Can place branding support landscape conservation in city-regions? A case study from Switzerland

We investigated the prerequisites of a municipality or region to integrate landscape as a location specific feature in their place branding and whether landscape conservation measures are applied to promote landscape. For this purpose we analysed different landscape conservation measures and accomplished a survey among the municipal councils in the city-region of Zurich. Our results show that landscape can only become a brand of a place, if it is abundant, unique and the only real strength of the place. Hence, only rural regions can promote their landscape as a brand and, therefore, do connect their landscape conservation measures to place branding. Conversely, urban regions generally cannot meet these conditions because, there, landscape is a scarce resource and, compared to other urban qualities (e.g. transport connections), rather a weakness. Nevertheless, the municipal councils around Zurich appreciate their landscape as an important factor of quality of life, whereas they point out rather common landscape qualities, like public access and proximity to residential quarters. The results give evidence that a lack of these landscape qualities is perceived stronger in the negative way than their presence can contribute to a positive image of the place. Consequently, in city-regions, landscape conservation measures are usually applied in a strictly protection-oriented way without any link to place branding.

► We analysed the prerequisites of a location to integrate landscape in place branding.
► Landscape can become a brand only, if it is unique and the only strength of a place.
► In urban regions landscape usually is a weakness compared to other urban qualities.
► Landscape conservation is justified in city-regions to preserve quality of life.
► In city-regions landscape upgrading projects are not connected to place branding.