Multifunctional landscapes – perspectives for the future

Issue title: Landscape change and human activity — Selected papers from the 2nd International Conference on Landscape Ecology of Asia and Pasific Region, Lanzhou, China, Sept. 22–25, 2001

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Brandt, Jesper

Affiliations: Department of Geography and International Development Studies, Roskilde University, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark

Abstract: New methods in landscape ecology to study the link between landscape heterogeneity and landscape functionality are needed. Heterogeneity is a basic characteristic of landscape, and landscape function is the capacity to change the structural heterogeneity of a landscape system. In most developed countries the industrialisation of agriculture has in general resulted in a change of agricultural landscapes from a small-grained heterogeneous pattern towards more monotonous and monofunctional landscapes. During the 1990's this trends seems to have changed due to a diversification of rural land use and new trends in urbanisation. Weather these phases of landscape development should be expected in developing countries is a totally open question. Dealing with the study of multifunctionality of landscapes it is proposed to distinguish between ecological functionality of landscape ecosystems, functionality pertaining to land use and social functionality. Further, the relation between function, space and scale is important by the determination of spatial and time segregation as well as spatial and time integration of multifunctionality in landscapes.

Keywords: landscape heterogeneity, monotonisation, multifunctionality, spatial segregation, time segregation, landscape development

Journal: Journal of Environmental Sciences, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 187-192, 2003