21 Architecture and Urban Planning 2014 / 9 Abstract – The focus of the present research is rapidly emerging rurban landscapes. In this research we apply the concepts of resilience of socio-ecosystems, landscape sustainability, alternative landscapes etc. in order to formulate general guidelines for rurban landscape management. The formulated guidelines for rurban landscape management consist of the basis for management providing guiding and integrating aspects and the management goals in six interconnected areas – environment, economics, equity, aesthetics, experience, and ethics. Keywords – Rural-urban interface, rurban landscape, landscape management, sustainability, resilience, socio-ecosystem. The European Landscape Convention encouraged landscape researchers and practitioners to look more carefully at very different types of landscapes; according to L. Musacchio [1], the attention is increasingly directed towards human-dominated environments and their complex problems including the effects and impacts of urbanization such as rapidly emerging and changing landscapes in the areas of rural-urban interface. D. Low Choy and M. Buxton [2] underline that these rurban landscapes and the related complex social and environmental issues call for rethinking of traditional landscape planning and management approaches. Considering this, our research was aimed at formulating general guidelines for landscape management in the areas of rural-urban interface. i. methods In this research, using the experience of the Resilience Alliance (an interdisciplinary network of scientists and practitioners) [3], D. Low Choy and M. Buxton [2] and L. Musacchio [1], we view rurban landscapes as systems, where the environment (natural, cultivated) and society interact closely – as socio-ecological systems [2-3] or coupled human and natural systems [1]. Based on this view, we employ general landscape sustainability model by L. Musacchio [1] “six Es of landscape sustainability” and in its framework provide the guidelines for rurban landscape management. ii. results The general guidelines for rurban landscape management consist of two parts: the basis for management providing guiding and integrating aspects and the management goals in six interconnected areas distinguished by L. Musacchio [1] – environment, economics, equity, aesthetics, experience, and ethics. A. The Basis for Management of Rurban Landscapes Understanding of rurban landscapes is one of the basic premises for their appropriate management. We see rurban landscapes as having particular features as a landscape type Guidelines for Landscape Management in the Areas of Rural-Urban Interface : Continuity and Innovation Erika Zaleskienė, Indrė Gražulevičiūtė-Vileniškė, Kaunas University of Technology infuenced or determined both by global and local aspects. The rurban landscapes can be characterized as remnant (presence of rural dimension), transient (rapid changes, transition from rural to urban), contested (conficts between urban and rural uses, lifestyles, aesthetics etc.), complex (have both urban and rural features and new qualities, characteristic solely to these landscapes), interdependent (links to and dependence on the urban area) [4]. We also argue that rurban landscapes can be analyzed from three points of view: global (what these landscapes have in common around the world), local peculiarities (peculiar aspects of specifc rurban areas determined by local history, social, economic, cultural, and other factors), and identity (unique and valuable features of the rurban space of the country that should be maintained). Consequently, the management solutions for rurban landscapes must be based on their particular features and global (international, supra-national regional), local (national, urban settlement level), and identity (national, urban settlement level) aspects of these landscapes (Fig. 1). Holistic approach. The understanding of the features and dimensions of rurban landscape implies the holistic approach; one of the ways to address landscape as a whole is contemporary notion of landscape sustainability. According to L. Musacchio [1], in landscape research and practice, scientists have reinterpreted the defnition of sustainable development to include the holistic basis of landscapes; in this context she presents landscape sustainability model “six Es of landscape sustainability” integrating environment, economics, equity, aesthetics, experience, and ethics and argues that one of the great challenges will be how to operationalize the environmental, economic, equity, aesthetic, experiential, and ethical performance of designed landscapes as sustainable landscapes in an urbanizing world. Fig. 2 shows six dimensions of rurban landscape [1], in which sustainability should be achieved, and corresponding contemporary features of these landscapes, which should be mitigated, transformed or creatively employed developing sustainable rurban landscapes as a new Fig. 1. Features of rurban landscapes (case of Lithuania). doi: 10.7250/aup.2014.003