Patterns and causes of land change: empirical results and conceptual considerations derived from a case study in the Swabian Alb, Germany

TY - JOUR

T1 - Patterns and causes of land change

T2 - empirical results and conceptual considerations derived from a case study in the Swabian Alb, Germany

AU - Bieling, Claudia

AU - Plieninger, Tobias

AU - Schaich, Harald

PY - 2013/11

Y1 - 2013/11

N2 - Land-use and land-cover change profoundly affect human well-being and, therefore, have become a major topic for society. A thorough understanding of past and present processes transforming landscapes is essential for guiding future developments toward the sustained provision of the ecosystem services humans critically depend upon. Drawing on the driving forces and resilience frameworks, we identify possible variables and patterns of land change, connecting them to empirical findings in three case study areas in the Swabian Alb region, southwestern Germany. GIS-based analysis of historical and contemporary maps from four time layers between the 1820s and 2009 reveals complex and spatially differentiated trajectories. Woodland expansion, marginal grass- and heathland conversion and expansion of urban areas were the main change processes affecting all case study areas. A literature review regarding causes of these changes points to socioeconomic drivers at the supraregional scale, playing themselves out in diverse ways on areas with contrasting natural site characteristics. Human agency also fosters the alteration of large-scale drivers of change at the local level. We conclude that policy and management strategies need to be particularly sensitive to natural site characteristics and take both driving forces and human agency into account. Landscape-scale studies of patterns and causes of land change, making cross-site and cross-issue comparisons, are necessary to test how far our insights may apply to other geographical contexts and land change processes.

AB - Land-use and land-cover change profoundly affect human well-being and, therefore, have become a major topic for society. A thorough understanding of past and present processes transforming landscapes is essential for guiding future developments toward the sustained provision of the ecosystem services humans critically depend upon. Drawing on the driving forces and resilience frameworks, we identify possible variables and patterns of land change, connecting them to empirical findings in three case study areas in the Swabian Alb region, southwestern Germany. GIS-based analysis of historical and contemporary maps from four time layers between the 1820s and 2009 reveals complex and spatially differentiated trajectories. Woodland expansion, marginal grass- and heathland conversion and expansion of urban areas were the main change processes affecting all case study areas. A literature review regarding causes of these changes points to socioeconomic drivers at the supraregional scale, playing themselves out in diverse ways on areas with contrasting natural site characteristics. Human agency also fosters the alteration of large-scale drivers of change at the local level. We conclude that policy and management strategies need to be particularly sensitive to natural site characteristics and take both driving forces and human agency into account. Landscape-scale studies of patterns and causes of land change, making cross-site and cross-issue comparisons, are necessary to test how far our insights may apply to other geographical contexts and land change processes.

U2 - 10.1016/j.landusepol.2013.05.012

DO - 10.1016/j.landusepol.2013.05.012

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0264-8377

VL - 35

SP - 192

EP - 203

JO - Land Use Policy

JF - Land Use Policy

ER -