engleski

Initial Research on Human Perception of Loess Landscapes in Baranya, Eastern Croatia

Landscape has an objective nature, which is of material structure and measurable, and, at the same time, it has a subjective nature within a value structure, both qualitative and aesthetic. Significant visual phenomena of the Slavonia and Baranya planes in Eastern Croatia are the vertical surfaces of loess deposits. Physical characteristic of loess have enabled men to perforate it and create spatial structures in it, called gators that have served for residential and economic purposes throughout the history of this area. The continued decay and disappearance of the gator’s residential function has pointed to a problem of today’s perception and evaluation of these structures, now mostly empty and abandoned. The main dilemma lies in the interpretation of gator’s potential as spatial and phenomenological resources in the context of local natural values and problems arising from limited structural features of loess. The article presents physical characteristics of gators from and around the village of Batina in Croatian Baranya as well as their role in a holistic review of the Baranya loess landscape. At this stage, authors are proposing and defining a methodology of researching loess structures from different theoretical and methodological perspectives. We discuss various issues that are highlighted in a comparative framework, relating to distinctions between experts’ and local population’s attitudes on loess and its natural and human features. The proposed methodology is based on risk perception related to place-identity and landscape values. The article investigates the use of visual instruments (photographs) in quantitative and qualitative research methods. Quantitative methods include evaluation of loess deposits in comparison to other natural phenomena of the region, recognition of gators as a part of its architectural and economic heritage and ranking of gators’ (via visual presentation-photographs) as suitable for different functions (habitation, storage, wine cellars, museums, tourism). Qualitative methods follow, again via visual presentation, emotional associations and suggestions on the same subject of gators’ past and present use and possible re-use. Described methods will be realized through a survey of a sample of local experts and region’s population.

gator; loess; Baranya; risk perception

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