Journal of Environmental Biology

Inland sea as a unit for environmental history: East Asian

inland seas from prehistory to future

Author Details

Kati Lindstrom

(Corresponding author)

Department of Semiotics, Institute of Philosophy and Semiotics, University of Tartu, Jakobi 2, 51014

Tartu, Estonia

e-mail: kati.lindstrom@ut.ee

Junzo Uchiyama

Neolithisation and Modernisation: Landscape History on the East Asian Inland Seas Project, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Kamigamo Motoyama 457-4, Kita-ku, 603-8047 Kyoto, Japan

Publication Data

Paper received:

27 October 2010

Revised received:

02 July 2011

Accepted:

30 July 2011

Abstract

The boundaries of landscape policies often coincide with political or economic boundaries, thus creating a situation where a unit of landscape protection or management reflects more its present political status than its historico-geographical situation, its historical function and formation. At the same time, it is evident that no unit can exist independently of the context that has given birth to it and that environmental protection in isolated units cannot be very effective. The present paper will discuss inland sea as a landscape unit from prehistory to modern days and its implications for future landscape planning, using East Asian inland sea (Japan Sea and East China Sea) rim as an example. Historically an area of active communication, East Asian inland sea rim has become a politically very sharply divided area. The authors will bring examples to demonstrate how cultural communication on the inland sea level has influenced the formation of several landscape features that are now targets for local or national landscape protection programs, and how a unified view could benefit the future of landscape policies in the whole region.

Key words

Inland seas, Landscape protection, Environmental history, Asian landscapes

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