Dear Colleagues,

Mountain areas are often considered multifunctional biocultural environments that represent instances of valuable traditional or historic landscapes. They are also often subject to environmental changes and increased pressure on traditional communities and their functioning. Development of mountain landscapes has been shaped, in addition to other societal, economic, and cultural activities, particularly by primary production, tourism and recreation, and heritage management. However, the significance of these activities in mountain area development is not always equal but varies through time, especially as development of mountain areas also depends on their relationships towards larger regional systems. Because of their specific character, functions, and products, mountain landscapes have been subject to popular as well as professional interest. They represent heritage with unique meanings and values, connecting nature and people, past and presence, material features with meanings and values attributed to them. Landscape transformations always embrace complex interactions between physical structures on one side and changes in cultural attitudes, mentalities, and demands on the other.

The issue aims to discuss various relationships between local landscapes, lifestyles, community identities, and heritages within mountain areas in the context of their development. General contributions as well as case studies discussing cultural importance of mountain landscapes and driving forces behind their transformations are welcome.

Attention will be primarily given to the following questions and related issues:

• How have past and present social, political, economic, cultural, and environmental transformations and needs affected the development of diverse mountain landscapes?
• How are transformations perceived by different societal groups?
• How have different perceptions of mountain landscapes’ meanings and values contributed to their transformations?
• How may acknowledgement of interconnections among unique social, cultural, economic, and environmental conditions within mountain landscapes help to formulate the principles and strategies for their resilient development?

Dr. Zdeněk Kučera
Dr. Matthias Buchecker
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Geosciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Mountain landscape
• Landscape transformations
• Land-use changes
• Local development
• Regional identity
• Landscape meanings
• Landscape heritage
• Landscape governance
• Landscape planning