Social and natural science knowledge can help us understand, evaluate, and intervene in the world, e.g., for the continuation of cultural heritage, for positively influencing land use, and for societal (notably sustainable) development, as shown in the twenty-four research studies in this book (about territory in multiple countries). Knowledge useful for sustaining cultural heritage linked with land use, and promoting development, may include contemporary science, or may be more traditional and informal knowledge. Knowledge may be primarily practical, (sometimes business-related, sometimes technological, part of local customs, household-centered, etc.) Knowledge may be displayed in traditional preparation of food, or in traditional farming and cattle-breeding; or in advanced genetics. These twenty-four research studies communicate knowledge useful for commerce, governance, science, and cultural exchange. Worldwide, but also at local and regional levels, cultural heritage is closely associated with land use (e.g., rural and, increasingly, urban culture and land). Changes need to be studied historically, to appreciate past and present, and to reach actively for a better future (which conserves some values rooted in the past). Food and drink, travel and tourism, cities (modest or expansive), country-sides, landscapes (agricultural, forested, urban, or other), vividly experienced, can fascinate and delight. Through attention to cultural heritage, humans can compare and contrast very different, even very distant locales, motivating both pilgrimages far away from home, and love of one's own more nearby surroundings, our homelands, or neighboring places. But societal development may also generate unease about possible dangers to, and losses of valuable aspects of cultural heritage, dangers and losses about land quality, and associated phenomena of innumerable sorts: wars, cultural decline, food insecurity, and so on. Such factors also figure in the analyses in this book.

Zusammenfassung

This book includes multi-national research studies (social and natural science research, as well as more directly practical university-based knowledge) about cultural heritage, land, and societal development in varied countries. The book is particularly about land use (as a fundamental aspect of the environment) and its role in development (especially sustainable development). Many of the studies are about topics concerning the transition from more rural to more urbanized land areas. However, some studies concern other types of changes. This includes general attention to globalization and nation-state dimensions of change. Nonetheless, there are interpretations communicated of unique histories at differing scales in the researches here. There is often a focus on more uniquely local and regional territories (including attention to smaller-scale land use) and an interest in future possibilities that conserve positive features of past terrain.

Inhalt

Introduction.- 1. The need to preserve cultural heritage; Karol Król et al.- 2. The Italian National Register of historical rural landscape; Mauro Agnoletti, Antonio Santoro.- 3. **Cultural heritage in the region of Eastern Slovakia; ****Slavomír Marcinák et al.- 4. **Agricultural and food heritage of the Moravian region; Martin Král et al.- 5. **Wine quality as a part of cultural heritage affected by different geographical origins; Martina Fikselová et al.- 6. **Food and meals from a cultural-historical perspective; Josef Kameník.- 7. **Regional gastronomy as transmitter of cultural heritage; Agnieszka Filipiak-Florkiewicz et al.- 8. **Culinary traditions of the Lemkovyna; Marcin ukasiewicz et al.- 9. **Genetic uniqueness of local cattle populations as part of homeland heritage; Radovan Kasarda, Nina Moravíková.- 10. **Objectification of reliability of selected methods of identification and quantification of meat and its substitutes; ****Jozef Golian et al.- 11. **Traditional cheeses from the Malopolska region; Dorota Najgebauer-Lejko, Jacek Domagaa .- 12. **Traditional unfermented and fermented liquid milk products from the Malopolska region; Domagaa Jacek, Najgebauer-Lejko Dorota.- 13. **Farm animals and traditional products of the Carpathian Mountains; Wadysaw Migda et al.- 14. **Traditional crops cultivated in southern Malopolska; W. Berski et al.- 15. **Fruits of traditional varieties; Jacek Supski et al.- 16. **Edible mushrooms of the Polish Carpathians; Emilia Berna et al.- 17. **Usage of wild growing plants as foodstuffs; Piotr Gbczyski et al.- 18. **Ecological structure of cultural landscapes in suburban areas; Renata Róycka-Czas, Barbara Czesak.- 19. **South African agriculture/viniculture, land ownership, and sustainable development; Betty J. Harris, Edward Sankowski.- 20. **Metamorphosis of the Polish villages as a result of semi-urbanization; Magdalena Wilkosz- Mamcarczyk, Barbara Olczak.- 21. **Assessment of land-use and land-cover changes in a rural cultural landscape: the case of a Polish municipality; ****Tomasz Noszczyk et al.- 22. **Land use and landscape in rural China after 40 years of reform and opening up; Chen Gaiying et al.- 23. **Rural areas in historical cities; *Bohdan Cherkes.*24. Sustainable economic development and cultural landscapes: some US-Poland comparisons and connections; Edward Sankowski.