Abstract
Greenways are important landscape ecology strategies. Landscape ecology and greenway planning were central to Julius Fábos’s professional life and scholarship. This essay is a memorial to the late Julius Fábos (1932–2022), a Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. It traces Julius early upbringings in Hungary before and during World War II, his academic career in the United States, and his contributions to the Iberian Greenway Planning movement. Although Julius Fábos’s work was conducted primarily in Northeastern United States, it spread worldwide due to his unparalleled vision, leadership, and joie de vivre. Iberian landscape planning benefited greatly from Julius Fábos recurrent visits to Southern Europe, and indirectly from having students study with him at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. After a thirty-five year teaching career, he launched a series of conferences aimed at disseminating knowledge on ecological thinking. The 7th Fábos Conference on Landscape and Greenway Planning took place 30 June–3 July 2022 in Budapest, Hungary. Julius Fábos’s successful academic career offers many opportunities for inspiration and self-reflection, especially in the post-pandemic uncertain times of today.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
This paper has no data to be made available.
References
Andresen T (1992) Para a crítica da paisagem [For a Critique of the Landscape]. PhD dissertation, University of Aveiro
Andersen T (2001) Francisco Caldeira Cabral. Landscape Design Trust, Reigate
Andresen T (2010) Ecological networks: from regional to metropolitan strategies. The Northern Region of Portugal and Oporto Metropolitan Area. Proc Fábos Conf Landsc Greenway Plan 3(1):77
Andresen T, de Aguiar FB, Curado MJ (2004) The Alto Douro wine region greenway. Landsc Urban Plan 68(2–3):289–303
Antunes AC, Marques TP, Andresen T (2022) The genesis of training in landscape architecture in Portugal. Projets Paysage 26:27624
Balsas C (2020) Urbanismo Sustentável: História, Conhecimento Económico-Ambiental e Prática Profissional [Urbanismo Sustentável: History, Economic-Environmental Knowledge, and Professional Practice]. Editora CRV, Curitiba
Balsas C (2020a) Urbanismo Sustentável: Medidas para uma ‘política de ciclismo urbano’ [Sustainable Urbanism: Measures for an ‘urban cycling policy’]. Editora CRV, Curitiba
Balsas CJL (2021) Sustainable urbanism: riverfront greenway planning from tradition to innovation. Innov Eur J Soc Sci Res. https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610.2021.1920001
Biggs R, de Vos A, Preiser R, Clements H, Maciejewski K, Schlüter M (2021) The Routledge handbook of research methods for social-ecological systems. Routledge, New York
Cordeiro A (2004) Uma nova perspectiva de ordenamento do território para o Concelho de Coimbra [A new territorial planning perspective for the municipality of Coimbra]. Cad Geogr 21(23):67–78
Correia TP, Abreu AC, Oliveira R (2001) Identificação de unidades de paisagem: Metodologia aplicada a Portugal Continental [Identification of landscape units: methodology applied to mainland Portugal]. Finisterra 72:195–206
Cunha NS, Magalhães MR (2019) Methodology for map** the national ecological network to mainland Portugal: a planning tool towards a green infrastructure. Ecol Indic 104:802–818
Fábos JG (1979) Planning the total landscape: a guide to intelligent land use. Westview Press, Boulder
Fábos JG (1995) Introduction and overview: the greenway movement, uses and potentials of greenways. Landsc Urban Plan 33(1–3):1–13
Fábos J (2010) Son of a Kulák: How a Hungarian farm boy survived World War II and escaped Stalinist oppression for a new life in America. iUniverse, Bloomington
Fábos J, Ahern J (1995) Greenways: the beginning of an international movement. Elsevier Press, New York
Fábos J, Milde G, Weinmayr V (1968) Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr.: founder of landscape architecture in America. University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst
Fadigas L (2020) Urbanização, Espaços Verdes e Sustentabilidade [Urbanization, Green Spaces and Sustainability]. Silabo, Lisbon
Ferreira JC, Monteiro R, Silva VR (2021) Planning a green infrastructure network from theory to practice: the case study of Setúbal, Portugal. Sustainability 13:8432
García-Mayor C, Martí P, Castaño M, Bernabeu-Bautista A (2020) The unexploited potential of converting rail tracks to greenways: the Spanish Vías Verdes. Sustainability 12(3):881
