The Living Land - How does the history of a landscape influence its current and future sustainable development?

This project combines environmental humanities with ecology studies and map history, using this information to understand the landscapes and biodiversity of historic properties within Warwickshire - deconstructing the meaning of landscape and how its history and potential development underpins conversations surrounding sustainability in land management. Warwickshire and the West Midlands are home to many important historic sites, and also has a distinctive history from ice age settlement through intense industrialisation to its current housing expansion, making it an ideal case study to showcase the impacts of history on land development (Walker, 2000).

This research is important to undertake as it provides a basis for the consideration of sustainability in a wider context, as history represents the consequences of human development and adds to the knowledge of what can and cannot constitute a sustainable future. Approaching these issues of sustainability from an interdisciplinary perspective, combining history with the study of maps as a data source and the importance of biodiversity as part of landscape conservation and management, is central to moving beyond the status quo that currently perpetuates the version of development that is proving to be inherently unsustainable.

Key research questions include 1. How can past and present maps be used to track landscape histories and understand current landscape formation? 2. How has landscape evolution throughout history impacted their potential for further development?

3. With the information provided from landscape histories, how can policies be created in Warwickshire that balance and move beyond the needs of humanity and biodiversity?