LANDSCAPING POTENTIAL OF VALLEYS

Valleys which include significant elements such as watercourses and different forms of alluvial plains are a notable phenomenon in Czech landscape. Their importance does not stem from their size, but rather from their internal structure, their spatial position in a particular area, and, what is most important, from their functional and landscaping complexity. Currently, valleys and their flood plains play an outstanding role in different revitalization and rural development projects, and they help respond to the ever growing needs which call for the application of socio-cultural viewpoints in landscaping. Until nowadays, in most papers on landscaping this issue has been dealt with only marginally or partially, from a narrow point of view of a particular field. Therefore, the objective of this paper, which is only a small contribution to the topic, is to help meet the rapidly growing needs of our society in terms of the social (recreational, living) and aesthetic (compositional) functions of valleys, and to define some generally applicable guidelines. On the one hand, this paper evaluates two historic parks which both benefit to a high degree from the aesthetic preconditions of valleys. On the other hand, its authors draft a project for a landscape treatment of the Jizera River Valley, trying to apply an approach that would respect all current social requirements for its further use. Finally, the paper defines sixteen general aesthetic principles which should be applied when working with valleys and which would respect them as important elements of the overall landscape plan