The transformation of the agroforestry landscape in the nineteenth century: a case study in southern Quebec (Canada)

Abstract

Although recent landscape changes have been extensively studied, we possess very little information about the nature and extent of changes before aerial photographs were available. To contribute to this knowledge, we propose to explore the information within the Canadian censuses of the nineteenth century, documentary sources still very underused in landscape dynamics studies. The importance of these data lies in the fact that information is provided at the scale of each lot between 1842 and 1871, and at the township scale for subsequent years (1881–1951). In this study, nominative data provided for a rural township (139 km 2) located in southern Quebec were coupled with detailed information about geomorphologic features using GIS. The analyses indicated two main phenomena. First, characterization of global landscape dynamics revealed the extent and rapidity of change. The evolution of land-use shows an increase of about 40% in improved areas between 1842 and 1871. while cumulative data show improved areas occupying nearly 83% of the total areas in 1891. These results contrast with recent landscape dynamics (1958–1993) which display relatively minor changes. Second, at the landscape type scale as well as at the surface deposit scale, analysis of nominative data failed to show any clear relationship between landscape dynamics and the spatial entities considered, whereas recent land-use patterns are closely linked to surface deposits. Thus, constant fluctuation in the agroforestry landscape and the lack of influence of abiotic characteristics on land-use dynamics represent two specific characteristics of this nineteenth century landscape.