Course Description
Teaches students how to "read" the physical features of cultural landscapes, how to inventory and document landscape features, and how to assess a cultural landscape's levels of historical integrity and historical significance. The course involves a significant fieldwork component.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
All students are required to complete weekly landscape
conservation readings and exercises, complete a mid-term
project, and final exam. Graduate students will further be
required to lead one seminar reading discussion, research a
case study to create a landscape inventory report that meets
the standards contained in the U.S. National Park Service
Professional Procedures Guide for Cultural Landscape
Inventories, and present an overview of the inventory report to
the entire class.
Athena Title
Cultural Land Inventory Assess
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Knowledge •Understand the diversity of historic cultural landscapes and the range of landscape inventory techniques that may be employed to accommodate this diversity. •Understand U.S. federal laws and guidelines relative to historic cultural landscapes. •Understand the concepts of historical significance and historical integrity as they apply to cultural landscapes. •Understand various frameworks for inventorying and assessing cultural landscapes, including those employed by UNESCO and the U.S. National Park Service. •Understand the process and sources for cultural landscape research and documentation. Skills •Ability to conduct primary-source historical research on cultural landscapes. •Ability to accurately inventory and document existing conditions of historic cultural landscapes. •Ability to evaluate the historical significance and historical integrity of a cultural landscape. •Ability to create a landscape inventory that meets the standards contained in the U.S. National Park Service Professional Procedures Guide for Cultural Landscape Inventories. •Ability to prepare Part 1 of a Cultural Landscape Report as outlined in the U.S. National Park Service Guide to Cultural Landscape Reports. Values •Appreciate role of historical research and existing conditions inventory in the cultural landscape assessment process.
Topical Outline
An introduction to the diversity of historic cultural landscapes and the laws, policies, standards, and programs that exist to inventory and assess the historical significance of landscapes, with emphasis on the procedures employed by the U.S. Department of the Interior. •Introduction to the array of types and scales of historic cultural landscapes. •The federal-level framework for identifying and evaluating historic cultural landscapes in the U.S. •ICOMOS, UNESCO, and international/alternate frameworks for identifying and evaluating cultural landscapes. •Applying the U.S. National Register of Historic Places criteria to historic cultural landscapes. •U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Professional Procedures for Cultural Landscapes Inventory. •Methods and sources for researching the history of cultural landscapes. •Use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Global Positioning System (GPS), and other remote-sensing technologies in the cultural landscape inventory and evaluation process.