Over the last six decades, land-cover patterns in Europe have
dramatically changed, and major future changes are expected. Land-cover
changes affect landscape functions. Therefore, methods are needed to
include the temporal dimension into landscape classification. By
combining recent satellite data with historic information on land cover
from 1955, and the application of k-means cluster analysis, we
developed an approach to identify types of land-cover patterns and
dynamics (TLPDs) at the rural district scale. Our study area was the
Lahn-Dill Highlands, a marginal German landscape with a total of 192
rural districts. We identified six TLPDs that showed a general trend of
abandonment, but revealed remarkable differences in current land-cover
patterns and the directions of land-cover change. The TLPDs showed
notable differences in physical attributes: In the eastern part of the
area, where elevation, the proportion of steep slopes, and dry soils
are low, land cover remained relatively stable. Slight to dramatic
changes occurred, in contrast, in the remaining districts with
comparatively unfavourable conditions for cultivation. The spatially
differentiated information on areas with contrasting land-cover
dynamics within a region may be useful to develop effective concepts
for future land management. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
%0 Journal Article
%1 ISI:000247084200010
%A Reger, Birgit
%A Otte, Annette
%A Waldhardt, Rainer
%D 2007
%J LANDSCAPE AND URBAN PLANNING
%K IFZ abandonment agricultural_landscape agricultural_statistics landscape_change landscape_structure satellite_image
%N 1-2
%P 104-113
%T Identifying patterns of land-cover change and their physical attributes in a marginal European landscape
%V 81
%X Over the last six decades, land-cover patterns in Europe have
dramatically changed, and major future changes are expected. Land-cover
changes affect landscape functions. Therefore, methods are needed to
include the temporal dimension into landscape classification. By
combining recent satellite data with historic information on land cover
from 1955, and the application of k-means cluster analysis, we
developed an approach to identify types of land-cover patterns and
dynamics (TLPDs) at the rural district scale. Our study area was the
Lahn-Dill Highlands, a marginal German landscape with a total of 192
rural districts. We identified six TLPDs that showed a general trend of
abandonment, but revealed remarkable differences in current land-cover
patterns and the directions of land-cover change. The TLPDs showed
notable differences in physical attributes: In the eastern part of the
area, where elevation, the proportion of steep slopes, and dry soils
are low, land cover remained relatively stable. Slight to dramatic
changes occurred, in contrast, in the remaining districts with
comparatively unfavourable conditions for cultivation. The spatially
differentiated information on areas with contrasting land-cover
dynamics within a region may be useful to develop effective concepts
for future land management. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
@article{ISI:000247084200010,
abstract = {Over the last six decades, land-cover patterns in Europe have
dramatically changed, and major future changes are expected. Land-cover
changes affect landscape functions. Therefore, methods are needed to
include the temporal dimension into landscape classification. By
combining recent satellite data with historic information on land cover
from 1955, and the application of k-means cluster analysis, we
developed an approach to identify types of land-cover patterns and
dynamics (TLPDs) at the rural district scale. Our study area was the
Lahn-Dill Highlands, a marginal German landscape with a total of 192
rural districts. We identified six TLPDs that showed a general trend of
abandonment, but revealed remarkable differences in current land-cover
patterns and the directions of land-cover change. The TLPDs showed
notable differences in physical attributes: In the eastern part of the
area, where elevation, the proportion of steep slopes, and dry soils
are low, land cover remained relatively stable. Slight to dramatic
changes occurred, in contrast, in the remaining districts with
comparatively unfavourable conditions for cultivation. The spatially
differentiated information on areas with contrasting land-cover
dynamics within a region may be useful to develop effective concepts
for future land management. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.},
added-at = {2008-07-15T10:14:06.000+0200},
author = {Reger, Birgit and Otte, Annette and Waldhardt, Rainer},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/21d3ea734a07df10816dd415caf8cc577/landscapeecol},
interhash = {f35e10ec5163c151f89a3c0b77ae2a67},
intrahash = {1d3ea734a07df10816dd415caf8cc577},
issn = {0169-2046},
journal = {LANDSCAPE AND URBAN PLANNING},
keywords = {IFZ abandonment agricultural_landscape agricultural_statistics landscape_change landscape_structure satellite_image},
number = {1-2},
pages = {104-113},
timestamp = {2008-07-18T14:04:23.000+0200},
title = {Identifying patterns of land-cover change and their physical attributes in a marginal European landscape},
volume = 81,
year = 2007
}