István Valánszki

Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences · Department of Landscape Protection and Reclamation

The socialist era postponed suburbanisation in Central and Eastern European countries. After 1990, the process became extremely intensive and transformed the compact form of cities into more decentralised and dispersed urban structures. Therefore, the study aims to identify the main trends in land-cover transformation caused by urban sprawl in peri...

A MATE Tájvédelmi és Tájrehabilitációs Tanszékén(továbbiakban Tanszék) diplomázó hallgatók a tájépítészmesterképzést úgynevezett „Mesterprojekt” készítésével zárják. A mesterprojekt munkamódszere a team szuper-vízió, ahol a szupervízorok az egyes kapcsolódó kurzusok – Diplomatervezés 2, Tájrehabilitáció, Tájbaillesztés-oktatói, valamint a téma szer...

The aim of this paper is to review the current challenges, constraints and typical characteristics of landscape protection in Hungary, focusing primarily on the integration of certain investments into the landscape, based on practical examples. The paper summarises the authors’ experiences as landscape protection experts, primarily based on their e...

The development of research on people-place relationships is a complex and multi-disciplinary field, and over time has evolved in different ways across different disciplines. Despite this development, research on the impact of geographical and cultural context on the conceptualization and management of people-place relationships is still lacking. T...

Research indicates that the Jordan River Basin area is an area where serious environmental and cultural changes occur. This paper illustrates a new methodological approach to developing a structural framework to study river basins‘ cultural and landscape changes. The aim of the proposed framework is to elaborate and overlap the natural and cultural...

Individual trees and tree compositions provide a wide range of cultural ecosystem services, including playing a key role in defining urban character. In Hungary, urban landscape protection tools have recently been expanded, bringing the topic into the spotlight. However, the significance of natural elements (and particularly trees) in relation to t...

The report is a set of recommendations for the design and implementation of the European CTF for landscape architects in the EU. This report is meant for teachers, researchers, and students in the field of landscape architecture who want to develop, improve, or be informed on master programmes in landscape architecture. It is especially relevant fo...

Although green infrastructure raises more likely issues of ecosystem services, its heritage value as Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES [1] [VI2]) is also acknowledged as imprint of our past, which covers tangible and also intangible elements, such as objects, places, memories, that contribute to the survival of the communities. The interpretation an...

Climate change impacts the world's ecosystems and alters many regions' land use and land cover (LULC). The Jordan River Basin is an important region for both its natural and cultural heritage, making it essential to understand the effect of climate change on its LULC. This study aims to use Correlation analysis, including GIS techniques, to investi...

The Common Training Framework consists of three parts. Firstly, an Explanatory Memorandum that presents the background and the importance of landscape architecture, the new definition of the profession, the demography of the profession and development of landscape architecture education. Secondly the Recitals that presents the European legislation...

Boromisza Zs., Erdei T., Valánszki I. (2022): Helyi lakosság bevonása interaktív módszerekkel mintaterületi tájkarakter kutatás során. In. Kiss E., Balla D. (szerk.): Tájökológiai kihívások, adaptációs lehetőségek. MTA DTB Földtudományi Szakbizottság, Debrecen. pp. Absztrakt Magyarországon az országos szintű tájkarakter-kutatás részeként 2019 és 20...

Land suitability of Recreation and Ecotourism (RE) is the process of predicting the potential use of land on the basis of its attributes. Decisions on land use have always been part of the evolution of human society. The integration of this GIS using the multicriteria decision analysis approach provides an environment to the decision-makers in citi...

Over the last decade, there has been an increase in academic and policy interest in cultural ecosystem services (CES) in rural areas, reflecting a growing recognition of the importance of intangible environmental benefits for wellbeing. Although the concept of CES is widely acknowledged, it is rarely fully analyzed. A significant barrier is the met...

The Sumapaz páramo has been widely studied for its high supply of goods and ecosystem services provided to Bogotá, the central Colombian region and for its role as an ecological network linking the foothills rainforest of the Orinoquia and Amazonas with the montane forest of the Andean highlands. Sumapaz is the largest páramo in the world, with 333...

