Veerle Van Eetvelde

Analyzing structural and functional changes of traditional landscapes: two examples from Southern France

Traditional landscapes are changing with increasing speed and an important cultural heritage is becoming lost. New landscapes replace the traditional ones gradually or sometimes abruptly. This article analyzes the characteristics and mechanisms of landscape changes at a settlement level, by using case studies in the countryside of southern France where landscapes are in transition between new residential urbanization and land abandonment. Structural changes in land use, building and field patterns between two time periods are studied using aerial photographs covering a period from 1960 to 1999. The photographs were scanned to allow on screen digitalization and interpretation of selected features and details, which were consecutively mapped and analyzed in a GIS. Changes observed on the aerial photographs were compared with the population statistic and the accessibility of the place. All cases show very different and unique trajectories of change with complex interactions between different driving forces. Agricultural intensification and land abandonment act simultaneously with different forms of urbanization in the countryside. Although easily recognizable on the aerial photographs, a quantitative assessment of the changes in the different structural components remains difficult and the results can hardly be related to changes in population characteristics and accessibility. Consequently, structural and morphological changes observed on the aerial photographs lead to other interpretations of the underlying functional processes than the statistical data do.

Eye-tracking Analysis in Landscape Perception Research: Influence of Photograph Properties and Landscape Characteristics

Abstract The European Landscape Convention emphasises the need for public participation in landscape planning and management. This demands understanding of how people perceive and observe landscapes. This can objectively be measured using eye tracking, a system recording eye movements and fixations while observing images. In this study, 23 participants were asked to observe 90 landscape photographs, representing 18 landscape character types in Flanders (Belgium) differing in degree of openness and heterogeneity. For each landscape, five types of photographs were shown, varying in view angle. This experiment design allowed testing the effect of the landscape characteristics and photograph types on the observation pattern, measured by Eye-tracking Metrics (ETM). The results show that panoramic and detail photographs are observed differently than the other types. The degree of openness and heterogeneity also seems to exert a significant influence on the observation of the landscape.

Landscape characterization integrating expert and local spatial knowledge of land and forest resources

In many developing countries, political documentation acknowledges the crucial elements of participation and spatiality for effective land use planning. However, operative approaches to spatial data inclusion and representation in participatory land management are often lacking. In this paper, we apply and develop an integrated landscape characterization approach to enhance spatial knowledge generation about the complex human–nature interactions in landscapes in the context of Zanzibar, Tanzania. We apply an integrated landscape conceptualization as a theoretical framework where the expert and local knowledge can meet in spatial context. The characterization is based on combining multiple data sources in GIS, and involves local communities and their local spatial knowledge since the beginning into the process. Focusing on the expected information needs for community forest management, our characterization integrates physical landscape features and retrospective landscape change data with place-specific community knowledge collected through participatory GIS techniques. The characterization is established in a map form consisting of four themes and their synthesis. The characterization maps are designed to support intuitive interpretation, express the inherently uncertain nature of the data, and accompanied by photographs to enhance communication. Visual interpretation of the characterization mediates information about the character of areas and places in the studied local landscape, depicting the role of forest resources as part of the landscape entity. We conclude that landscape characterization applied in GIS is a highly potential tool for participatory land and resource management, where spatial argumentation, stakeholder communication, and empowerment are critical issues.

Integrating Archaeology and Landscape Analysis for the Cultural Heritage Management of a World War I Militarised Landscape: The German Field Defences in Antwerp

Abstract The approaching centenary of the start of World War I and the booming cultural tourism at the former Western Front in Belgium, combined with recent urbanisation and agricultural intensification processes, have promoted the demand for a more effective and sustainable heritage management. In addition, there is need for interdisciplinary research on how war and socio-natural landscapes reciprocally reproduce each other in time and space. The focus of this paper is a WWI defence system in the Province of Antwerp (Belgium), some 100 km to the east of the actual Western frontline. Research included the inventory and evaluation of the remaining above-ground relics of military features in a landscape archaeological perspective, based on WWI aerial photographs, historical maps and fieldwork. Landscape types and dynamics were identified from 1918 to 2011, based on a time series of aerial photos and maps, complemented with fieldwork. Second, an overall vision was formulated for sustainable heritage management of the militarised landscape. Both vision and practical recommendations are immediately useful for policy makers and stakeholders.

