Traditional Agrarian Landscape in the Mediterranean Mountains. A Regional and Local Factor Analysis in the Central Spanish Pyrenees

Abstract

AbstractDevelopment of rural areas needs information about sustainable use of the land. The main objective of this research is to study the spatial distribution pattern of different field types in the traditional agricultural landscape in the Central Spanish Pyrenees (flat fields, four different terrace fields, sloping field and shifting agriculture) related to different geoecological variables: slope, exposition, altitude, distance to the villages, rainfall (intensity and volume), lithology and demographic pressure. Agricultural land patterns were mapped in five valleys in the Central Pyrenees from aerial photographs (1957). These maps were digitised and implemented in a Geographic Information System on a scale 1:50,000. We determined the influence of different geoecological variables in the spatial distribution of land agricultural patterns at local and regional valley using statistical analysis. The results showed that the agricultural area occupied a large extension, despite physical environment limitations, extending even in marginal slopes, with little agricultural skills, creating a complex landscape with different field patterns. At the local scale (valley), slope and distance are the more influence variables to explain the spatial distribution of the different field types. At the regional scale, in the Western valleys, sloping fields and shifting agriculture predominate, while terraces dominate in the Eastern valleys. Distance to the village and rainfall intensity is the more determinant factors in the spatial distribution. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.