Landscape Observatories: An Analytical Framework and a Case Study at the Landscape Observatory of Finland

Landscape observatories are one of the instruments foreseen by the Council of Europe for the implementation of the European Landscape Convention. They can be defined at different scales and can play a strategic role in the intermediation between administrations, civil society, researchers, and the economic sector. However, a systematic study of existing landscape observatories suggests a need to define a more coherent framework to understand their specific characteristics, evaluate their performance, facilitate comparative studies, promote the generation of inter-scalar networks, and support future changes. Accordingly, this paper proposes that such a framework should be based on different institutional, organizational, and operational variables that can be flexibly adjusted and combined to respond more effectively to the specific contexts and aims of each landscape observatory as well as to the new methodological and topical agendas emerging from landscape studies. Secondly, the paper briefly introduces the landscape observatory of Finland as a potential case to evaluate the utility of the proposed analytical framework. The preliminary results recommend advancing in the proposed study and complementing the delineated framework with an additional tool to more objectively evaluate the performance and impact of landscape observatories.