Biocultural seascape assessment

Marine and coastal landscapes with their features, types and uses in space and time are the targets of seascape assessment, which aims to analyse the different factors that interact together to produce a seascape. The development of the concept from Seascape Assessment to Seascape Character Assessment is discussed in this chapter, taking into account also Landscape Character Assessment and Historic Seascape Characterisation carried out in the UK. Starting from this groundwork, a novel approach to biocultural seascape assessment has been set up, to lay the foundations for an eco-cultural analysis of seascape. This chapter demonstrates such an approach, as a way forward for this type of research that needs further development. Basic methods and tools are provided for the analysis and the study of seascape character in the West Mediterranean and elsewhere, and have been applied to Asinara in Sardinia, Italy, to outline the present natural and cultural environment, and to inform future planning.