The importance of green infrastructure (GI) has been particularly felt in the pandemic period: the opportunity to spend time and relax outdoors became more valuable for urban residents. There is a strong link between green infrastructure and tourism and recreation, but the ecosystem services of the GI have so far been less emphasized in tourism dev...

Landscape functions reflect the goods and services provided by regions, highlighting the cultural, economic and environmental factors.As a complex assessment method, a landscape function analysis can reveal the state of the pillars of sustainability, analyse the potentials, resources and limits of landscapes and land use systems and thus provide a...

Despite of the growing number of studies related to ecosystem services, there is still a lack of deeper understanding of cultural ecosystem services (CES). CES are defined as nonmaterial benefits obtained from ecosystem, which significantly influence the quality of life. The assessment of cultural services is still challenging due to the perceived...

In Hungary, as part of the national level landscape character research, landscape character assessment was prepared at the study area level between 2019 and 2021. One of the study areas was the Tápió-region. This study area is located in the Central Hungary region, Pest County, and covers a total of 9 settlements. During the analysis of the landsca...

Landscape planning for recreation aims to achieve a balance between resources and community needs with management planning objectives to improve the quality of life for people. This paper contributes to a better understanding of recreational landscapes and the connection between greenspace policy and planning for Recreation Services (RS). The aim o...

Grasslands contribute to the ecological diversity of our cultural landscapes. In the last centuries, the most important trend was a constant loss of this valuable asset due to urbanization and the intensification of cultivation. Studies focusing on grasslands are not so abundant, and especially analyses on the spatial trends of grasslands in Easter...

The Danube-Carpathian region represents one of the most preserved natural habitats for wildlife species in Europe. It is the last European great wilderness area, a stronghold for large carnivores, and home to the large remaining reserves of old-growth forests. Achieving ecological connectivity of the area is an inevitable part of its protection. Th...

Despite the growing quantity of ecosystem-services-related research, there is still a lack of deeper understanding on cultural ecosystem services (CES). This is mainly due to the perception of CES, which can vary by geographic location and population. In this study, we present a Public Participation Geographic Information System (PPGIS) method in a...

The nexus between the impact of social realization on landscape and the type of landscape conflict is considered a very vital essence in understanding the importance of potential use of the landscape. The paper starts with a review and analysis of two different types of landscape conflicts that are directed in two different areas of the MENA regio...

Greenways are urban elements that are designed to show the linear consistency and connectivity between open green spaces and cause a development in the urban texture. As a city starts to grow, the absolute metropolitan development should be followed by an ongoing protection of the rural and urban territories. The nexus between the city development...

The ConnectGREEN international project covers research and planning institutions of 5 countries and defined as objective to preserve and define the potential ecological corridors between the core habitats of large carnivores in the Carpathian region and rehabilitate ecological corridors in in 4 pilot areas. One of the most important tool for preven...

In this paper we presented the partial results of the ConnectGREEN project, highlighting the basic and unique shortcomings and best practices of their systems. In general, all of the analysed countries express the importance of ecological networks in their policy framework. Unfortunately, in many cases the implementation of this idea is weak. All o...

The European Union (EU) Directive 2013/55/EC amends Directive 2005/36/EC on the recognition of professional qualifications. The 2013 amendment allows Member States to decide on a common set of minimum knowledge, skills and competences required to pursue a given profession through a Common Training Framework (CTF). Such a framework must combine trai...

The European Union (EU) Directive 2013/55/EC amends Directive 2005/36/EC on the recognition of professional qualifications. The 2013 amendment allows Member States to decide on a common set of minimum knowledge, skills and competences required to pursue a given profession through a Common Training Framework (CTF). Such a framework must combine trai...

The term of green infrastructure (GI) became widespread all over the world especially in relation to settlement planning. Because of the complexity and multifunctionality of the concept it can be applied in regional and rural development as well. The European Union intends to integrate the concept of green infrastructure into several policy fields,...

Urban trees are an important part of urban image, character and city-scape, and the ecosystem services they provide have been extensively studied. However, years after the introduction of new urban image protection and urban design tools in Hungarian practice, the importance of individual trees is still a relatively obscure topic in research. In ou...

