The driving forces of landscape change in Europe: A systematic review of the evidence

Tobias Plieninger; Hélène Draux; Nora Fagerholm; Claudia Bieling; Matthias Bürgi; Thanasis Kizos; Tobias Kuemmerle; Jørgen Primdahl; Peter H. Verburg

doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2016.04.040

The driving forces of landscape change in Europe: A systematic review of the evidence

Tobias Plieninger^*, Hélène Draux, Nora Fagerholm, Claudia Bieling, Matthias Bürgi, Thanasis Kizos, Tobias Kuemmerle, Jørgen Primdahl, Peter H. Verburg

^*Corresponding author for this work

Landscape Architecture and Planning

213 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Over the past decades, landscapes worldwide have experienced changes (e.g., urbanization, agricultural intensification, expansion of renewable energy uses) at magnitudes that put their sustainability at risk. The understanding of the drivers of these landscape changes remains challenging, partly because landscape research is spread across many domains and disciplines. We here provide a systematic synthesis of 144 studies that identify the proximate and underlying drivers of landscape change across Europe. First, we categorize how driving forces have been addressed and find that most studies consider medium-term time scales and local spatial scales. Most studies assessed only one case study area, one spatial scale, and less than four points in time. Second, we analyze geographical coverage of studies and reveal that countries with a non-European Union/European Free Trade Association membership; low Gross Domestic Product; boreal, steppic, and arctic landscapes; as well as forestland systems are underrepresented in the literature. Third, our review shows that land abandonment/extensification is the most prominent (62% of cases) among multiple proximate drivers of landscape change. Fourthly, we find that distinct combinations of mainly political/institutional, cultural, and natural/spatial underlying drivers are determining landscape change, rather than single key drivers. Our systematic review indicates knowledge gaps that can be filled by: (a) expanding the scope of studies to include underrepresented landscapes; (b) clarifying the identification and role of actors in landscape change; (c) deploying more robust tools and methods to quantitatively assess the causalities of landscape change; (d) setting up long-term studies that go beyond mapping land-cover change only; (e) strengthening cross-site and cross-country comparisons of landscape drivers; (f) designing multi-scale studies that consider teleconnections; (g) considering subtle and novel processes of landscape change.

Original language	English
Journal	Land Use Policy
Volume	57
Pages (from-to)	204-214
Number of pages	11
ISSN	0264-8377
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2016.04.040
Publication status	Published - 30 Nov 2016

Keywords

Agricultural intensification
Europe
Land abandonment
Land use and land cover change
Proximate and underlying drivers
Urbanization

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.landusepol.2016.04.040

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title = "The driving forces of landscape change in Europe: A systematic review of the evidence",

abstract = "Over the past decades, landscapes worldwide have experienced changes (e.g., urbanization, agricultural intensification, expansion of renewable energy uses) at magnitudes that put their sustainability at risk. The understanding of the drivers of these landscape changes remains challenging, partly because landscape research is spread across many domains and disciplines. We here provide a systematic synthesis of 144 studies that identify the proximate and underlying drivers of landscape change across Europe. First, we categorize how driving forces have been addressed and find that most studies consider medium-term time scales and local spatial scales. Most studies assessed only one case study area, one spatial scale, and less than four points in time. Second, we analyze geographical coverage of studies and reveal that countries with a non-European Union/European Free Trade Association membership; low Gross Domestic Product; boreal, steppic, and arctic landscapes; as well as forestland systems are underrepresented in the literature. Third, our review shows that land abandonment/extensification is the most prominent (62% of cases) among multiple proximate drivers of landscape change. Fourthly, we find that distinct combinations of mainly political/institutional, cultural, and natural/spatial underlying drivers are determining landscape change, rather than single key drivers. Our systematic review indicates knowledge gaps that can be filled by: (a) expanding the scope of studies to include underrepresented landscapes; (b) clarifying the identification and role of actors in landscape change; (c) deploying more robust tools and methods to quantitatively assess the causalities of landscape change; (d) setting up long-term studies that go beyond mapping land-cover change only; (e) strengthening cross-site and cross-country comparisons of landscape drivers; (f) designing multi-scale studies that consider teleconnections; (g) considering subtle and novel processes of landscape change.",

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AU - Bürgi, Matthias

AU - Kizos, Thanasis

AU - Kuemmerle, Tobias

AU - Primdahl, Jørgen

AU - Verburg, Peter H.

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AB - Over the past decades, landscapes worldwide have experienced changes (e.g., urbanization, agricultural intensification, expansion of renewable energy uses) at magnitudes that put their sustainability at risk. The understanding of the drivers of these landscape changes remains challenging, partly because landscape research is spread across many domains and disciplines. We here provide a systematic synthesis of 144 studies that identify the proximate and underlying drivers of landscape change across Europe. First, we categorize how driving forces have been addressed and find that most studies consider medium-term time scales and local spatial scales. Most studies assessed only one case study area, one spatial scale, and less than four points in time. Second, we analyze geographical coverage of studies and reveal that countries with a non-European Union/European Free Trade Association membership; low Gross Domestic Product; boreal, steppic, and arctic landscapes; as well as forestland systems are underrepresented in the literature. Third, our review shows that land abandonment/extensification is the most prominent (62% of cases) among multiple proximate drivers of landscape change. Fourthly, we find that distinct combinations of mainly political/institutional, cultural, and natural/spatial underlying drivers are determining landscape change, rather than single key drivers. Our systematic review indicates knowledge gaps that can be filled by: (a) expanding the scope of studies to include underrepresented landscapes; (b) clarifying the identification and role of actors in landscape change; (c) deploying more robust tools and methods to quantitatively assess the causalities of landscape change; (d) setting up long-term studies that go beyond mapping land-cover change only; (e) strengthening cross-site and cross-country comparisons of landscape drivers; (f) designing multi-scale studies that consider teleconnections; (g) considering subtle and novel processes of landscape change.

KW - Agricultural intensification

KW - Europe

KW - Land abandonment

KW - Land use and land cover change

KW - Proximate and underlying drivers

KW - Urbanization

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DO - 10.1016/j.landusepol.2016.04.040

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:84973481012

SN - 0264-8377

VL - 57

SP - 204

EP - 214

JO - Land Use Policy

JF - Land Use Policy

ER -

The driving forces of landscape change in Europe: A systematic review of the evidence

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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