Ernst Neef (16 April 1908, in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

– 7 July 1984, in Dresden) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...

. Together with

Carl Troll Carl Troll (24 December 1899 in Gabersee – 21 July 1975 in Bonn), was a German geographer, brother of botanist Wilhelm Troll. From 1919 until 1922 Troll studied biology, chemistry, geology, geography and physics at the Universität in München. ...

(1899–1975) and Josef Schmithüsen (1909–1984), he is considered one of the founders of

landscape ecology Landscape ecology is the science of studying and improving relationships between ecological processes in the environment and particular ecosystems. This is done within a variety of landscape scales, development spatial patterns, and organizatio ...

. Neef's concept of landscape and

can be summarized as follows: "Neef (1956, 1967) holds the classical geographical view that all components of the

geosphere There are several conflicting usages of geosphere, variously defined. It may be taken as the collective name for the lithosphere, the hydrosphere, the cryosphere, and the atmosphere. The different collectives of the geosphere are able to exchange ...

exist interdependently at every point on the earth’s surface by virtue of lawful relations (the ‘vertical’ dimension). However, he rejects the classical assumption of natural landscape units, contending instead that landscapes are not objectively given entities. Instead, they are sections within the uninterrupted earth-wide interconnection of geofactors (the ‘horizontal’ dimension) which are defined as such on the basis of their uniformity in terms of a specific land use, and are thus defined in an anthropocentric and relativistic way. Landscape ecology according to the Neef school explores the landscape’s natural potential in terms of functional utility for human societies."Kirchhoff, T., Trepl, L. & Vicenzotti, V. 2012: ''What is landscape ecology? An analysis and evaluation of six different conceptions''. Landscape Research 38 (1): 33–51.

English Publications of Neef

*Neef, E. 1967/2007: ''The theoretical foundations of landscape study''. In: Wiens, J.A., Moss, M.R., Turner, M.G. & Mladenoff, D.J. 2007 (Eds): ''Foundation papers in landscape ecology''. New York, Columbia University Press: 225–245. First published in German 1967: ''Die theoretischen Grundlagen der Landschaftslehre''. Gotha, Haack. * Neef, E. 1982: ''Stages in the development of landscape ecology''. In: Sybrand P. Tjallingii/A. A. de Veer (Eds): Perspectives in landscape ecology. Contributions to research, planning and management of our environment. Proceedings of the International Congress organized by the Netherlands Society for Landscape Ecology, Veldhoven, the Netherlands, April 6–11, 1981, Wageningen: 19-27. *Neef, E. 1983: Landscapes as the integration field of human regional work. Geol. Mijnbouw 62: 531–534. *Neef, E. 1984: Applied landscape research. Appl. Geogr. Develop. 24: 38–58.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neef, Ernst 1908 births 1984 deaths German geographers Academic staff of Leipzig University 20th-century geographers