Armed conflicts not only affect human populations but can also cause considerable damage to the environment. Its consequences are as diverse as its causes, including; water pollution from oil spills, land degradation due to the destruction of infrastructure, poisoning of soils and fields, destruction of crops and forests, over-exploitation of natur...

Mapping of Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) emphasizes the spatial contribution to landscape characteristics like land cover and human wellbeing. This review paper aims to build an overview of CES mapping indicators and methods. This goal comprises many objectives; to provide an overview of existing mapping indicators and methods, to analyze and c...

As cities start to develop and grow, the quality of open agricultural lands begin to degrade and vitiate. Throughout history, agriculture formed an important role in providing livable conditions to communities. However, the continuous change in the climatic conditions, the unremitting deviations of precipitation and the unsettled temperatures cause...

Evaluating of Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) emphasizes the spatial relationships between landscape characteristics such as land use/cover and their contribution to human wellbeing. In this study we conduct a general overview of CES research and evaluation methods; to analyze them; to illustrate the CES mapping indicators; to determine the measu...

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) are the non-material benefits obtained from ecosystems that contribute to human well-being. To date, communities and urban planning processes have given limited attention to CES in developing countries among different categories of ES due to the challenges and threats face CES in these countries. A systematic revie...

The consequences of armed conflicts on land-use changes, deforestation and forest fragmentation across the Globe remains relatively lowly known. Their links with factors like agriculture, illegal crops, or cattle ranching can hide its effect on deforestation patterns. Belligerence actions often occur in tropical zones considered as of high 'conserv...

War and armed conflicts have been shown to contribute directly to decreased landscape values and environmental degradation, especially in developing and tropical countries. This paper presents a methodic review approach designed to analyze the relationship between drivers and remote sensing methods in areas affected by armed conflicts. The document...

Spatial planning is the most important tool for balancing the needs of the society, economy and the environment. Spatial planning differs from one country to another due to the different conditions and historical background, but there are major similar characteristics. In the first phase of the project, we elaborated a comparison analysis about t...

The increase rate of change in populations, urbanization and climate change in developing countries has led to decreasing, losing and degradation of recreation and eco-tourism activities. These circumstances have led to a dramatic increase in attention given to the strategic planning of all kinds of Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) especially recr...

War and armed conflicts have been shown to contribute directly to decreased landscape values and environmental degradation, especially in developing and tropical countries for example; The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Colombia and Sudan. War may decrease or increase deforestation depending on the relationship between direct conflict and othe...

The increase rate of change in populations, urbanization and climate change in developing countries has led to decreasing, losing and degradation of recreation and eco-tourism activities. These circumstances have led to a dramatic increase in attention given to the strategic planning of all kinds of Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) especially recr...

In the last few decades we experienced the continuous procedure of urbanization, significant land use changes, a big loss or shrinkage of ecologically relevant green network and emerging problems of warming climate in Hungary. We also experienced the growth of environmental data, the sprawl of data processing methods, the renewal of technical equip...

Urban structure, land use, and land cover analysis are among of the primary problems of urban planning. The paper analyses the structure of land cover in Kraków and Budapest, cities with similar past. The investigation involved 41 districts (18 districts in Kraków and 23 districts in Budapest). The authors attempted to apply a methodology to develo...

Tóth, A., Timpe, A., Stiles, R., Damyanovic, D., Valánszki, I., Salašová, A., Cieszewska, A., & Brabec, E. (2019). Small Sacral Christian Architecture in the Cultural Landscapes of Europe, Acta Horticulturae et Regiotecturae, 22(1), 1-7. doi: https://doi.org/10.2478/ahr-2019-0001 /// Though often overlooked due to its scale, small sacral Christian...

Rapid urbanization in countries over the world is affecting green spaces in these countries. The resulting loss and degradation of urban and peri-urban green space could adversely affect ecosystems as well as well-being. The aim of this paper is to provide a general overview of associations between urban green space, or Green Infrastructure, and ec...

The sustainable use of green areas is essential to the sustainability of cultural ecosystem services like Recreation and Tourism values. Cultural Ecosystem Services Sustainability Indicators can play an important role in advancing the science and practice of sustaining Recreation and Tourism values. The aim of this paper is that review the commonly...

