Ecological and social evaluation of landscape in a rural area with terraced paddies in southwestern Japan

Since the 1960s, improving socio-economic conditions in rural Japan have led to the rise in man-made or man-shaped landscapes, which has in turn resulted in formerly abundant species becoming endangered. In order to conserve biodiversity in rural areas, former agricultural landscapes must be conserved. The problem is that ecologically appropriate landscapes are not always compatible with the needs of local residents or land owners. Prior to carrying out any particular conservation measures, regional landscape management must consider both ecological and social approaches and present acceptable approach-specific management goals in an open and transparent manner. This study, undertaken in the Ohaga district of southwestern Japan, a typical rural area with terraced paddy fields, sought to develop a framework for evaluating regional resources from a landscape ecology perspective. Monitoring the temporal change of landscape structures and vegetation revealed the presence of habitats, such as the pine forest and grasslands bordering the rice paddies, which harbour specific plant species or populations, some now endangered. From a social standpoint, questionnaires revealed that local inhabitants wanted landscape management options which would conserve the pine forest, paddy fields and levee grasslands. Local farmers thought that the landscape should be used and managed as a rural park, rather than for agricultural purposes. These desirable landscape element types can serve as targets for conservation, but ultimately a new system of agricultural management must be developed to sustain the rural landscape.     

Ecological networks: A spatial concept for multi-actor planning of sustainable landscapes

In this paper, we propose the ecological network concept as a suitable basis for inserting biodiversity conservation into sustainable landscape development. For landscapes to be ecologically sustainable, the landscape structure should support those ecological processes required for the landscape to deliver biodiversity services for present and future generations. We first show that in multifunctional, human-dominated landscapes, biodiversity conservation needs a coherent large-scale spatial structure of ecosystems. Theory and empirical knowledge of ecological networks provides a framework for the design of such structures. Secondly, ecological networks can bridge the paradox between reserve conservation (fixing nature in space and time) and development, which implies change. This is because ecological networks can change structure without losing their conservation potential. Thirdly, ecological networks facilitate stakeholder decision-making on feasible biodiversity goals. They help to focus on an effective spatial scale. We conclude that extending the ecological network concept with multifunctional indicators is a promising step towards sustainable landscape development and stakeholder decision-making.     

Red Books for threatened Mediterranean landscapes as an innovative tool for holistic landscape conservation. Introduction to the western Crete Red Book case study

In view of the alarming threats to our planet Earth and its natural and cultural diversity, the IUCN World Conservation Organization must broaden the scale of its efforts from the species and ecosystem level to the landscape level. For this purpose new, more comprehensive strategies and powerfuls tools, based on holistic landscape planning and dynamic conservation management, are urgently needed. The Mediterranean Basin, presently undergoing an alarming process of biological, cultural and scenic degradation can serve as a good example for these needs. Here, as elsewhere, almost all conservation efforts have been devoted to the protection of restricted areas such as nature reserves or parks without much regard for the fate of the open landscape as a whole and the need for the conservation and restoration of its great natural and cultural assets. In order to gain greater public awareness and apprehension of these threats, to change the attitudes of politicians and decision-makers, and to provide practical guidance for holistic, sustainable and multibeneficial land use planning and management, a new tool of ‘Red Books for Threatened Landscapes’ is offered. These should present in clear non-technical terms, with ample maps and illustrations, recent, adverse biological, ecological, cultural and socio-economic changes in highly valuable and not yet irreversibly despoiled landscapes and their future threats, and suggest alternative, sustainable land use strategies with sounder conservation and restoration options. The Western Crete study, is the first Mediterranean Red Book case study, carried out by a multinational and multidisciplinary team. It will serve as an important example for a Red Book blueprint, to be prepared by the IALE-IUCN-CESP Working Group on Red Books for Threatened Landscapes.     

Function-analysis and valuation as a tool to assess land use conflicts in planning for sustainable, multi-functional landscapes

In order to reconcile landscape conservation with changing demands on land use and natural resources, it is essential that the ecological, socio-cultural and economic values of the landscape be fully taken into account in planning and decision-making.This paper presents a comprehensive framework for integrated assessment of ecological services and socio-economic benefits of natural and semi-natural ecosystems and landscapes. The framework can be applied at different scale levels to different ecosystems or landscape-units and basically consists of three steps: (1) Function-analysis: translates ecological complexity into a limited number of ecosystem (or landscape) functions, which, in turn, provide a range of goods and services; (2) Function valuation: includes ecological, socio-cultural and economic valuation methods; and (3) Conflict analysis: to facilitate the application of function-analysis and valuation at different scale levels, it is important to integrate analytical valuation methods with stakeholder participation techniques.The framework presented in this paper facilitates the structured assessment of the (total) value of the goods and services provided by a specific area (landscape) and to analyze the costs and benefits involved in trade-offs between various land use options. The last section of this paper gives some conclusions and recommendations for application-possibilities of function-analysis and valuation to achieve more sustainable landscape use and maintenance of our “natural capital”.     

