A Look Into the History of Landscape Research in Czechia. Landscape in Natural and Social Sciences, Attempts at an Interdisciplinary Approach

Self-reflection is important for every scientific discipline and the study of landscape is no exception. Indeed, landscape is connected in some way to both the natural and social sciences, as well as the and humanities as see in art and architecture.

This review analyses the development of landscape research by scientific institutions in the contemporary Czech Republic. It is an attempt to provide a thematic and historical review of its often very complicated development. The study is organized thematically and a chronological order is used for each topic. The topics covered are: The cultural formation of the “Phenomenon of the Czech landscape”; The formation of the approach to landscape in natural sciences; “Phenomenon of the Czech landscape” in architecture; Landscape in institutionalized form in the Academy of Sciences; Landscape outside the Academy of Sciences, and; “Phenomenon of the Czech landscape” in social sciences.

Archived documents from the former Institute of Landscape Ecology of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, the primary thematic studies of individual authors and secondary studies reflecting the development of the field itself were used for the development of this thematic and historical review. These sources were refined where possible through guided semi-structured interviews with eyewitnesses and written correspondence.

The results show two strong centres of landscape ecology: Institute of Landscape Ecology of the former Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (ČSAV) in Prague formed out of its forerunners in 1971 which is associated with the name of Emil Hadač and relocated to České Budějovice, where it ceased to exist in 2010. Another centre is set up in Brno at the Geographical Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in Brno at the Mendel University of Brno (Antonín Buček, Jan Lacina).

The cultural character and intertwining natural and cultural components of the landscape play an important role in understanding the specific aspects of the scientific study of landscape in our country. This was the basis of the initial scientific reflections of the forerunners of landscape ecology in biological sciences (Bohumil Němec, Julius Stoklasa), in nature conservation (Jan Svatopluk Procházka) and in architecture (Karel Honzík, Ladislav Žák). This interdisciplinary character of landscape research persists in many institutions and organizations to this day, including the Czech branch of the International Association for Landscape Ecology IALE - CZ.

It is a great paradox of our time that landscape and landscape ecology has ceased to be institutionally represented in the structure of the Czech Academy of Sciences. In conclusion, we ask the question about the reasons for this development and whether landscape research can be restored in the structure of the Academy of Sciences of The Czech Republic.