The Saale-Unstrut cultural landscape corridor

Cultural landscapes are the result of long-term human–environment interaction, but they are nevertheless worldwide vulnerable to processes of global change such as land-use change, urbanization, neglect and abandonment. The cultural landscape mosaic along the rivers Saale and Unstrut (Germany, Centr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Environmental earth sciences Vol. 77; no. 3; pp. 1 - 12
Main Authors:	Hoppert, M., Bahn, B., Bergmeier, E., Deutsch, M., Epperlein, K., Hallmann, C., Müller, A., Platz, T. V., Reeh, T., Stück, H., Wedekind, W., Siegesmund, S.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-02-2018 Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:	Abandonment Architecture Biogeosciences Earth and Environmental Science Earth Sciences Environmental Science and Engineering exploitation Geochemistry Geology Human-environment relationship Hydrology/Water Resources Land use Landscape Middle Ages properties and durability River valleys Rivers Stone in the Architectural Heritage: from quarry to monuments – environment Terrestrial Pollution Thematic Issue Urbanization Viticulture Monument preservation Cultural heritage Historic monument Cultural landscape
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Summary:	Cultural landscapes are the result of long-term human–environment interaction, but they are nevertheless worldwide vulnerable to processes of global change such as land-use change, urbanization, neglect and abandonment. The cultural landscape mosaic along the rivers Saale and Unstrut (Germany, Central Uplands) provides many features of (pre-)historical human activities, in particular since the Middle Ages. Most of these elements occur in what can be defined as “cultural landscape corridor” along the river valleys, thus conveying a broad insight in historic land-use, including viticulture, and architecture of the past centuries in a nutshell. The area has been nominated for inscription in the List of World Heritage, due to its famous components in Naumburg, Freyburg and Pforta that representatively reflect cultural processes of the High Middle Ages. However, population loss and land-use change as well as neglect of lower-ranking monuments may lead to a gradual decline of the historical cultural landscape and its multiple elements. In this contribution, we summarize the landscape development in the Saale-Unstrut area and discuss measures to raise awareness of selected elements of a coherent cultural landscape corridor.
ISSN:	1866-6280 1866-6299
DOI:	10.1007/s12665-017-7222-4