Landscape Planning for Biological Diversity in Europe

The European landscape reflects its agricultural legacy, but agriculture is losing its dominant position in the rural economy. The rural landscapes of Europe are in a process of polarization between intensive land use and naturalistic areas. In addition to this process, fragmentation of the landscape is also taking place. Regional distinctiveness is disappearing due to the impact of globalization on food production. If regional differences are not maintained and protected then the cultural landscapes of Europe and their biological diversity will decline and only remnants will remain. It is argued that regional differences can only be maintained through conscious environmental and ecological planning. Concepts for this, such as ecostabilization and ecological networks, have been developed in many European countries. The role of the landscape planner should be one of integrating knowledge and functions by designing new functions in existing landscapes and new landscapes with regional character.     

Landscape Planning for Biological Diversity in Europe

The European landscape reflects its agricultural legacy, but agriculture is losing its dominant position in the rural economy. The rural landscapes of Europe are in a process of polarization between intensive land use and naturalistic areas. In addition to this process, fragmentation of the landscape is also taking place. Regional distinctiveness is disappearing due to the impact of globalization on food production. If regional differences are not maintained and protected then the cultural landscapes of Europe and their biological diversity will decline and only remnants will remain. It is argued that regional differences can only be maintained through conscious environmental and ecological planning. Concepts for this, such as ecostabilization and ecological networks, have been developed in many European countries. The role of the landscape planner should be one of integrating knowledge and functions by designing new functions in existing landscapes and new landscapes with regional character.     

Human impact on rural landscapes in central and northern Europe

To analyse human influences on rural landscapes in present-day central and northern Europe and also to investigate sustainable landscape development concepts, an IALE (International Association for Landscape Ecology) regional Conference on ‘Perspectives of Rural Landscapes in Europe' was held in Pärnu, Estonia on 20–27 June 1996. The conference was undertaken specifically to exchange information between planners, managers, decision makers and scientists in the region. In the last few years, rural landscapes in Europe have changed significantly. Due to restructuring of agriculture in the European Union (EU) countries and radical socio-economic changes in eastern and central Europe, landscape change will continue. This stimulates interest for landscape ecologists to study the processes connected with such rapid development and to analyse its socio-economic and ecological consequences. Different conference findings that resulted from six keynote speeches, 33 oral presentations, 21 posters and organised excursions (1-day conference excursion and 4-day post-conference excursion) are presented here. Thirteen papers published as part of this special issue of Landscape and Urban Planning, and summarised here, deal with general and methodological principles of the analysis of land use changes and related landscape evaluation, and also present case studies on land use changes from Estonia, Germany and Sweden.     

Analyzing public preferences concerning woodland development in rural landscapes in Scotland

This paper considers the decision-making aspects of a closer integration of woodlands with other land uses in rural landscapes in Scotland regarding their socio-economic components and in view of positive implications, which woodlands have for the environment. The research follows a semi-qualitative route and applies a quantitative method of Q-analysis to identify public attitudes towards landscapes by integrating ecological, socio-economic and aesthetic criteria. Some innovative perspectives on the areas of consensus and conflict between people, concerning the future development of rural areas are put forward. The research categorizes landscape preferences and preferences for woodlands, and shows that these preferences are complex. It arrives at a number of conclusions about the role of woodlands in landscape changes, adds to practical suggestions on policy and management decisions for transforming landscapes towards sustainability and suggests that woodland has an important role to play in the integration of aesthetic, ecological and socio-economic components in landscape management in Scotland.     

Sustainable residential landscapes: A case study in Guangzhou, China

This paper proposes a framework of three dimensions for implementing sustainable concepts in residential landscapes in the urban context. This includes ecological planning and design, which seeks to build upon the ecological characteristics of the site, and socio-economic dimensions which concern the relationship between man and the landscape while conserving natural capital. The framework is used to evaluate the landscape quality of Riverside Garden, a modern housing estate in Guangzhou, China. The results reveal that Riverside Garden has achieved certain goals in line with the sustainable residential landscape framework within particular conditions and constraints. Through a preliminary case analysis of work in progress, this paper discusses the issues which arise from this case study in relation to future housing development.     

