Control over the Nature manifested itself in the concept of landscape preservation. Curonian Spit - a 100 km length strip of sands, known as Northern Sahara, is today under strict UNESCO protection, which actually means the disappearing of territory. The great dune forestation project of 19th century, made out in order to protect settlements from active sands, has left only 20 percent of spit with active dunes. While the authorities try to take any decision on the current management approach, dunes just disappear getting flatter with advancing vegetation. At the same time social and economical activities on land are in decay. Is there a degree of control that allows both territorial forces – landform dynamism and human activity to coexist? Today a line of country border between Russia and Lithuania goes in the middle of active dunes, which break the laws and move sediments from one state to the other. Can then approaches to territory which nature is to drift be based on conventional rules of borders and delineations?
In our project the border from line on the plan becomes an area of negotiation of interests of counteracting forces. We propose to open active sand areas -corridors of dunes, which shift from one area to another by the time cycle of dunes and forest formations and extend the social and economical potential of land. Spatio-temporal coordination of existing and projective actors becomes an Odyssey of Aeolian movement, where parts become obstacles and traps to one another. Transforming physical obstructions into advantages of spatial and rhythmic qualities of landscape we propose dynamic choreography, in which control comes through the balance of one force working against the other. This approach may be further applied to broader scales of European shifting sands.
European Atlas represents the possibility of sand movement across Europe. Driven by the wind velocity and direction it shows how the landform could make a path, being forced by landscape geometry either stopped by current land uses.
In all European countries, attention is given to landscape preservation; however, policies and practices in the past have mainly been based on specific ecological and visual landscape qualities but not spatial and political elements of the territory. Although all countries are under an umbrella of the Pan-European policy, each region pursues its own agreements according to the diverse actors of the territory. In the end the decision is always made by a group of people who are brought together to work out the reorganization of the territorial forces and provoke not only the movement of the sand but also the territorial shifts, establishing in this way different degrees of control.
Valdevaqueros dunes in Spain is a good example of the international trade of sand. The artificial sand movement becomes the negotiation between the two governments of Spain and England because of the sand exchange. A completely opposite example is the inland sand dunes in Denmark where the migrating coastal dune is increasing the territory of the National Park and the government buys land from people for dunes.
Russian side of Curonian Spit is comprised of higher and more active dunes than the Lithuanian side. Highest dune ridges lay around Morskoe village, with the highest dune of spit. Today's dune activity is completely controlled and all dynamic changes happen only in zones of open sands, which are closed for any local or tourist.
Lithuanian part of the spit has less diversity in terms of landscape levels and conditions. Dune ridges there are mostly inactive 'grey' dunes in variable levels of erosion and equilibrium. There are very small paths opened to tourists, all the other parts are strictly closed for any visit, as most of the area is in danger erosion condition.
Multiple Industries and developments still hasn't been stopped on both sides, even they go in deep contradiction with Unesco claims. From Soviet times they started to put the excavated sand on shore, by this including the artificial movement into natural processes of sediments flow. Main winds and currents are bringing this sands to the spit, the direction is south-north.
The dynamics of spit development were interviened in 19th century by planting it, and like this constructing the foredune, to protect the land from strong storms and winds. This protected the spit inhabitants from constant Odyssey. But today's there is an evidence , that the spit profile is being flatterned by this intervention, and is lowering the spit ground back to sea level.
The Crand Curonian Dune Ridge - the part of the Curonian Spit that comprises the shifting barchans, is the third highest and the second longest shifting coastal dune ridge in Europe. It is protected as a strict nature reserve within the Kurshkaya kosa national park on the Russian part, and the Kursiu nerija national park on the Lithuanian part of the spit. The shifting dune landscape forms the most distinctive natural heritage value of the spit, with the highest shifting dunes exceeding 50 meters in height.
Studies of sand dune formations departing from Cellular Automata simulations. We identified rules of morphodynamics and parameters of dune behavior using different topographies and dune shapes and heights as starting points of simulation process.
Studies of sand dune formations departing from Cellular Automata simulations.
Introduction of various obstacles on the dune's movement direction and development of paths for dune to move in.
Behavior Rules of sand dunes
Choreography Rules
Sand Formation Guidelines
Applying the spatio-temporal conditions of existing and projective actors, we propose a new choreographyfor landscapes of the Spit. Things being driven by natural dynamics create a new pattern of landuse, which becomes a journey of matter-sand, and human activities in there. A choreography uses piculiar landforms being shaped by dunes' environment, creating hidden in vegetation and opened to winds and movement stops on the path.
Further specification of techniques applied for creation sand dune corridors requires closer work on scale of each particular small intervention, in order to achieve certain landscape qualities connected to infrastructure and social activities surrounding the open sands.
