Changing landscapes, changing disciplines: seeking to understand interdisciplinarity in landscape ecological change research

Transformation of landscapes worldwide in the 20th century, now continuing into the 21st century, has raised global concerns. Given this circumstance, interdisciplinary landscape change studies are focused on the causes and effects of land-use and land-cover dynamics as well as the ecological and social impacts of alternative design, planning, policy, and management schemes on landscapes and regions. In this paper, we are concerned about a particular type of interdisciplinary landscape change research that uses the principles and theories of landscape ecology as an underlying paradigm for explaining changes in landscapes (called landscape ecological change research, or LEC research, in this paper). While landscape ecological change is the focus of collaborative research efforts, the way in which the collaboration itself is carried out is the subject of debate. We present a framework for public consideration based on Lattuca's continuum of interdisciplinarity (2001) that characterizes the key themes, questions, and issues in the debate about the interdisciplinarity–disciplinarity nature of LEC research that are raised by leading scholars in the peer-reviewed literature. The paper presents this continuum, positions the key literature within this continuum, and then presents recommendations for enhancing future interdisciplinary endeavors.     

Distribution and dynamics of birds in a rural sub-Mediterranean landscape

The richness and abundance of birds in a sub-Mediterranean rural landscape (north Italy, Massa Carrara Province) were investigated across two spatial scales (10 km × 10 km and 5 km × 5 km), two functional scales (land use mosaic and ecotope) and two temporal scales (annual and seasonal).Information on birds collected using the line transect method was compared with some landscape attributes (altitude, orientation, patch size, distance from cultivations).Distribution, abundance and seasonal turnover of birds were described efficiently by land use cover and ecotopes, but altitude, orientation, patch size and neighboring patch types were also important.Pure crop areas and crops mixed within woodlands and farming villages were the areas preferred by birds especially out of the breeding period, although woodlands supported more stable birds assemblages over the year. The multiscalar approach proposed was an efficient strategy to investigate these bird assemblages living in a patchy rural mosaic in which resources were made seasonally available by agricultural practices.The recent landscape change due to abandonment of agriculture in most of the sub-Mediterranean mountainous rural areas and the consequent woodland encroachment were expected to produce impoverishment of both diversity and abundance of resident and migratory birds.     

景观生态学在云邱山景区景观规划中的应用

结合景观生态学、景观生态评价、景观生态规划的概念,探讨了景观生态学在云邱山景区景观规划中的应用,具体阐述了该景区景观生态规划初步方案,并提出了一些指导性建议,以期对同类旅游开发项目规划提供帮助。     

Biodiversity dynamics: from population and community ecology approaches to a landscape ecology point of view

Species richness and species diversity are classic concepts in ecology. What is new in the science of biodiversity after the Convention on Biological Diversity is: (1) that the emphasis has moved from the species to the ecosystem; (2) that the functional significance of biodiversity has been stressed. Thus, population and community ecology along with landscape ecology, should offer the best theoretical framework to analyse what can be called ‘biodiversity dynamics’.Some promising pathways and areas are emphasized and the very concept of functional diversity is discussed. Species richness, genetic variability and extinction probability are closely linked with landscape traits such as habitat diversity, structural heterogeneity, patch dynamics and perturbations. Thus, it is suggested that landscape ecology hold a central role, since it will allow the response to biodiversity issues in the framework of environmental heterogeneity and patchiness.     

A landscape ecological model for wildlife enhancement of stormwater management practices in urban greenways

A spatial distribution model has been developed to predict the pattern of stormwater catchment facilities in developing urban areas. The model has been validated through comparison of predicted results with historical data in Guelph, Canada, using nearest neighbour analysis. The validated model has been applied to developing urban-rural fringe lands in Guelph to illustrate land use patterns likely to occur under different scenarios. Simulations of various scenarios for incorporating stormwater catchment facilities into greenways have been tested with the model and the resultant land use patterns compared with the status quo, through measures of landscape ecological integrity such as connectivity and porosity. The model was applied to an area on the edge of Guelph scheduled for development. The predicted land use patterns of various planning scenarios were generated and analysed. The results demonstrated that landscape integrity could be increased, urban wildlife habitat enhanced, and opportunities for residential non-consumptive wildlife recreation improved through integration of the evolving ‘blue-green’ open space provided by urban stormwater management facilities into existing greenways.     

景观生态学原理在产业园规划设计中的运用

针对探讨绿色科技园区规划的必要性,以郑州高新技术产业开发区的规划设计为例来探讨景观生态学原理在产业园规划设计中的应用,以期能对我国方兴未艾的产业园规划起到一点积极意义。     

Gastropod communities, vegetation dynamics and landscape changes along an old-field succession in Provence, France

Studies about the relationships between land snail communities and landscape are scarce. The abandonment of many cultivated lands in Provence since the end of the last century gives us the opportunity of an analysis of the organisation pattern of gastropod communities in relation to the recent history and the present day structure of a Mediterranean landscape. The dynamics of a 40 ha landscape, mapped on a raster mode, was studied using cadaster data for seven periods between 1890 and 1990. These data were computed using MCA and PCA. Both floristic and malacological relevés were made at a scale of one grid cell. At the stand level, the patterns of gastropod communities are strongly correlated with the vegetation structure and composition. At the landscape level, the analysis of gastropod communities permits a very good perception of the present day landscape structure, as well as insight into the recent landscape history. However, even if the fits obtained are good, they should be improved in order to take into account scale dependences of snail communities.     

