Landscape Change Analysis Research Articles

Landscape analysis in areas affected by land consolidation

Over the past few decades, technological progress has greatly increased the “human landscape” at the expense of the natural environment. The result is that the landscape is losing its biological and cultural richness. The area where it is possible to reduce the consequences of human activity on natural ecosystems is the rural landscape. This study was carried out on the northern Italian plain, where the landscape structure has been influenced in some parts by land consolidation works over the years. The purpose was to determine which variables can describe changes in landscape structure and the way these can be handled, by the calculation of several indices and the use of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) technology. The analysis of landscape change on different spatial and temporal scales and the comparison of trends in landscape change allowed the effect of land consolidation to be studied. Variation in landscape diversity was strongly related to the development of man-made patches, and it increased in areas uninfluenced by land consolidation. Therefore, the other landscape units have lost diversity as a consequence of their change to agricultural production. A combination of indices showed a trend towards impoverishment, and this was surveyed both in areas affected by landscape consolidation and in areas unaffected by it. Different trends in landscape structure were surveyed in the areas under investigation, and this meant that landscape development was not exclusively connected to works associated with land improvement, but was the result of rural landscape management. It was also found that the greatest change occurred as a consequence of increasing human activity in semi-natural patches which are ecological stabilisers. The increasing separation of semi-natural and human landscapes is therefore inevitable.

Fragmentation of a forested Rocky Mountain landscape, 1950–1993

Patterns of change in landscape structure in a portion of the Hayden District of the Medicine Bow National Forest in southeastern Wyoming have been driven primarily by clearcut logging from 1950 to 1993; no major fires or wind storms have occurred in the study area during this time. Two distinct data sets, created from information in the Resource Information System database of the USDA Forest Service, were used as the basis for a quantitative analysis of landscape change. Forest fragmentation was quantified using a geographical information system (GRASS 4·1) to calculate indices of landscape structure. Increases in number of patches (1012 to 1331), total perimeter (3980 to 4400 km), Shannon diversity (2·36 to 2·63), contrast (2·49 to 2·68), and sum of edges (119·1 to 121·2 km) were accompanied by decreases in mean patch size (29·5 to 22·5 ha), mean patch shape (2·16 to 2·05), mean patch perimeter (3·91 to 3·3 km), dominance (1·04 to 0·81), contagion (4·30 to 4·07), and angular second moment (0·14 to 0·10). The observed trends in landscape pattern indicate increasing forest fragmentation since 1950. The study area landscape in 1993 is more fragmented than the landscape of the Oregon Cascades, now the subject of national attention and restoration action. As in other fragmented landscapes, the results suggest that previous management practices have lacked monitoring and analysis of landscape-scale impacts, indicating that increased attention to the landscape-scale is needed in future management actions.

Crisis and permanence of the traditional Mediterranean landscape in the central region of Spain

The rural landscape of the Mediterranean regions has undergone very important transformations during the past 30 years. The traditional agricultural system, which dominated land use for centuries, underwent a crisis at the same time that modern technology was introduced to agriculture. The landscape recorded the impacts of that crisis and now shows the impacts of modern technological application. The Alcarria of Guadalajara (central Spanish region) is a sparsely populated eminently agricultural area, which is characterized by a series of vast and high platforms on which exists a hydrologic network that has formed valleys of various lengths. Cereals, olive groves, and vineyards occupy the agricultural soil; pastures cover most of the forested areas in which small ‘quercinea’ forest persist. Within the Alcarria, a pilot area (Trijueque) has been chosen to test cartographic analysis of landscape change. First, attention is focused on land use on two dates (1957 and 1983), land use being the most ostensible manifestation of landscape morphology. Stable and dynamic areas are differentiated; structural transformation (technological application) environmental impact, and landscape appraisal are addressed. Each of these landscape elements can be judged to have experienced progressive, regressive, or precariously balanced dynamics. This diagnosis, expressed on a summary map, will enable decision making in the domain of territorial politics to be properly grounded.

Resource use, conflicts and cultural landscape development in the coastal zone

An interactional view of cultural landscape development forms the basis for this analysis of resource use and landscape change in a typical coastal community of West Norway. The article describes the transition from a traditional landscape of fishing-farming to new landscapes of leisure and aquaculture in terms of structural change. It examines conflicts and environmental impacts arising from interaction between functional systems operating at different geographical levels. Current problems in the coastal zone are related to institutional forces and modes of planning.