The Review of Transformation in Cultural Landscape Based on Ecological, Socio-economic Approaches, the Case of Urban-rural Landscapes in European Union

Cultural Landscape is defined as an area whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors. These regions are recognized as a part and parcel of the natural, historical, cultural, and scientific heritage. The rural and urbancontext of these landscapes are particular patterns due to cultural characteristics. They are considered sustainbale landscapes which are often developed over a long period of time. Since ecologic and socio-economic of landscape relationships are important factors in sustainable development, the understanding of relevant changing processes in the past, the rationale and the interactions of these processes are essential.This article is a review and analysis, which addresses an extended and much debated subject through a broad survey of research results, journal papers, landscape books, scientific databases and presentations during related conferences relevant to landscape dynamics and driving forces in Europe. The transformation in cultural landscape is an active study field in Europe and there are ongoing discussions about pertinant subjects. Therefore the present research is a full survey of analysis and planning methods, selected aspects of transformation processes, underlying forces in Landscape change, the perception of the people of multicultural European societies, assessment of the transformation processes, vulnerability of rural-urban landscape systems, the techniques and methods for Monitoring of the transformation processes and Strategies for sustainable development of rural urban landscape in Europe.The most distinct characteristic of European landscape is its richness of flora and fauna, abundance of settlements and and other features created by nature and human over hundreds and even thousands of years. In recent years, nations and governments have recognised the fact that landscape is a major element of their national and European heritage, and that it embraces both natural and cultural features, in an integrated way. But they also recognise that many of Europe's landscapes have been gravely damaged in recent years by loss of natural features, by neglect, erosion and other factors.Due to the novelty of recent research about landscape transformations, some critical research questions are left to future studies. The results show that the most repeated subjects of landscape transformation articles and their emphasis in this field includes: the identification of driving forces behind landscape transformation, the processes, and the relevant analysis methods in landscape planning and management. The main focus of these studies has been on physical and technical aspects of landscape and less attention has been paid to the social and economic impact of human behavior, therefore more interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research and integrative approaches are essential for the development of rural-urban cultural landscapes. The scale of further researchesshould be varying from local to regional and global, toaddress the targets of sustainability. There is a new determination to protect and revitalize landscapesto stop further exploitation.