Land Use and Landscape Change in the Rockies: Implications for Mountain Agriculture

Remote sensing tools have been long used to monitor landscape dynamics inside and around protected areas. Hereto, scientists have largely relied on land use and land cover (LULC) data to derive indicators for monitoring these dynamics, but these metrics do not capture changes in the state of vegetation surfaces that may compromise the ecological integrity of conservation areas’ landscapes. Here, we introduce a methodology that combines LULC change estimates with three Normalized Difference Vegetation Index-based proxy indicators of vegetation productivity, phenology, and structural change. We illustrate the utility of this methodology through a regional and local analysis of the landscape dynamics in the Cerrado Biome in Brazil in 2001 and 2016. Despite relatively little natural vegetation loss inside core protected areas and their legal buffer zones, the different indicators revealed significant LULC conversions from natural vegetation to farming land, general productivity loss, homogenization of natural forests, significant agricultural expansion, and a general increase in productivity. These results suggest an overall degradation of habitats and intensification of land use in the studied conservation area network, highlighting serious conservation inefficiencies in this region and stressing the importance of integrated landscape change analyses to provide complementary indicators of ecologically-relevant dynamics in these key conservation areas.

Download Full-text

Environmental Indicators of Land Cover, Land Use, and Landscape Change

Environmental Indicators ◽

10.1007/978-94-017-9499-2_16 ◽

2014 ◽

pp. 265-276 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Gerald J. Niemi ◽

Lucinda B. Johnson ◽

Robert W. Howe

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Cover ◽

Landscape Change ◽

Environmental Indicators

Download Full-text

SAN PEDRO RIVER, ARIZONA: LAND-USE HISTORY, LANDSCAPE CHANGE AND PLANNING FOR A UNITED STATES RIPARIAN NATIONAL CONSERVATION AREA

Places ◽

10.2307/j.ctv6gqsdd.19 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 301-330

Author(s):

J.G. Nelson

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Land Use ◽

Landscape Change ◽

Land Use History ◽

Conservation Area ◽

San Pedro River ◽

San Pedro

Download Full-text

An historical ecological assessment of land-use evolution and observed landscape change in an arid aeolian sedimentary system

The Science of The Total Environment ◽

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137087 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 716 ◽

pp. 137087 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Néstor Marrero-Rodríguez ◽

Leví García-Romero ◽

María José Sánchez-García ◽

Luis Hernández-Calvento ◽

Emma Pérez-Chacón Espino

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Landscape Change ◽

Ecological Assessment ◽

Sedimentary System

Download Full-text

Active tectonics and land-use strategies: a Palaeolithic example from northwest Greece

Antiquity ◽

10.1017/s0003598x00045361 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 67 (255) ◽

pp. 292-312 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Geoff Bailey ◽

Geoff King ◽

Derek Sturdy

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Landscape Change ◽

Human Life ◽

Active Tectonics ◽

Plate Motions ◽

Human Survival ◽

Tectonic History ◽

The Earth ◽

History Of ◽

Tectonic Movements

Tectonic movements – continuously re-moulding the surface of the earth over the inexorable activity of underlying plate motions – are rarely taken into account when assessing landscape change, except as an exotic hazard to human life or a temporary disruption in longer-term trends. Active tectonics also create and sustain landscapes that can be beneficial to human survival. The tectonic history of northwest Greece shows Palaeolithic sites located to take advantage of tectonically created features at both local and regional scales.

Download Full-text

Landscape Change in Mediterranean Farmlands: Impacts of Land Abandonment on Cultivation Terraces in Portofino (Italy) and Lesvos (Greece)

Journal of Landscape Ecology ◽

10.2478/jlecol-2014-0008 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 23-44 ◽

Cited By ~ 28

Author(s):

Theo Van Der Sluis ◽

Thanasis Kizos ◽

Bas Pedroli

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Landscape Change ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Urban Expansion ◽

