Effects of past landscape changes on aesthetic landscape values in the European Alps

Abstract

Understanding the consequences of land-use changes on aesthetic values associated with mountain landscapes is important for decision-making and landscape planning. While most research on aesthetic landscape values has been carried out at small scales and disregarding landscape changes, this study aims at analysing changes in aesthetic landscape values for three time steps between 1950 and 2010 across the European Alps. We first map aesthetic values at the landscape scale for selected municipalities using a spatially explicit modelling approach that relates people’s landscape preferences with visual landscape characteristics. We then transfer mean values at the municipality level to compare aesthetic values across space and over time. Our results indicate heterogeneous spatial patterns of aesthetic values: Highest aesthetic values were located mainly in the central high-elevated Alps, while lowest aesthetic values occurred at lower elevations with intensive agriculture or dense settlement areas. Between 1950 and 2010, aesthetic values generally decreased due to changes in agricultural activities, with lower elevated areas being more affected than those at higher elevations. While the abandonment of summer pastures led to more homogeneous landscape patterns and hence to reduced aesthetic values due to an increase in forest areas and the closing of open patches, the change from arable land to other land-use/cover types had positive effects in some low-elevated areas. Such knowledge on the relationships between landscape changes and aesthetic values may provide an important basis for developing management strategies of mountain landscapes.