How landscape ecology can promote the development of sustainable landscapes in Europe: the role of the European Association for Landscape Ecology (IALE-Europe) in the twenty-first century

In Europe, landscape research has a long tradition of drawing on several disciplines. ‘National schools’ of landscape research developed, which were related to the characteristic landscapes found in the different countries and to specific linguistic meanings and legal traditions when using landscape related concepts. International co-operation demands a certain harmonization of these concepts for better mutual understanding. The 2000 European Landscape Convention provided an important momentum to rethink research, policy and management of landscapes from the perspective of sustainable development and participatory planning. Landscape ecology as a transdisciplinary science with a dynamic and holistic perspective on landscape offers a great potential for an integrative approach. The specificity of the European landscape research rests on its long history and on integration based on the great diversity of the landscapes, characterised by an intimate relationship between the varied natural environment and the different cultural traditions which define the identity of countries, regions and people. Within a unified Europe, with increasing international and trans-border co-operation and increasing common environmental problems, the creation of a specific European Association for Landscape Ecology (IALE-Europe), in addition to the existing international association and its national chapters, became justified by the need for a collaborative endeavour to address the specific problems of landscapes in Europe and to stimulate co-operation between landscape ecologists in research, education and practice.

Detecting people’s and landscape’s identity in a changing mountain landscape. An example from the northern Apennines

Abstract Mountain areas in the northern Apennines (Italy) were historically characterised by rural landscapes. Since the 1950s, rapid and widespread land abandonment caused large transformations in the landscape that resulted in a landscape identity crisis. Currently, many people continue to identify and associate themselves with a landscape that no longer exists, whilst others identify themselves with a future landscape that as yet does not exist. This paper explores the concept of landscape identity through empirical research based on a series of in-depth interviews, examination of the contextualised conspicuous spatial and temporal changes and consideration of individual and collective identities. Therefore, firstly, factors influencing the changes in landscape identity through time are identified and, secondly, so-called ‘tipping points’ and their consequential impacts on landscape identity loss or change are detected. Finally, it is the intention of this article to explore and discover the ways in which the concept of landscape identity can be approached and employed in a continuously changing environment.

Investigating the visual exploration of the rural-urban gradient using eye-tracking

We analyze if the visual exploration of landscape photographs is influenced by the urbanization level of the landscape and whether this is correlated with visual landscape complexity. We determine if differences in viewing behavior are related to differences in complexity, expressed by the photographs spectral entropy. An eye-tracking experiment is conducted to measure visual behavior while observing the photographs. A more extensive and dispersed exploration is found in more urbanized landscapes. The fixation pattern is more restricted and clustered in weakly urbanized landscapes. When buildings are lacking, this trend cannot be extrapolated since these landscapes seem to elicit an unexpectedly extensive exploration. The urbanization level is positively correlated with the visual complexity, indicating its potential influence on the viewing behavior.

The Ypres Salient 1914–1918: Historical Aerial Photography and the Landscape of War

Abstract As the centenary commemorations of the Battle of Passchendaele approach, this article is a timely demonstration of how archaeology can provide new insights into the landscape of the Western Front. Assessment of over 9000 aerial photographs taken during the First World War, integrated with other approaches to landscape archaeology, offers a new perspective on the shifting nature of the historic struggle around the town of Ypres in Belgium. The results not only illustrate the changing face of the landscape over that four-year period, but also highlight the potential of aerial photographic records to illuminate hitherto overlooked aspects of landscape heritage.

Landscape perspectives : the holistic nature of landscape

The authors use some historical narratives to illustrate how the concept of landscape implies a holistic nature that intimately links the real tangible world with its experience in the eye of the beholder. Holism makes that landscape can serve as an integrated concept between a wide variety of perspectives to study it. This is the basic idea of the book and is developed in different chapters, each devoted to these perspectives.

Factors of land abandonment in mountainous Mediterranean areas: the case of Montenegrin settlements.

Abstract Land use changes have been investigated in the surroundings of 14 rural Montenegrin settlements in order to get specific information about trends in land abandonment since around 1950. Permanently, seasonally and less inhabited settlements with different geographic conditions were studied. This was done by interviewing local inhabitants, which enabled a holistic approach to reveal the underlying processes of land abandonment. According to the observed patterns of land use change, the study sites can be categorized into intensified, urbanized, extensified, overgrown and forested cases. The category of extensified settlements is characterized by a highly reduced agricultural management intensity, resulting in an increase in grasslands and fruit trees at the expense of cropland. This land use change is mainly related to emigrating and aging inhabitants, having less livestock. Such extensive land use is found in both permanently inhabited and abandoned villages. Only some studied settlements became largely overgrown by bushes and forest. The steep average slope gradients and a large distance to the nearest city are explanatory factors of such land abandonment. Land use intensification takes place in low-lying areas located nearby towns.