Colombia has lived in the last sixty years trapped between the claws of an internal conflict with special characteristics, which have led to serious consequences on its development and very high-cost of human lives. However, these consequences are not limited to economic and social fields only; it has also resulted in several effects on the environ...

Several studies and international conventions highlight the importance of public participation in the process of strategy building. In spite of all these initiatives, public participation methods are not common tools in the practice (especially in Central-Eastern-Europe). In the frames of our research, we applied the ppGIS (Public Participation GIS...

Urban sprawl is a general problem of developed countries and several European strategies highlight the importance of controlled development, compact settlements structure, and protection of ecologic values. We analyzed European metropolis regions focusing on challenges of preservation of green infrastructure and controlling urban sprawl. Vienna has...

Over the last few decades of growing data production in the field of remote sensing and GIS, we have experienced a rapid development of methods and tools in green network analysis. A series of journal articles, methodological and technical guidelines describe how to map green system based on aerial photography and satellite imagery. Many studies st...

Culture Ecosystems Services sustain humans all over the world. The unsustainable use of these services around the world has led to degradation which now threatens human health and livelihoods. Despite the increase of literature on cultural ecosystem services, still many challenges and threats that facing sustain and protect Culture Ecosystem Servic...

Urban sprawl is a general problem of developed countries and several European strategies highlight the importance of controlled development, compact settlements structure, protection of ecologic values. We analyzed European metropolis regions focusing on challenges of preservation of green infrastructure and controlling urban sprawl. Vienna has pro...

In our research we explored the relation of green infrastructure and sustainable tourism development. We hypothesized that the concept of green infrastructure (GI) could be a catalyst for the development of different types of tourism products such as ecotourism and active tourism. Our objective were to analyse the green infrastructure, tourism attr...

This study has analysed changes in land use and land cover (LUCC) in two post-socialist countries – Hungary and Poland, based upon cadastral data, statistical data, and CORINE Land Cover data. This is a new approach aimed to perform a synergy analysis carried out in accordance with the ‘top-down’ principle, i.e. from the level of countries (in the...

Several researches and international conventions highlight the importance of public participation in the process of strategy building (Primdahl et al. 2013). In the frames of our research we applied ppGIS method a special, mostly new tool in Hungary. We applied the ppGIS method in micro-region of Vác. 5 cultural ecosystem services were defined: aes...

We analysed the main elements of landscape policy of France, Germany, Poland and Hungary. Germany and France, both have a strong landscape policy but of different character. We compare these systems with the landscape policy tools of Eastern-Central European countries. Our research questions were: What are the main tools and institutional system of...

Urban heat island (UHI) is one of the significant urban ecologycal problems. Many researchers emphasize the necessity of UHI analysis to support city planning and urban space design. We used the method of heat mapping with satellite images and heatcameras to measure surface temperature. Land surface temperature maps were prepared from 56 images of...

People have changed their surrounding since thousands of years especially because of agricultural production. Analyzing the former trends we are going to explore the most effective ways for CAP greening measures and green infrastructure development in our pilot regions. From the view of our research in the current period the most important CAP inno...

Several researches and international conventions highlight the importance of public participation in the process of strategy building (Primdahl et al., 2013). In the frames of our research we applied ppGIS method, a special, mostly new tool in Hungary. Our former researches justified the significance of this method especially in mapping of cultural...

Rural areas in the Danube Region face economic, societal, cultural and environmental challenges. They are rich in diverse cultural heritage which is often neglected and not taken into consideration as a potential resource for development. Wood resources form an integral part of tangible and intangible cultural heritage. As an environmentally friend...

A kutatás során egy speciális, hazánkban még egyedülállónak számító közösségi tervezési technikát, a ppGIS-t alkalmaztunk egy hátrányos helyzetű, észak-magyarországi, vidéki járás területén. A munka fő célja a szakmai tájértékelés és a közösségi térképezés alapú értékelés eredményeinek összevetése volt. A mintaterület a Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén megyébe...

The research presents the different practices of green infrastructure (GI) development between countries and groups of countries. The concept of GI, published in the United States in 1996 (Benedict, M. A.-McMahon, E. T. 2006), was adopted all over the world. However, the practical transposition of a complex concept at a theoretical level differs in...