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1st ETHIOPIAN LANDSCAPE FORUM, 15th and 16th December, 2016

On 15th and 16th December, 2016, the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building

Construction and City Development (EiABC) by the initiative of the Chair of Landscape Architecture will host the 1st Ethiopian Landscape Forum together with IFLA, the International Federation of Landscape Architecture. Landscape architecture is a design field which deals with the spaces between building and roads and aims to build a holistic relationship between ecosystems and the built environment.

           

            Thefirst quarter of the twenty-first century is threatened by three global phenomena namely the high rate of urbanization, erratic climatic anomalies and terror driven by human migration. The positive and negative impacts of their these phenomena are continually etched on global landscapes. Landscape is a spatial entity that evolved over a period of time as a result of natural and cultural processes interaction. Natural processes refer to a bio-geomorphic system, while cultural processes are the sum total of human systems grafted on the environment for economic, social, recreational, transportation, military, religious and agricultural purposes. These usages create diverse landscape features, which in turn are responsible for diverse human adaptations for survival in a   bioregion. Dynamic developmental economic survival has in recent years become the destructive stripping of natural landscapes of their originality and distorting precious cultural landscapes. This is being compounded by climate change phenomenon, urbanization and environmental injustice. Global players look in the direction of UNESCO International Landscape Convention; United Nations Habitat III; and Conference of Parties (COP) for solutions. The later, ‘COP’, stands for 196 signatories of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

            Ethiopia is conscious of its urban and rural landscapes and was one of the first countries to submit its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution to the UNFCCC with interests on developing a green economy and meeting food security within its rapidly growing urban centres. Though Ethiopia’s 16% urbanization seems low compared with other global south nations, the worry is what will influence our urban morphology, especially the desired public realm, green, grey and blue infrastructures? The October 1st UN Habitat III   gathering in Quito, Ecuador was about an urban paradigm shift reflecting on the ‘cities we need’, This paradigm shift sees landscape as a human construct showing dialogue that    occurs between human and ecological processes, as expressed in the UN 2015 Sustainable Development Goals. Our national landscape of today evolved from the decisions made in yesteryears. The decision for tomorrow’s landscapes is being made now. What type of Ethiopian urban, social, rural, academic, touristic, agricultural, forest, river     landscapes do we want tomorrow? What intellectual capacity building do we give to Ethiopian youths that will develop, manage, and preserve these landscapes? Your opinion matters. Please join us to dream about identity conscious Ethiopian landscapes for the next generation.

EvenInfo->http://eiabc.edu.et/index.php/ifla-conference

 

click Here to download IFLA Schedule.

 

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