The Transformation of Landscape Ecology and Restoration Ecology into Transdisciplinary Sciences of Holistic Landscape Study, Management and Planning, Conservation and Restoration

Abstract

In the introduction to this anthology, I mentioned earlier, some of the promising trends towards holistic approaches and concepts in landscape ecology (LE) and in restoration ecology (RE). These trends are the first vital steps for their transformation into trans-disciplinary landscape sciences (TLS). In the previous chapters, I presented examples of earlier efforts to meet the theoretical and practical challenges of transdisciplinary landscape research and action. This concluding chapter is a recapitulation of these efforts and a revision of the major concepts in the light of recent findings. The first part is devoted to the severe ecological, cultural and socio-economic crisis human society is undergoing presently during the transformation from the industrial age to the global information age, which can be resolved only by an urgently needed sustainability revolution in all spheres of life on Earth. This demands from landscape ecologists and landscape restorationists a shift in thinking and action for transforming their sciences into more integrative TLS. In the second part, first, I will discuss one of the major obstacles for such a transformation, rooted in outdated beliefs, attitudes, concepts and reductionistic and mechanistic paradigms on nature–human–culture relations, inherited from classical ecology. Then I will report briefly on the important trends towards transdisciplinarity in systems ecology and integrative “eco-disciplines” like ecological economy. The concluding part is an elaboration on the true meaning of transdisciplinarity and its role for both TLS in the light of new, revolutionary insights gained in the ongoing scientific revolution towards an integral theory of everything, presented most recently by Laszlo.