Unter dem Motto "Landschaftswandel – Landscape Change" haben der LSGL, das FZLB, das BLDAM, und die VEM im Juni 2009 ein gemeinsames Symposium an der BTU Cottbus organisiert und ausgerichtet. Um dem wachsenden wissenschaftlichen, politischen und gesellschaftlichen Interesse an dieser Thematik Rechnung zu tragen, sind in diesem Band ausgewählte Beiträge von Referenten des Symposiums veröffentlicht. Die Beiträge zeigen die Breite der am Thema "Landschaftswandel – Landscape Change" beteiligten Disziplinen, Akteure und Regionen: vom Bergbaubetreiber über die Botanik zur Archäologie und der physischen Geographie, von der Lausitz über Bayern bis nach Griechenland.
Large-scale migration of urban people seeking a better quality of life in rural places has generated considerable concern about "rural sprawl." In a multimethod, fine-scale, longitudinal study of land ownership and use in Nevada County, we found that this quintessential "exurban" community reveals a complex story of interacting social and ecological change with some reasons for concern, but also optimism. Land-use data from 1957 to 2001 shows dramatic fragmentation of the county's landscape as a result of increased residential use. The full scale of this transition is not visible because many parcels that are already zoned for further subdivision and residential use remain undeveloped. The related ecological changes have been mixed so far, with tree cover and riparian areas ?recovering from historic mining, ranching and timber harvesting. These changes are not incidental: many residential owners expressed a strong conservation ethic. However, ecologically harmful effects of increased residential use are present as well. In surveys and interviews, rural-residential owners revealed conflicting feelings about their changing landscape: most are concerned about preserving their quality of life and preventing the ecological impacts of further growth, but also do not want additional government regulations. Research on a fine scale into the cultural basis of ecologically beneficial and harmful rural-residential land-use practices can assist policymakers in crafting innovative and effective growth-management institutions.
In: Wasserwirtschaft: Hydrologie, Wasserbau, Boden, Ökologie ; Organ der Deutschen Vereinigung für Wasserwirtschaft, Abwasser und Abfall, Band 112, Heft S1, S. 106-107
The country is so well-favoured that if it were rightly cultivated it would yield everything. (Letter of Pero Vaz de Caminha, 1 May 1500.)It is a vast region with favoured terrain. On its soil grow all fruits; On its subsoil exist all treasures… Its fields give the most useful food; its mines the finest gold… It is an admirable country, rich in every respect, where prodigiously profuse nature sacrifices herself in fertile produce for the opulence of the monarchy and the benefit of the world. (J. da Rocha Pitta, 1724.)
The Palestinian landscape has always been subjected to dynamic processes of change. This article examines the landscape change in Ramallah city during the last 20 years by analysing two aerial photographs from two periods—1994 and 2014—to create land cover maps which illustrate the change in different landscape classes in the city. The article aims to quantify the landscape change in the specified periods using GIS and FRAGSTATS analysis, and to identify and explain spatial patterns of the landscape, taking into consideration the political, social, and economic circumstances. The results reveal a considerable change and fragmentation. The main change is an increase in the built-up area at the expense of a decrease in the permanent trees and scrub areas. This change, due to the occupation policies, is a reflection of many indicators, including population growth, migration, and an economic boom in the construction sector.
Rural landscapes in many parts of the world no longer exist solely for agricultural production and therefore face change to accommodate various socio-economic demands. Hence, there is a need to improve our understanding of public attitudes—in particular, their openness—toward such change. This article discusses predictors of openness to landscape change in rural areas based on the results of an online survey conducted to develop attitudinal measurement scales for landscape change and rural landscape in England. Landscape change in rural areas was not welcomed by the respondents mainly due to their high level of affirmative attitudes to rural landscapes. However, the study suggests that there is a possibility, especially among younger cohorts, that increasing levels of education will lead to greater openness to landscape change.
