TY - JOUR
T1 - Decrease in Danish semi-natural grassland
T2 - a social construct or a real-world change?
AU - Svenningsen, Stig Roar
AU - Levin, Gregor
AU - Jepsen, Martin Rudbeck
N1 - doi: 10.1080/00167223.2015.1070276
PY - 2015/7/3
Y1 - 2015/7/3
N2 - During the past century, the western hemisphere has seen a general trend of agricultural expansion on the behalf of semi-natural habitat types, such as heathlands and meadows. This has been documented in numerous studies of land use change. This trend is reflected in today?s European rural landscapes, which are dominated by intensive agriculture. However, many of these studies are based on cartographical sources, such as topographical and thematic maps, and thus prone to uncertainties regarding classification systems over time, variations in definitions of land use categories and lacking documentations of land use definitions. For this study, we conducted two change detection studies, covering the same four study areas in Denmark. The first study was based on topographic maps, and indicates a strong decline in the amount of semi-natural grassland (SNG). This was contrasted by the second study, which was based on an interpretation of aerial photos, and which indicated a much less pronounced reduction of SNGs. Year to year comparisons of these two analyses also revealed large discrepancies in the coverage of SNGs. Our results indicate that change detection studies must account for uncertainties in classifications and results should be interpreted with caution.
AB - During the past century, the western hemisphere has seen a general trend of agricultural expansion on the behalf of semi-natural habitat types, such as heathlands and meadows. This has been documented in numerous studies of land use change. This trend is reflected in today?s European rural landscapes, which are dominated by intensive agriculture. However, many of these studies are based on cartographical sources, such as topographical and thematic maps, and thus prone to uncertainties regarding classification systems over time, variations in definitions of land use categories and lacking documentations of land use definitions. For this study, we conducted two change detection studies, covering the same four study areas in Denmark. The first study was based on topographic maps, and indicates a strong decline in the amount of semi-natural grassland (SNG). This was contrasted by the second study, which was based on an interpretation of aerial photos, and which indicated a much less pronounced reduction of SNGs. Year to year comparisons of these two analyses also revealed large discrepancies in the coverage of SNGs. Our results indicate that change detection studies must account for uncertainties in classifications and results should be interpreted with caution.
U2 - 10.1080/00167223.2015.1070276
DO - 10.1080/00167223.2015.1070276
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0016-7223
VL - 115
SP - 157
EP - 166
JO - Geografisk Tidsskrift/Danish Journal of Geography
JF - Geografisk Tidsskrift/Danish Journal of Geography
IS - 2
ER -
