as a military base of the Air Force has been established at Lielvārde airfield. Airfield’s development opportunities until now have not been researched in Latvia, this is the first study to capture resources available and development strategies.

The developed guidelines are intended to be informative, methodological and educational material on integrated planning and management of natural resources in urban environments, including both theoretical insights and practical examples. The material consists of three main thematic sections. The first section includes a strategic and theoretical framework, describing the main insights on natural resources in urban environments, urban ecology and strategic documents involving integrated planning and management of natural resources. The second section looks at the main methodological approaches and concepts, while the third section summarises the existing tools related to integrated planning and management of natural resources. The layout of the material is as follows: the basis is general information on the topic, supplemented with the main findings highlighted in the color corresponding to the chapter and with examples from practice marked in gray background. This material has been produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.

Izstrādātās vadlīnijas paredzēts kā informatīvs, metodisks un izglītojošs materiāls par dabas resursu integrētu plānošanu un pārvaldību pilsētvidē, ietverot gan teorētiskās atziņas, gan praktiskus piemērus. Materiālu veido trīs tematiskās sadaļas. Pirmajā iekļauts stratēģiskais un teorētiskais ietvars, kur raksturotas galvenās atziņas par dabas resursiem pilsētvidē, urbāno ekoloģiju un stratēģiskajiem dokumentiem, kas ietver dabas resursu integrētu plānošanu un pārvaldību. Otrā sadaļa apskata galvenās metodiskās pieejas un koncepcijas, bet trešā nodaļa apkopo jau esošos rīkus, kas saistīti ar integrētu dabas resursu plānošanu un pārvaldību. Materiāla noformējums veidots sekojoši – pamatu veido vispārīga informācija par tēmu, kas papildināta ar nodaļai atbilstošās krāsas izceltajām galvenajām atziņām un ar pelēkā fona krāsojumā atzīmētajiem piemēriem no prakses.

The study gives insight into the definition of abandoned places and objects in rural landscape planning. The goal of the study is to identify the essential aspects of rural landscape planning, that are related to abandoned places and objects, to use these findings from the literature review in further research already defining abandoned places and objects and giving guidelines for these kinds of places and object inclusion in planning documents. Rural landscape planning is considered to be the beginning of the development of planning, but planning issues have moved these days in the direction of metropolitan areas. There are still relevant initial planning goals in rural landscape planning - the creation of a quality living environment and job creation. Nowadays the importance of the landscape planning approach at the local level is emphasized. Rural landscape development and change processes are closely linked to the Common Agricultural Policy. Abandoned place/object in the context of planning can be considered as one that is not used for one year or more according to the defined function, or a place/object as abandoned, defined in human perception.