A conflict of one hundred years ago as a challenge for spatial development today: The conservation of WWI-heritage

During the period 2014-2018, the commemoration of the First World War is taking place. This conflict destroyed besides the societies and their mode of life, also directly landscapes. This paper studies the conflict landscape in Flanders, an area located on the former Western Front in Belgium, which was the theatre of warfare for four long years. The area was intensively disturbed and reshaped into a lunar like landscape full of shell holes, mud and military features. The reconstruction after the war took a lot of effort. Nevertheless, the war left visible footprints in the landscape as the last remains of this conflict (e.g. bunkers, cemeteries). Additionally, also invisible remains are still abundantly present, making it increasingly clear that the landscape is connected with this war. Within an interdisciplinary research context, the study of the micro-topography characterized many shell holes in the landscape. The reasons for the conservation were studied by analysing the historical land use on aerial photos and by analysing policy discourses towards heritage and land use. The results, indicate that remains of the First World War are more abundantly present than thought. This encourages the discussion in Flanders between modern developments and the conservation of WWI-heritage.