Abstract
Within the framework of the project "Flood Prevention and Nature Conservation in the Weisseritz area" ("HochNatur"), a method including landscape metrics was developed and applied to assess and to compare different land use scenarios with regard to flood prevention and nature conservation. For the analysis, two sub-catchments strongly differing in land use within the Weisseritz catchment (Eastern Erzgebirge, Saxony, Germany) were selected. The first step of the evaluation procedure was a biotope assessment using three assessment criteria (naturalness, substitutability, rareness/endangerment). However, the biotope assessment did not yield any information about spatial distribution or the structural composition of the landscape. Therefore, landscape metrics were applied to analyse the structural and biotope type diversity at the landscape scale. Different landscape metrics (Shannon/Weaver diversity index, mean patch size index, Interdispersion/Juxtaposition index) and a weighting system were used to compare the different land use scenarios and the current state. The analysed catchment areas differ substantially in terms of their current state and potential measures regarding flood prevention and nature conservation depending on the location and distribution of biotope types. It was demonstrated that this method can be used for small catchment areas regardless of their land use for assessing, analysing and comparing different land use scenarios for a specific area.
Highlights
In response to the heavy floods in the Weisseritz catchment (Eastern Erzgebirge, Saxony, Germany) in August 2002, the German Environmental Foundation (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt, DBU) funded the project „Flood Prevention and Nature Conservation in the Weisseritz area“ („HochNatur“) which aimed to design measures integrating both flood prevention and nature conservation
For the Weissbach sub-catchment, the final number of points after weighting and standardising was highest for the scenarios WB nat and WB comb, which performed well in regard to the landscape metrics (SHDI, Mean Patch Size (MPS), Interdispersion- and Juxtaposition-index (IJI)) and the percentage of area of
Scenarios with minor land use changes, for example the establishment of hedges and trees along river banks, show only minor improvement compared with the present state
Summary
In response to the heavy floods in the Weisseritz catchment (Eastern Erzgebirge, Saxony, Germany) in August 2002, the German Environmental Foundation (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt, DBU) funded the project „Flood Prevention and Nature Conservation in the Weisseritz area“ („HochNatur“) which aimed to design measures integrating both flood prevention and nature conservation. (2007), land use exerts dramatic impacts on flooding especially at smaller catchment scales. Most studies on the influence of land use changes have focused on runoff processes only (Bronstert et al 2001, Auerswald 2002, Pöhler 2006) The aim of the HochNatur project was to incorporate nature conservation measures as well and to demonstrate that flood prevention and nature conservation interests can be compatible. The aim of the conservation assessment was to develop and to apply an evaluation method in order to compare various land use scenarios. Two sub-catchments (Weissbach and Hoeckenbach) with contrasting land use and biotope patterns were used as an example in order to assess the effect of various measures in view of differing starting conditions and landscape potentials. To test the conservation assessment on a different scale, the whole Weisseritz catchment was analysed to obtain information about the transferability of the developed method to larger catchments
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