The role of the spatial dimension within the framework of sustainable landscapes and natural capital

A new paradigm of Natural Capital and Sustainable Landscapes has been suggested. It implies the integration of economic, environmental and social-cultural qualities in a physical setting while focusing on functions in terms of goods and services for people. Due to its anthropocentric perspective it pays less attention to landscape structure and spatial arrangement compared to the widely applied patch-matrix concept. The matrix of land use elements provides the key to understanding land use systems and land use changes and it can play an important role in understanding land use pattern and their dynamics. But one of the remaining constraints for a direct application of landscape ecological concepts in practice is the lack of agreed ways to combine environmental, socio-economic and societal/cultural views. This paper examines both paradigms, asking: does the spatial arrangement of land use types add specific qualities beyond statistical measures of their existence and quantity? For instance, can a landscape be sustainable, as long as 20% of the land use is extensive, 10% is protection area, etc., no matter where the respective patches are, which typical size and shape they have, how connected patches are and how often incompatible land use types are adjacent? This paper elucidates spatial concepts for sustainable landscapes with an emphasis on the role of GIS.     

Towards to a system analytical and modelling approach for integration of ecological, hydrological, economical and social components of disturbed regions

As a consequence of surface coal mining, past landscapes within the Lusatian coal mining region were disturbed (land cover, forest, agro- and other ecosystems, geological material, hydrology), paralleled by strongly changed economic and socio-economic conditions (unemployment, emigration due to slowing down of mining activity in the region). The task is to restore the landscape and to improve the present state of the economic and socio-economic conditions, as well. Consented goal states for both the ecological and economic system in the region and consistent planning and management options (PMO) for such economic sectors, which are linked to natural resources (terrestrial, hydrological), are to be designed. They must be ecologically and economically evaluated, assessed and selected for real implementation.In order to handle such a complex problem, a comprehensive analysis of the whole system with subsequent multiscaled modelling efforts is needed. The final aim is to establish an interactive, effective, sufficiently simple decision support system for the actors in the disturbed region.The future responses of the landscape variables and the economical and social characteristics as an answer to economic sector PMO (e.g. PMO for control in agriculture, forestry, hydrology a.o.) can be approximately calculated, and subsequently evaluated and assessed by such an appropriately tailored simulation and decision support tool.In this study, the complex problem and the ecologic and economic system with its components are analysed and structured. Based on this, principles of stepwise model building and its usage (e.g. in if-than-simulation experiments as scenario analyses of the effects under changing non-modelled political and economical boundary conditions) toward an integrated approach are proposed.In this study, the present state of the disturbed region is described briefly (Section 1), and a rough scheme of the ecological and socio-economic structure of the region ( Section 2) as well as of the structure of the problem, which must be solved ( Section 3) and the role of the models in decision support ( Section 4) is outlined. In Section 5, the tasks of analysing and modelling of the components in the Lusatian coal mining region are derived, and in Section 6, the main steps in module building and its usage are briefly described. Finally, some conclusions are drawn.     

解读千年沉积的画卷——浅析瑞典大地景观的形成与发展

该文介绍了瑞典大地景观的历史和自然成因,分析了大地景观的形成受人类历史活动和自然环境演变的双重影响。即一方面体现了农业社会对景观的影响,诠释了农耕者和决策者如何利用和管理上千年来传承下来的土地资源;另一方面也融入了自然界中各种因素所产生的生态效应。以此为鉴,景观设计应尊重自然,大地景观的营造是人类活动适应自然而非改造自然的模式。     

可持续之美,外观的性能——宣言之二

一般来说,要理解可持续性景观设计,可以从它与生态健康、社会公正以及经济繁荣3个基本要素之间的关系来着手.但在关于可持续性的讨论中,美学方面的要素鲜被提及,或者反过来,认为将视觉与审美融合对可持续和审美都是多余、无益的.主要考察美(beauty)与美学(aesthetics)在可持续性的各方面所起到的作用.除了生态修复设计外,要使得文化可持续,还需要许多别的作为.我们需要的是具有启示性的景观设计:让体验过如此景观的人能够更深刻地体会到他们的行为是如何影响环境的,而对环境足够的关切则能改善环境.这就需要考虑到“审美的环境体验”(aesthetic environmental experiences)的作用,例如对“美”的感知,应当更加倾向于“生物中心主义(bio-centric)”,而不是“个人中心主义(egocentric)”.受到美国风景园林师设计的许多作品的激发,把这种观点以宣言的形式表达出来,虽然这些作品通常并不被认为对生态设计有所贡献.     

