Post-Conflict Urban Landscape Storytelling: Two Approaches to Contemporary Virtual Visualisation of Oral Narratives

Ghieth Alkhateeb, Joanna Storie and Mart Külvik ()
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Ghieth Alkhateeb: Department of Landscape Architecture, Estonian University of Life Sciences, F. R. Kreutzwaldi 1, 51006 Tartu, Estonia
Joanna Storie: Department of Landscape Architecture, Estonian University of Life Sciences, F. R. Kreutzwaldi 1, 51006 Tartu, Estonia
Mart Külvik: Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, F. R. Kreutzwaldi 1, 51006 Tartu, Estonia

Land, 2024, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-31

Abstract: Armed conflicts and resulting displacement disrupt people’s sense of place, leading to an imbalance in the people–place relationship, exaggerated by rehabilitation efforts that overlook the sense of place among conflict- and displacement-impacted communities. A continuous landscape narrative that extends from pre- to post-conflict times contributes to recreating the essence of lost landscapes and therefore reconnecting their sense of place. Focusing on a Syrian city that hosted internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the aftermath of the Syrian conflict, this study aims to structure a virtual landscape and narrative depiction of conflict-impacted landscapes. This study proposes a storytelling approach for narrative construction and an AI-powered visualisation approach to revive the image of the elusive landscapes. This study utilised qualitative research methods through in-depth, semi-structured interviews for data collection and an online survey for exploring the perception of virtual landscape images generated with AI text-to-image models (DALL.E 2 and Bing Image Creator). This study indicates that narratives, supported by AI visualisation, are reliable for comprehending landscape transformation and changes in the sense of place. The two approaches can serve as rehabilitation initiatives in post-crisis settings to recall images of elusive landscapes to save them from being lost forever.

Keywords: virtual landscapes; post-conflict landscapes; artificial intelligence; crisis; displacement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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