Die Arbeit behandelt eine Reihe zusammenhängender Veränderungen, die nach dem Fall der Mauer im Ostteil von Berlin stattfanden. In drei Aufsätzen wird die Geschichte des unmittelbaren Wandels der Diskurse über Raumtypologien dargestellt, die symbolische Aneignung beschrieben, die in den Aushandlungsprozessen um die Schaffung einer vereinten Berliner Innenstadt stattfand und die Auswirkungen der Veränderungen in der diskursiven und symbolischen Neuausrichtung am Beispiel der Entwicklung zweier Berliner Bezirke veranschaulicht. Die Ergebnisse entstammen dabei einem Methoden-Mix aus verschiedenen Ansätzen der semiotischen Analyse und Diskursanalyse sowie der Auswertung demographischer Daten. Das Projekt gliedert sich in fünf Leithypothesen: H1: Semiotik ist eine effektive analytische Methode für die Untersuchung von Kulturlandschaften. H2: Die symbolische Landschaft Ostberlins nach 1990 wurde von einem "westlichen" kulturellen Mythos beherrscht, der sich im symbolischen Kapital und im Architekturstil der neuen/alten Hauptstadt niederschlug. H3: Der Wandel der symbolischen Landschaft Ostberlins nach 1990 ist Ausdruck eines auf die Zeit vor dem zweiten Weltkrieg verengten historischen Narrativs. H4: Die diskursive Übertragung hatte konkrete Auswirkungen auf die räumliche und demographische Entwicklung der Ost-Berliner Bezirke. H5: Die Ursache für die Stigmatisierung Berlin-Marzahns direkt nach der deutschen Wiedervereinigung lag primär in dieser diskursiven Übertragung. Die fünf Hypothesen werden in dem Projekt erfolgreich überprüft und bestätigt. Der Methoden-Mix erweist sich als gut geeignet für die strukturelle Analyse von Kulturlandschaften. Sowohl diese Analyse als auch die daraus entwickelte Theorie, dass die Symbole der herrschenden ökonomischen, politischen oder kolonialen Macht, die in die Kulturlandschaft eingebettet sind, "gelesen" werden können, weisen vielversprechende Anknüpfungspunkte für weitere Forschungskontexte auf. ; This dissertation describes a range of connected changes that took place in the eastern half of Berlin after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The three articles tell the story of immediate changes to discourses about built spaces and built space forms (article 1), symbolic appropriations in the negotiations surrounding the creation of a new unified Berliner inner-city (article 2), and the effect of the changes in discursive and symbolic restructurings in the subsequent development of two Berlin districts with different built space types (article 3). Under the framework of grounded theory, this project operationalized several semiotic analysis techniques for the study of the cultural landscape and combined these with discourse analysis and demographic data to derive the results presented in the three articles described above. The project was guided by five hypotheses: H1: Semiotics is an effective analytical method for the analysis of cultural landscapes. H2: The symbolic landscape of East Berlin after 1990 was dominated by a western cultural mythos which pervaded the symbolic capital and architectural style of the new/old capital city. H3: The changes to the symbolic landscape of East Berlin after 1990 reflected a very specific and narrow pre-WWI historical narrative. H4: This discursive transference had tangible material effects on the material and demographic development of the Eastern districts. H5: The stigmatization of Berlin-Marzahn directly after German reunification was primarily due to this discursive transference. All five hypotheses could be successfully tested and validated from the empirical research. The mix of methods presented in this project proved well-suited to the structural analysis of cultural landscapes. Both it and the theory developed, namely that the narrative of the dominant power, economic, political, or colonial, can be "read" by examining the symbols embedded in the cultural landscape, would benefit from further research in other contexts.
The definitive version is available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169555X13003073# ; [EN] Intense erosion processes are widespread in the Mediterranean region, and include sheet wash erosion, rilling, gullying, shallow landsliding, and the development of large and active badlands in both subhumid and semi-arid areas. This review analyses the main environmental and human features related to soil erosion processes, and the main factors that explain the extreme variability of factors influencing soil erosion, particularly recent land use changes. The importance of erosion in the Mediterranean is related to the long history of human activity in a region characterized by low levels of annual precipitation, the occurrence of intense rainstorms and long-lasting droughts, high evapotranspiration, the presence of steep slopes and the occurrence of recent tectonic activity, together with the recurrent use of fire, overgrazing and farming. These factors have resulted in a complex landscape in which intensification and abandonment, wealth and poverty can co-exist. The changing conditions of national and international markets and the evolution of population pressure are now the main drivers explaining land use changes, including farmland abandonment in mountain areas, the expansion of some subsidized crops to marginal lands, and the development of new terraces affected by landslides and intense soil erosion during extreme rainstorm events. The occurrence of human-related forest fires affecting thousands of hectares each year is a significant problem in both the northern and southern areas of the Mediterranean basin. Here, we highlight the rise of new scientific challenges in controlling the negative consequences of soil erosion in the Mediterranean region: 1) to reduce the effects and extent of forest fires, and restructure the spatial organization of abandoned landscapes; 2) to provide guidance for making the EU agricultural policy more adapted to the complexity and fragility of Mediterranean environments; 3) to develop field methods and models to improve the identification of runoff and sediment contributing areas; 4) to contribute to the conservation of landscapes (i.e. bench-terraced fields) having high cultural and productivity values; 5) to improve knowledge of the hydrological and geomorphological functioning of badlands, with the aim of reducing sediment yield and accessibility; 6) to better understand the effect of climate change on soil erosion in the Mediterranean region; and 7) to improve quantitative information on long-term soil erosion. ; Support for this research was provided by the projects INDICA (CGL2011- 27753-C02-01 and -02), HIDROCAES (CGL2011-27574-C02-01) and DISDROSPEC (CGL2011-24815), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF-FEDER), ACQWA (FP7-ENV- 2007-1-212250), financed by the European Commission, and an agreement between the CSIC and the Spanish Ministry of Environment (RESEL). The Geomorphology and Global Change research group was financed by the Aragón Government and the European Social Fund (ESF-FSE). E. Nadal-Romero and N. Lana-Renault benefited from a research contract (Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Programme Juan de la Cierva). The authors acknowledge the comments from Prof. Mike Fullen and an anonymous referee, as well as the editorial labour from Prof. Takashi Oguchi. ; Peer reviewed