Meta-Study of Selected Articles on Cultural Landscape

The subject of cultural landscape has found a special place in the global research literature over the past three decades. Iranian scholars from various fields such as architecture, landscape architecture, restoration, etc. also have generated research on this topic during the last two decades. The variety of published articles, the diversity of the authors’ research areas, and consequently, the different perspectives of the researchers necessitate the review and analysis of published articles, so we can get a clear picture of the current knowledge and by using the existing experiences, we can avoid repeating previous actions. Moreover, categorizing research into similar topics facilitates their use for future researchers. For this, the theoretical fields of research conducted on the subject of the cultural landscape are analyzed in this paper. Employing the qualitative method and the meta-study strategy, 37 cultural landscape research papers published during 2007-2020 were studied. Next, in two structural and content analysis sections, all articles were reviewed and a comprehensive table was prepared wherein the information of each research work was extracted and summarized. The results of the current research indicate the lack of strong theoretical foundations in many studies. Also, the significance and position of the cultural landscape in Iran's urban scale is unclear and despite having valuable features and criteria, it has not been put into practice in urban management and protection programs.