Cultivating the Continuity of European Landscapes: Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the European Landscape Convention and discussing challenges for the future in UNISCAPE 2020 International Conference – 16-17 October 2020, Florence

Abstract

20th October 2020 marked the 20th anniversary of the opening of European Landscape Convention (ELC). Academic network UNISCAPE, in synergy with the Tuscany Landscape Observatory, The Italian Agency for Development Cooperation and with the support of Tuscany Region and the Municipality of Florence, promoted a two-day event to celebrate the Convenion and to set new research and project horizons for the European landscapes. Cultivating Continuity of the European Landscape. New Challenges, Innovative Perspectives saw the participation of academics, landscape architects and planners, policy makers, innovators, researchers, scientists and students, connected online from different parts of the world to Palazzo Vecchio in Florence to discuss the past twenty years of practice of the landscape values expressed in the ELC and the implementation of its principles. The conference was the beginning of a promising and active transdisciplinary debate on the increasingly complex themes which revolve around landscape, to be cultivated in the near future in dynamic continuity with the ELC, so that it can continue to be not only a normative, but most importantly a cultural reference in evolution together with the transformations of landscapes.