谈城市河道的生态改造及景观思考分析

分析了城市河道生态改造的迫切性,针对城市河道水体与河道岸线存在的问题进行了研究,提出了相应的河道生态改造方法,并指出河道生态改造应结合景观设计方面进行思考,以达到城市河道应用与美化双赢的局面。     

Greenways for recreation and maintenance of landscape quality: five case studies in Portugal

The use of the concept of greenway can be identified in Portugal throughout the 20th century as a planning and design tool. Several examples, such as the ‘Improvement Plans for Lisbon’ by Ressano Garcia (1901), the continuum naturale concept [Cabral, F.C., 1980. O Continuum Naturale e a Conservação da Natureza. Conservação da Natureza. Serviço de Estudos do Ambiente, Lisbon; Andresen, T., 2001. Francisco Caldeira Cabral. Landscape Design Trust, Surrey, UK, 213 pp.], the Green Plan for Lisbon [Telles, G.R., et al., 1997. Plano Verde de Lisboa. Ed. Colibri, Lisboa, 197 pp.], deal with the subjects of implementing vegetation corridors, pedestrian networks and landscape quality. These examples establish Portuguese planning and design tradition within the international greenway movement first identified by Fabos [Fabos, J.Gy., 1991. From Park to Greenways into the 21st Century. In: Proceedings from Selected Educational Sessions, ASLA Annual Meeting, Kansas City, Missouri]. Though several projects have been developed at the planning level, there is a need to analyze the applicability of such a concept at the regional, municipal and local level. We must consider the characteristics of Portugal's cultural landscape, recognition by other professions dealing with planning and involvement by politicians. By analyzing five case studies, this paper shows the significance of the greenway as a planning and design strategy, which coincides, with the current objectives of political and planning authorities at the municipal level. It also proves that it is possible to reconcile political objectives and urban development while safeguarding landscape quality and providing new opportunities for public recreation and education. Greenway planning and design is now undoubtedly a subject of growing significance in Portugal.     

浅谈景观生态学在城市形象塑造中的应用

运用景观生态学的"斑-廊-网-基-体"基本原理,以扬中市2005年总体规划和2006年过江廊道概念规划为主要依据,对扬中市的城市形象进行合理的规划和设计,从而营造具有江南风光的水上花园城市.     

风景园林专业生态学课程沉浸式教学改革研究

生态学课程是风景园林专业核心课程的重要组成部分,探索适宜的教学模式有助于提高学生的学习效果和促进生态学知识与专业设计的有机结合。从生态学课程教学现状出发,重点探讨了沉浸式体验的教学介入途径和教学模式设计。沉浸式教学具有场景虚拟化、情景智能化、角色平等化、过程交互性等特征,对于克服生态学课程在传统教学方法中的问题与不足具有显著优势。生态学课程的沉浸式教学模式应以教学目标为导向,由教学准备、教学设计、教学实施、效果分析,以及教学支持系统组成能够良性循环发展的系统架构。目前,生态学课程的沉浸式教学模式探索尚处在起步阶段,还需要从软硬件条件、知识传播的正确性与准确性、教学资源的共享共建等方面进一步完善。     

Landscape fragmentation caused by the transport network in Navarra (Spain): Two-scale analysis and landscape integration assessment

Landscape fragmentation caused by the main transport infrastructure network in Navarra (north of Spain) is analysed on both regional and local scales. Regional scale analysis identifies the overloaded zones (cloverleaves and corridors) and the territorial imbalance due to transportation infrastructures. In order to achieve an holistic approach, this information could be compared to other fragmentation-related regional activities. The study of the fragmentation caused by the two northern dual carriageways is carried out at a local scale, analysing the surrounding landscape, the potential permeability and the road-kill rates of medium-sized terrestrial wildlife. The black spots and the funnel effect sites are identified. As both regional and local scales are complementary, the two-scale analysis could improve landscape management. Finally, it is concluded that visual landscape study does not guarantee a functional integration.     