Social, aesthetic and ecological aspects of hedgerows in rural landscapes as a framework for greenways

Hedgerow network landscapes may be considered as greenways, as they provide agronomic, ecological, aesthetic and cultural benefits. They are among the most threatened agricultural landscapes of western Europe. Intensification of agriculture with the conversion of permanent grassland into ploughed land and the use of new machinery leads to the enlargement of fields and the removal of hedgerows surrounding them. There is a growing concern among conservationists, rural managers and the public to maintain these greenways as a framework for landscape sustainability.In France, hedgerow removal may be planned within reallotment programmes that take into account all the land of a municipality. In this planning process, criteria for keeping or clearing woody elements are based on agronomic properties of soil, environmental quality of elements and of the network, and property boundaries. Aesthetic aspects are rarely assessed. As rural landscapes are shifting from an almost unique function of agricultural production toward a multifunction of nature conservation, environmental protection, amenity and production, the conservation of hedgerow networks becomes of greater importance. The goal is now the protection of these greenways to provide not only ecological but also recreational and cultural benefits. In a case study in Brittany, we tried to link these different aspects. Our work is based on interviews and a landscape ecological survey. We found contrasting opinions between farmers and non-farmers concerning the density of the network. Nevertheless, the two groups agree on the necessity to keep greenways as part of their cultural landscape. Most of the people were not aware of the ecological role of hedgerow networks, and perceive them only by their visual properties. We proposed various scenarios based on ecological and aesthetic principles, and defined general guidelines for the design of new landscapes during reallotment programmes. The integration of different points of view by landscape planners is the only way to link visual values to productive or ecological processes, and must be effective in the case of the management of greenways such as hedgerows.     

"生态城市设计"专题系列之三景观生态学在城市规划与分析中的应用

介绍"景观生态学"的概念及相关理论、分析方式,以及与传统生态科学取向的差异.以"景观生态规划"为理论基础,探讨生态规划在城市区域与景观层面的应用方法.操作方法包括历史景观的生态分析、生态空间策略点分析、生态化土地使用模式的规划以及愿景式规划等.在城市规划制度面的执行机制,可以应用重叠分区、开展权转移、生态廊道与公共运输廊道的整合性规划等.本文旨在为城市可持续发展提供规划操作层面的思考.     

An evaluation of VEGETATION-1 imagery for broad-scale landscape mapping of Russia: effects of resolution on landscape pattern

The problem of efficient use of multi-scale data for land-cover and landscape mapping has already attracted considerable attention in landscape ecology and some other disciplines. Over the last few decades, however, with the development of satellite remote sensing techniques, the questions of efficient planetary and macro-regional ecological mapping and modeling and integration of multi-scale data have become especially pertinent. The purpose of this study is to test the suitability of the coarse-resolution VEGETATION/SPOT imagery for landscape mapping. Effects of changing spatial resolution on land-cover proportion estimates were examined in 16 different landscapes using spatially degraded high-resolution imagery from the Russian satellite, RESURS-F. Comparison of simulated coarse-resolution data and original images and ancillary data for sites with different landscape patterns, showed strong scale dependence of the landscape characteristics (land-cover proportion, fragmentation, patchiness) in different case study areas, such as sub-boreal forest, sub-urban areas, and an agricultural region in the steppe zone.     

Landscape dynamics in Germany

Modern lifestyles, new demographic trends, and the expansion of the European Community are changing the European countryside. At stake are cultural landscapes, their richness in wildlife, historical interest, scenic beauty, and the recreational opportunities they provide. Visible phenomena of change are symptoms of a growing socio-economic and ecological disparity between different regions. Agreements on AGENDA 2000 European policy provide a new platform for regional and agricultural development. The paper explores which landscape dynamics are in store. Employing examples from rural Germany, the paper presents corridors of possible futures for unique, and at the same time, dynamic places. Modern strategies of landscape and urban planning are discussed which aim at closer co-operation between a multitude of stakeholders, policy makers, planners, and other agents of change. Methods and tools are needed to build consensus among ever increasing numbers of participants representing potentially wide ranges of values.