Medium scale landscape classification in the German Democratic Republic

The demands on an intensely-managed landscape require a regional landscape planning system, which balances the social-economic needs with geo-biological conditions. Planning needs a system of classification of the landscape, which is consistent and reflects the natural patterns, the potential capacity and the limits of natural units, and the history of human use. In the GDR we have created a classification scheme which identifies a variety of objects on the landscape, which can be mapped, and which represent the patterns of potential use and the limits on usages. A set of terms and definitions is presented, which represent hierarchical levels of this classification.