Population Decline ◽

Aerial Photographs ◽

Landscape Changes ◽

The Past ◽

Mediterranean Landscapes ◽

The Mediterranean

Abstract The Mediterranean landscape has been rapidly changing over the past decades. Many regions saw a population decline, which resulted in changing land use, abandonment of marginal lands and colonisation by shrubs and tree species. Typical features like farming terraces, olive yards, and upland grasslands have been decreasing over the past 50 years. This results in a declining biodiversity and loss of traditional Mediterranean landscapes. In this paper we assess the landscape changes that took place in two areas, in Portofino, on the Italian Riviera, and Lesvos, a Greek island near the Turkish coast. We compared land use maps and aerial photographs over the past decades to quantify the land use changes in these two areas. Additional information was acquired from farmers’ interviews and literature. We found that changes are related to societal changes in the appraisal of agricultural land uses, and to the urban expansion, tourism and recreation. These diffuse processes are a result of policy measures and autonomous societal transformations. This is confirmed by the results of two interview surveys: between 1999 and 2012 agricultural land use in Portofino regional Park and buffer zone further marginalised, and the associated landscape changes are perceived as a substantial loss of character and identity. This problem is emblematic for large parts of the Mediterranean. Comparing different landscapes reveal similar processes of landscape change, which can be related to similar driving forces. Based on such comparisons, we learn about possible trajectories of change, and ask for a comprehensive approach to land use management.

Download Full-text

LANDSCAPE CHANGE WITH THE TRANSPOSITION OF THE SÃO FRANCISCO RIVER, IN THE DOMAIN CAATINGA, PERNAMBUCO

FLORESTA ◽

10.5380/rf.v51i3.71785 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 51 (3) ◽

pp. 648

Author(s):

Lorena De Moura Melo ◽

Mayara Maria De Lima Pessoa ◽

Emanuel Araújo Silva ◽

Lúcia De Fatima De Carvalho Chaves

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Water Resources ◽

Landscape Structure ◽

Landscape Change ◽

Agricultural Area ◽

Landsat 8 ◽

Sao Francisco River ◽

The Core ◽

São Francisco River ◽

Integration Project

Landscape change with the transposition of the São Francisco River, in the Domain Caatinga, Pernambuco.The objective of this study was to evaluate the dynamics of land use and cover and the landscape structure, as well as the landscape structure, of the Directly Affected Area by Integration Project of the São Francisco River with the Northeastern Hydrographic Basins, from the East Axis portion located in the State of Pernambuco, Brazil. For this purpose, TM / Landsat 5 and OLI / Landsat 8 images were used, referring to the years 1998, 2008 and 2018, periods before, during and after the transposition, respectively. The land use and land cover classes used in this analysis were savanna-steppe, savanna-steppe, anthropized and / or uncovered area, water resources and agricultural area. Image processing and classification were performed using the QGIS software. Also, studies related to the landscape structure were carried out, using different types of metrics, processed in the Patch Analyst tool, an extension of ArcGIS 10.5. As a result of the analysis of the 20 years, it was obtained that the savanna-steppe vegetation cover showed a 13.86% reduction. However, there were additions in the areas of ciliary savanna, water resources, agricultural area and anthropized area in 1.93%, 0.11%, 0.31% and 11.51%, respectively. Furthermore, there was an increase in forest fragmentation, which corroborated with the results regarding for the core area metrics, which show that there has been a reduction in the size of the fragments and a trend towards the loss of the core areas, due to the edge effect.

Download Full-text

Landscape change and vegetation history in the city of Lisbon during Roman times and the Early Medieval Period

The Holocene ◽

10.1177/0959683620961514 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 31 (1) ◽

pp. 134-144

Author(s):

Andrés Currás ◽

Ana Maria Costa ◽

Maria da Conceição Freitas ◽

Randi Danielsen ◽

Jacinta Bugalhão

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Human Activities ◽

Landscape Change ◽

Vegetation History ◽

Landscape Changes ◽

Medieval Period ◽

Early Medieval Period ◽

Sedimentary Deposits ◽

Socioeconomic Transformation ◽

The City

Pollen and NPP analysis performed on the sedimentary deposits accumulated in the inter-tidal banks of the Tagus Estuary allow for the reconstruction of vegetation history and landscape changes that occurred in Lisbon from the 1st to the 6th century cal AD. The high chronological resolution of this investigation makes it possible to identify changes in human activities that took place during the Roman period and reveals the extent of land use in the 2nd century cal AD. However, the most considerable landscape transformation of this 600-year period dates back to the late 5th century cal AD, when significant deforestation and increasing human activity, particularly pasturing, spread throughout the territory. This feature bears witness to the outcome of a deep socioeconomic transformation following the disintegration of the Roman administration and sheds light on a poorly known period in this part of Iberia.

Download Full-text