Geological factors of the Guadalajara landscapes (Central Spain) and their relevance to landscape studies

The landscapes of a territory are the consequence of its history; overlapped geological, vegetable and cultural histories usually exist on a landscape. At the Mediterranean domain, however, a translucent vegetation exists, and its history is closely related to the geologic and cultural histories, because low-technology agricultural uses on a different hardness rock background control vegetation. Thus, in areas like the Guadalajara province, the geologic composition and the human activities can be considered the primary conditions for landscape configuration. Both condition the typologies, distribution and relative importance of the geotic, biotic and anthropogenic components of landscapes. A complex network of interrelations among all them exists but, in the base of which lie the geology of the territory, included relief, because it has a more independent influence since man cannot modify the geologic factors; such as the colour of the rocks, the size and distribution of rock bodies, the palaeogeographic domains and the tectonic structure all which control landscape development and configuration. Moreover, geology influences conditions and even limit, the presence, typologies and development of the biotic and anthropogenic elements. These factors also have a major relevance for environmental management, educational and economic policy, and, in some cases, for environmental impact assessment.     

Perceptions and social valuations of landscape. Objectives and methodology for citizen participation in landscape policies

Since the approval of the European Landscape Convention, social perception has been accepted as one of landscape’s defining components and, therefore, any strategy for its planning, protection or management has to be in possession of knowledge produced by citizen participation procedures. The Convention did not formally state what these procedures are and no methodology has been agreed upon for guaranteeing their inclusion in landscape analysis and praxis. This article puts forward a methodological proposal to this end that has been designed, tested and put into practice in the compiling of the Landscape Catalogue of the Province of Seville (Andalusia, Spain). Arguments put forward to support the methodological choices made are evaluated with the aim that this proposal might be of use for other initiatives to create a theoretical and practical corpus for social participation in landscape policies.     

Changes in the landscape structure of the Nagara River Basin, central Japan

A watershed is a structural and functional unit of a landscape consisting of various environments and sustaining a certain biodiversity. Conservation of watershed environments is important at both the regional and the national level. As a basis for conservation management, sufficient information about landscape structure should be provided for the whole terrestrial area of a watershed. In the present study, we reconstructed the former landscape structure and elucidated the changes in land use patterns during a period of about 80 years after 1900 (late Meiji era) in the Nagara River Basin, central Japan. We used three sets of maps for the analyses: old and modern topographical maps made in 1909, 1971 and 1992 by the Geographical Agency. Each map (ca. 18 km×22 km) was divided into 400 (20×20) grid cells, according to latitude and longitude. The dimension of each grid cell was about 1 km² (0.9 km×1.1 km). In each grid cell, all land-cover types were inventoried and the most dominant one was determined to be the dominant land-cover. The relative dominance (RD), frequency (FQ) and similarity index (SI) were calculated for analyses. The relative dominance of broad-leaved forest decreased, whereas those of conifer forest and residential areas increased throughout the whole study area during the 80-year period. However, regional differences in landscape change were found. In the upriver area, the relative dominance of broad-leaved forest decreased, while that of conifer forest increased. In the mid-river area, the relative dominance of conifer forest decreased, while that of broad-leaved forest increased. In the present study, we revealed the basic regional differences in landscape structure and their changes in the Nagara River Basin. Land use history with reference to socio-economics should be considered as an important factor affecting the present landscape structure.     

A risk factor study of coccidioidomycosis by controlling differential misclassifications of exposure and susceptibility using a landscape ecology approach

State-reported coccidioidomycosis cases in Arizona have dramatically increased since 1997, raising concerns about a possible epidemic, its cause, and associated risk factors, including spatio-temporal differences in susceptibility and exposure. This stratified, two-stage, cross-sectional study evaluates inherent, socio-economic, and environmental risk factors of coccidioidomycosis from information collected during an address-based telephone survey of 5460 households containing 14,105 individuals in greater Tucson, Arizona. Three geomorphic and two demographic strata controlled for differences in group-level exposures and susceptibility, and assured recruitment of a minority population. Logistic regression of self-reported cases indicates that location of residence by geomorphic and demographic strata was a risk factor that confounded the associations of coccidioidomycosis with age, race-ethnicity, and educational attainment. The risk due to age is more evenly distributed across the population than bivariate results when individual- and group-level exposure and susceptibility factors are controlled. Similarly the association for being Hispanic decreased from strong bivariate 0.28 odds ratio to a weak multivariate 0.75. Location of residence confounded the risk due to race-ethnicity and was an effect modifier of risk due to age. Differential misclassification of exposure to Coccidioides spores and susceptibility to coccidioidomycosis was reduced through landscape stratification by demographics and geomorphic types. Landscape epidemiological studies of diseases with strong environmental and demographic determinants can reduce residual confounding and account for spatial and temporal differences between neighborhoods and at broader scales.     

四川省北川新城区滨河景观特征评析与优化

2008年5月12日汶川大地震后,经过为期约2年的规划重建工作,北川新城永昌河景观带正式建成并投入使用。本文通过对北川新城永昌河景观带使用者满意程度的调研与分析,从使用者的角度出发,探究其在景观营造、生态环境、文化传承以及管理维护等方面的优点与不足,对建成后景观带如何提高使用者满意程度进行分析与总结,提出可行性建议。     

广州市白云区良田坑景观整治设计

以广州市白云区良田坑景观整治设计为例,阐述如何从和谐、生态的角度和方法对河涌进行景观整治设计。