This study combined landscape character assessment (LCA) and cultural ecosystem services (CES) frameworks to evaluate human well-being in the peri-urban area of Harku Municipality, Estonia. Using geospatial data combined with expert opinions, the study investigated the interplay between landscape character types and environmental/contact types through the LCA method. In total, 21 distinct landscape types comprising 47 separate areas were identified, with CES values determined for each. Restorative, social, and cognitive values were associated with each landscape character type. The findings demonstrated the higher restorative potential of blue and green elements (water bodies, forests) with low settlement density and minimal agriculture. High-density settlements with good road access demonstrated significant social values, while mixed forests and wetlands tended to be associated with higher cognitive values. Coastal zones with semi-dense settlements and mixed forests earned favourable ratings, whereas industrial/agricultural landscapes were rated lowest for all values. These findings offer valuable insights into the complex dynamics of urban–rural interactions, resilience, and the impact of urbanisation on CES. They may inform future landscape management strategies, urban planning decisions, and policy considerations. Additionally, this study highlights the need for further research to explore the long-term trends and potential changes in CES in evolving peri-urban environments.

Within peri-urban landscapes, this research investigated the complexity of the balance between urban development and green infrastructure preservation, with a specific focus on Harku municipality, Estonia. This study aimed to understand the interplay between cultural ecosystem services (CESs) and residents’ well-being. Aligned with the EU Nature Restoration Law, this research explored long-term dynamics in peri-urban areas’ CES conservation. The methodology included creating scenarios by combining new secondary data with the author’s prior studies, which covered landscape belts, CES values, and residents’ perceptions of satisfaction with the environment and recreation opportunities collected through a municipal survey. While residents expressed satisfaction in coastal and green spaces, a distinct decline was evident near villages with industrial and agricultural features, highlighting the landscape’s impact on well-being. This study identified case-study-specific threats related to rapid urbanisation and put forward constructive policy recommendations. The goal was to develop effective and sustainable strategies for preserving nature through ecosystem service-based frameworks, enhance community well-being, and account for landscape dynamics through scenario planning.

In the MODSCAPES project the concept of historical GIS is one of the practical research tools to detect, map, and analyse large-scale landscape changes caused by modernist rural development schemes. Historical GIS enables us to synthesise human interactions with their surrounding landscape on temporal and spatial axes. In this paper, historical GIS is applied to create a map-based biography of one of the case study examples, Laeva, which was a collective state farm orsovkhoz in South Estonia between 1975 and 1993. Through combining historical maps and archival data we followed the process of collectivisation in Laeva. The Laeva sovkoz was a result of nearly 30 years of trial and error in collective farming, which in the area started with the establishment of seven small kolkhozes in 1948 and 1949. In the 1950s the small kolkhozes were amalgamated into larger and more effective agricultural units. After several mergers and reorganisation of production, in 1975 the sovkhoz of Laeva was established. In the second half of the 1970s the sovkhoz became an experimental cattle and pig breeding research institute of the Estonian Agricultural Academy. We also compared the land use dynamics of the area before, during, and after the collectivisation. The results showed that during the collectivisation the pressure to cultivate land was intensified, and through extensive melioration wetlands were drained, and forested.

Landscape Character Assessments (LCAs) support planning decisions by offering structured descriptions of landscape character. However, producing these texts is often resource-intensive and shaped by subjective judgement. This study explores whether Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), specifically ChatGPT, can support the drafting of LCA descriptions using a structured, prompt-based framework. Applied to Harku Municipality in Estonia, the method integrates spatial input, reference material, and standardised prompts to generate consistent descriptions of landscape character areas (LCAs) and facilitate scenario building. The results show that ChatGPT outputs align with core LCA components and maintain internal coherence, although variations in terminology and ecological specificity require expert review. A stakeholder role play using ChatGPT highlighted its potential for enhancing early-stage planning, education, and participatory dialogue. The limitations include the reliance on prompt quality, static inputs, and the absence of real-time community validation. Recommendations include piloting AI-assisted workflows in education and practice, adopting prompt protocols, and prioritising human oversight, both experts and stakeholders, to ensure contextual relevance and build trust. This research proposes a practical framework for embedding GenAI into planning processes while preserving the social and interpretive dimensions central to landscape governance.

In 1951 the first colour film in was produced Soviet Estonia–Valgus Koordis (“Light in Koordi village”). This never-before-seen medium applied effective ideological symbols to visualise the power of collective effort with the scope of difficulties building up the new life in a freshly established collective farm (kolkhoz). It was straightforward propaganda to demonstrate that in spite of difficulties, collective farming was the only correct way to achieve prosperity in the countryside. The theme of the film was to show the goodness of Stalinist improvements in a poor post-war rural community at the end of the 1940s. In a very simple manner, topics such as nationalism, the class struggle, socialist ideology, kulaks, collective ownership, mechanisation of agriculture and large-scale land improvements were presented. To capture the wider audience and to increase social impact, the film also starred the rising opera star Georg Ots, still considered as one of the greatest Estonian opera singers ever. In addition to ideologically charged films, a type of propagandist short documentary, the ringvaade (newsreel) was produced in Soviet Estonia. These concentrated on various aspects ofSoviet lifestyle, aiming to demonstrate the achievements of collectiveideology, and the high morale of the Soviet working class. We studied these and other examples in order to examine the range of themes andmotifs presented in them, focusing on the ideological impact on the rural landscape caused by mechanisation, forest management and land melioration. What is revealed is an attempt to persuade the new kolkhozniki (collective farmers) of the benefits of the new system – which, ironically, had dispossessed many of them of their own farms which they had built up in the inter-war years (and which were restored to them after the collapse of the Soviet system in the 1990s).

Maps have long been used as ways of understanding the land as a means of defining borders, land ownership, resources, estimating tax-gathering potential and for defensive purposes. Many of the national mapping agencies originated as arms of the military. When a new regime takes over a country it may decide to prepare its own set of maps – not least for defensive purposes – and to restrict who has access to these maps. When the Soviet Union occupied the Baltic States in 1945 – and these became front-line areas during the Cold War, with large areas devoted to military installations and border zones – a whole new set of maps were created. We took a sample of maps of Estonia from the inter-war years and from the period of political and military occupation from 1945-1991. The Soviet army maps became freely available in the post-Soviet period and studying them and comparing them with the older maps reveals the way the land was perceived. Military maps were produced using different projections and scales, especially regarding the topography and other features relevant for military operations. The maps included deliberate mistakes and if publicly available they contained many blank spaces to hide sensitive areas and to pretend they did not exist. We also found that maps played a key role in planning future landscapes –kolkhozmaps showed how Estonia was foreseen as a complete planned system covering the whole country outside urban areas.