The author briefly highlights some of the central issues for those who work in the landscape field: the polysemy and complexity of the term, the 'cultural' declination of the landscape and its territorial dimension. At the same time, the author underlines the importance of some ecological indicators as transversal sensors with a potential social declination and, finally, he gives references to the socio-spatial research in the Serra Gaúcha. These issues, for different reasons, constitute the background, and introduce new research perspectives, within a twenty-year research study.