Gomes GD, Batista DL, Silva PG (2022) Changing scales: greenways from region to place—the case of the Algarve, Portugal. Proc Fábos Conf Landsc Greenway Plan 7(1):65
Horte OS, Eisenman TS (2020) Urban greenways: a systematic review and typology. Land 9(2):40
Leitão AB, Ahern J (2002) Applying landscape ecological concepts and metrics in sustainable landscape planning. Landsc Urban Plan 59(2):65–93
Machado JR, Ahern J (eds) (1997) Challenges in an expanding urban world and the role of emerging information technologies. CNIG, Lisbon
Mullin JR (1992) The reconstruction of Lisbon following the earthquake of 1755: a study in despotic planning. Plan Perspect 7(2):157–179
Ndubisi F (2002) Ecological planning: a historical and comparative synthesis. JHU Press, Baltimore
Pena SB, Franco ML, Magalhães MR (2022) Contributing to healthy landscapes by sustainable land use planning: a vision for restoring the degraded landscape of the Centre Region of Portugal. In: Ergen E, Ergen YB (eds) Landscape architecture framed from an environmental and ecological perspective. IntechOpen, London, pp 65–83
Pinho P, Santos S, Dias R, Ferreira M, Silva C, Torres M, Moura F, Fernandes R (2009) Atlas da Grande Área Metropolitana do Porto [Atlas of the Greater Porto Metropolitan Area]. Laboratório de Planeamento FEUP and Junta Metropolitana do Porto, Porto
Portugal S (2009) What makes social networks move? An analysis of norms and ties. RCCS Annu Rev. https://doi.org/10.4000/rccsar.150
Rego FC, Bunting SC, Strand EK, Godinho-Ferreira P (2019) Applied landscape ecology. Wiley, Hoboken
Ribeiro LF (1998) The cultural landscape and the uniqueness of place: a greenway heritage network for landscape conservation of Lisbon metropolitan area. PhD dissertation, University of Massachusetts
Ribeiro L, Barão T (2006) Greenways for recreation and maintenance of landscape quality: five case studies in Portugal. Landsc Urban Plan 76(1–4):79–97
Ribeiro L, Teresa D, Viana C (2013) Exploring the significance of greenway concept, to assist landscape planning and design: contributions to theory from African, Asian and European Case Studies. Proc Fábos Conf Landsc Greenway Plan 4(1):16
Rua J, Albuquerque H (2009) Ciclovias e turismo: Uma forma de integração na Europa? De Aveiro… ao Baixo Vouga… e à Região Centro. [Cycle-tracks and tourism: a form of integration in Europe? From Aveiro… to Baixo Vouga… and to the Center Region]. RT&D 12:65–79
Ryan RL, Fabos JG, Lindhult MS (2002) Continuing a planning tradition: the New England greenway vision plan. Landsc J 21(1):164–172
Sarmento J (2002) The geography of “disused” railways: what is happening in Portugal? Finisterra 74:55–71
Smardon RC (ed) (2021) Selected Papers from the 6th Fábos Conference on Landscape and Greenway Planning: Adapting to Expanding and Contracting Cities. MDPI, Basel
Soromenho-Marques V (2019) A Portuguese approach to the environmental crisis. In: Mendes VK, Vieira P (eds) Portuguese literature and the environment. Lexington Books, New York, pp 13–30
Tenedório JA (2003) Atlas da Área metropolitana de Lisboa [Atlas of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area]. AML, Lisbon
Tenedório JA, Estanqueiro R, Henriques CD (eds) (2021) Methods and applications of geospatial technology in sustainable urbanism. IGI Global, Hershey
Vergílio MHDS, Calado HMGP (2015) The concept of the Portuguese National Ecological Reserve: constraints and impossibilities in the Azores Archipelago. J Environ Plan Manag 58(6):1015–1033
**ang WN (2022) What can we learn from Julius Gyula Fábos, an admirable socio-ecological scholar-practitioner? Socio Ecol Pract Res. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42532-022-00125-7
Acknowledgement
Two anonymous reviewers and Jay Vinskey, AICP, RLA provided attentive and valuable comments.
Funding
The author declares that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this essay.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
This is a single-author essay. This author contributed 100% to all aspects of the work.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing Interests
The author has no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Special Issue: Landscape Ecology and Landscape Approaches in the Iberian context: challenges, opportunities and future prospects.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Balsas, C.J.L. The greenway planning movement in the Iberian Peninsula: A tribute. Landsc Ecol 38, 3329–3334 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-022-01579-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-022-01579-6