Landscape Architecture and Green Infrastructure in the Slovak Countryside

This monograph elaborates on the contemporary issue of GI in the context of Slovak rural landscapes. It takes a closer look on rural GI from the perspective of landscape architecture. Ten rural settlements were selected as research samples: Tvrdošovce, Palárikovo, Maňa, Golianovo, Svätoplukovo, Červený Hrádok, Mojmírovce, Žitavany, Nitrianske Hrnčiarovce and Oponice (Nitra Region, Slovakia). The presented research reveals different aspects of historical development, territorial and spatial changes, structural and morphological transformations of rural landscapes and their GI since the 18th century. It highlights strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of current GI in the countryside. At the local level, rural landscapes and their GI as the main object of research is divided into two main groups based on typology and scale: 1/ GI in open rural landscapes, outside the built-up area of rural settlements and 2/ GI in intra-urban areas of rural settlements. The research reveals that GI has a significant visual and spatial impact on the perceived rural landscape. The monograph introduces a GI typology in built-up areas of rural landscapes based on their location, function, spatial, architectural, vegetation and other characteristics. The main GI types, which this monograph deals with are as follows: public green spaces, such as green squares and commons, parks in village and small town centres, green waterfronts, green streetscapes, green spaces in school and pre-school premises and historical gardens. These GI types do not cover all forms of local GI in rural settlements, they rather aim at illustrating the most important types and outlining the typological and functional diversity of local GI. An important contribution of this monograph consists in the application of the research by design approach, which aims at a qualitative improvement of local GI using planning and design tools of landscape architecture. The monograph results in setting up the main strategic guidelines and objectives for rural development in the Nitra Region through GI. This research can be further deepened and extended to other settlements within and beyond the boundaries of the Nitra Region, in order to implement GI in landscape architecture research, planning and design practice.