Scales and spatio-temporal dimensions in landscape research

Abstract

The human factor ‘land use’ affects the interactions between water, soil, geomorphology, vegetation, etc. on several spatial and temporal scales in different manners and intensities. The implementation of strategies for sustainable land use assumes specific research concepts from the local to the global scale (micro-, meso- and macroscale). Therefore, landscape ecology science has to provide investigation methods for all these different scales. A number of papers from different scientific disciplines deal with the hierarchical organization of nature (Burns et al. 1991, O’Neill et al. 1986). The hierarchical concept was introduced into German landscape ecology by Neef (1963, 1967) and continued by several other landscape ecologists (Leser 1997). An overview of hierarchical concepts in landscape ecology is given by Klijn (1995). These concepts are mainly focused on the hypothesis, that each of the scale levels (micro-, meso- and macroscale) is characterized by specific temporal and spatial ranges. As a consequence, each scale level needs specific investigation methods as well as data layers with suitable spatio-temporal resolution on the one hand, and which provide specific knowledge on the other (Steinhardt & Volk 2000).