The historic character of a depopulating borderland: historic landscape characterisation on the Duero river

Abstract

International borderland landscapes have a shared history through the movement of ideas, people, culture, and even conflict. Understanding the similarities and nuanced differences of temporal landscape change between frontiers requires approaches that can effectively detail and explain the territorial evolution of both countries. Historic Landscape Characterisation (HLC) is a valuable methodological tool originally used for landscape studies in the United Kingdom. Its application outside of Britain has been limited. In this pilot study, HLC is used in the Duero River borderland context of Spain and Portugal. It is a rural region with a common history, but it also presents new methodological challenges in the acquisition of source data and the creation of a typology that effectively characterises the region while also recognising the distinctiveness between nations. This research presents the development of the classes and broad types chosen for this analysis and demonstrates their diachronic evolution to the present.