Giant's Causeway

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Area	Giant's Causeway
Place	Antrim
Country	Northern Ireland
Topics	Heritage and Nature protection
Author(s)	Melanie Schnürer

Rationale

The Giant's Causeway is located in Northern Ireland, in the Country Antrim. If you visit Northern Ireland, you must visit the World Heritage Site "Giant's Causeway", which was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1986. In addition, the Giant's Causeway is a tourist interesting and worth seeing element. It is the only World Heritage Site in Northern Ireland and is one of Northern Ireland's most popular attractions. It is important that the more than 60 million years old rock formation is further protected.

Location and scope

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A Landscape System Analysis

A.1 Landscape layers and their system context

Geomorphology, landscape units and coastal typology

The rock formations with more than 40,000 individual, black basalt columns are interconnected and predominantly hexagonal in shape. But there are also basalt columns that are quadrangular, pentagonal, heptagonal and octagonal. The Giant's Causeway is about 5 km long and leads along the cliffs into the sea. Some of the basalt columns have a height of about 12 meters and the rock layer is about 25 meters thick.

The formation of the basalt columns is due to the cooling of hot lava. The volcano that was responsible for this formation was eroded by erosion. Generally one can say that it is a rock coast.

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Land use

Giant's Causeway is located on the Atlantic Ocean in the Country Antrim on the northern coast of Northern Ireland. The settlement of Bushmills lies west of the Giant's Causeway and is the closest village. A big city, which is about 80 km away, is Belfast.

To get to the Giant's Causeway, the small trails can be used. However, the best way to get to the attraction is to take a walk along the cliffs or over the hills. The main roads can be found at some distance. The green areas, especially grass areas dominate the surroundings.

In the past, the adjacent cities were smaller and the green areas were larger. The expansion of the trails was not as good as it is today.

As it is a UNESCO World Heritage, the extraction of raw materials and energy in the immediate area is not allowed.

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Green/blue infrastructure

Both blue and green infrastructures exist on this area. These green and blue infrastructures are today important indicators of biodiversity conservation, as well as the strengthening and regeneration capacity of ecosystem functions. The aim is a sustainable use of nature. This green and blue infrastructure contrasts with the gray infrastructure. The concept of green and blue infrastructure has a huge impact on the future and is strongly promoted, including by the EU.

In order to improve the green and blue infrastructure, sealing through the gray infrastructure must be avoided. In addition, you can develop green and blue infrastructure, for example, if nature pieces are renatured again. Another possibility would be to turn Gray Infrastructure back into green and blue infrastructures.

Here you will find the following green infrastructures:

• Agriculture (in Northern Ireland total 74%)

• grasslands

• open fields

• forest areas (at some distance) (in Northern Ireland total 8%)

and the following blue infrastructures:

• sea

• some bays

When it comes to Ireland's landscapes, you hear again and again the phrase '40 Shades of Green '. Ireland is VERY green.

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Actors and stakeholders

• Who is driving changes in this landscape? Who is affected by those changes?
• Draw a stakeholder and/or power map: Who is affected highly but with low power? Who has high power but is not affected?

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Sacred spaces and heritage

• Which places/elements hold cultural value and to whom?
• You may add a map and some images, please also explain in your caption why these elements are valuable

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Visual appearance and landscape narrative

• Which elements are essential for the landscape character?
• Has the landscape been painted or otherwise depicted, when and whom? Which elements are essential?
• Which narratives exist? Who has written about this landscape or depicted it in some way?
• You can add text and images

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A.2 Summary of you landscape system analysis and your development Targets

• You can summarize your findings with an DPSI(R) Model or a Spider Diagram
• Link back to the Sustainable Development Goals: Which goals are at risk?
• What is your hypothesis for this landscape?
• Visualise your hypothesis with one graphic/pict
• Are there any existing initiatives taking action in this landscape? Do you have a critical perspective on that?
• Add text and visuals

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A.3 Theory reflection

• Reflect on at least three international policy documents in relation to their local landscape case
• choose one international, one European and one national document
• You can choose references from our reading list
• Scope: 250 words

A.4 References

• give a full list of the references you have used for this section

Phase B: Landscape Evaluation and Assessment

B.1 Assessment Strategy

• Based on the hypothesis derived from your previous landscape systems analysis you are now asked to define the goals for assessing the landscape. Your assessment is the basis for evaluating the landscape status.
• Which elements and phenomena need to be mapped, why and how?
• This a text contribution, max 250 words

B.2 Mapping

• As defined by your assessment strategy you conduct the mapping and present your findings here
• As a minimum, at least three different themes need to be mapped, you may choose more if needed

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  briefly explain the findings of your mapping

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B.3 Problem definition and priority setting

• Give a summary of the major findings of your mapping process, what are the problems/potentials identified?
• Draw a problems/potentials map
• Set priorities for the most relevant issues

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B.4 Theory reflection

• Please reflect the assessment and evaluation methods used based on at least three readings
• Did you encounter limitations'
• 200 words test contribution

B.5 References

• give a full list of the references you have used for this section

Phase C – Strategy and Master Plan

C.1 Goal Setting

• Define strategic planning objectives based on the evaluation findings
• Link back to your original targets from section one and the Development Goals
• 150 words text contribution

C.2 Spatial Strategy and Transect

• translate your strategic goals into a vision
• develop a spatial translation of your vision
• exemplify your vision in the form of a transect with concrete interventions
• add map(s) and visualizations

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C.3 From Theory of Change to Implementation

• For implementing your vision: Which partnerships are needed? Which governance model is required?
• Who needs to act and how? Draw and explain a change/process model/timeline
• Which resources are needed? On which assets can you build?
• add 150 words text and visuals

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C.4 References

• give a full list of the references you have used for this section

D. Process Reflection

• Reflect in your intercultural and interdisciplinary team on the outcomes of your study
• Which limitations were you facing?
• What have you learnt from each other?
• What would you do differently next time?
• You can also use diagrams/visuals
• 250 words text

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