Agricultural landscapes

RuralEstudio è una ricerca comparata sui caratteri
e sui problemi di due distinti territori rurali contemporanei, di cui si indaga il difforme intreccio tra economie, ecologie e pratiche dell’abitare, pre gurandone alcune strategie di trasformazione. I saggi narrano le vicende di due luoghi molto diversi fra loro: da un lato gli spazi rurali dell’Adriatico italiano, territori attraversati da intensi processi di dispersione insediativa, frammentazione ecologica, abbandono; dall’altro i territori rurali andini dell’Ecuador, spazi quasi sempre disponibili a ospitare processi di urbanizzazione, ma popolati da gruppi sociali residuali.
RuralEstudio es una investigación sobre los caracteres y problemas de algunos territorios
rurales contemporáneos analizados observando
el entrelazamiento entre economías, ecologías
y prácticas del habitar, pre gurando algunas estrategias de modi cación. Los ensayos cuentan la historia de dos lugares muy diferentes entre ellos: por un lado los espacios rurales del Adriático italiano, territorios atravesados por procesos de dispersión urbana, fragmentación ecológica, abandono; por otro lado los territorios rurales andinos ecuatorianos, espacios considerados, casi siempre como lugares donde albergar procesos de urbanización y poblados por grupos sociales residuales.

The mountainous villages of Shirakawa­gō and Gokayama are well known for the unique architecture of their " Gassho " farmhouses and were enlisted in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1995. These villages with their Gassho­style houses subsisted on the cultivation of mulberry trees and the rearing of silkworms. The large houses with their steeply pitched thatched roofs are the only examples of their kind in Japan. Due to the difficulty of access until recent times, the relations between this area and the outside world were very limited. This long isolation gave rise to the unique culture and traditional social systems, folklore, and customs, which have maintained their continuity. Taking people participation, environmental assessment, and behavioural approach, this chapter throws light on the deeper heritage values, their role in nature conservation and cross­cultural and comparative studies. The chapter also reflects on the personal experiences during December 2004, the time when the Tokai Hokuriku Jidosha Do, the national highway passing nearby, was opened.

This paper analyzed the spatiotemporal dynamics of agricultural landscapes within Hang-Jia-Hu region (China) from 1994 to 2003 using a set of metrics that relate closely with sustainability. Considerable urban expansion was identified with the total built-ups increasing by 224.7% from 6.99 Â 10 4 ha to 22.7 Â 10 4 ha. The outcomes indicated that, at the whole region scale, agricultural landscapes became lost, fragmented, transformed and isolated as urbanization intensified. Global Moran's I statistics and Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA) analysis were employed to characterize the spatial dependence and hotspots for intra-level agricultural landscape changes at two grid scales. Generally, isolation of agricultural patches was a localized problem, while shape transformation of agricultural landscapes was a more regionalized problem; hotspots for lost, fragmentation and irregularity of agricultural landscapes concentrated around urban centers, while those for isolation of agricultural patches appeared in rural mountain areas. Spatial regression models further revealed that changes of agricultural landscapes showed diverging relationships with urbanization indicators for each landscape metric. The character and strength of relationships for each landscape metric were different and changed with scale. While our results of agricultural landscape changes consisted with some theoretical predictions in the literature, they also showed different spatiotemporal signatures of urbanization. Resolving these differences will certainly contribute to the ongoing landscape transformation and sustainability debate. This study demonstrated complexities of relationships between urbanization and agricultural landscape changes, and highlighted the importance of selected variables, spatial and temporal scales and incorporation of spatial dimensions when quantifying these relationships.

Pastoral landscapes are mostly located in agriculturally marginalised areas such as mountain uplands or sandy heathlands. For this reason they have usually not undergone the processes of intensification, enclosure and specialisation characteristic of urbanised core agricultural areas, and
as a result they often involve complex forms of agriculture that spatially and temporally interweave grazing, cultivation (e.g. fodder) and extensive agro-forestry (e.g. fruit and nuts). They are therefore also often linked to customary ways of life and agricultural practices such as commoning and other collective activities that do not serve exclusively economic profit motives. Pastoral landscapes as forms of cultural practices often produce and conserve biologically diverse and unique environments.
Unfortunately, however, the economic marginalisation of these pastoral areas means that they have become vulnerable to depopulation and abandonment due to poor social and physical infrastructure (schools, roads), and have become co-dependent on supplementary economic
activities (construction, food processing).

The use of Czechia’s landscape was repeatedly changed, especially by political factors. After 1989, there were large-scale processes of property return, privatization and transformation of the economy and society. In 2003, before entry into EU, approximately 300,000 hectares of agricultural land were not used economically. This was evidently an impact of a tremendous fragmentation of the holdings in the early 1990s as well as large differences between the structure of owners of land and its real users (tenants). A mere 62% of arable land (and 78% of agricultural land in all), registered in the Cadastre of Real Estate (register of owners) is also included in the Land Parcel Identification System (register of users). This disharmony between the cadastral data and the state in the terrain prompted us to focus our attention on this state. We analyze the driving forces which brought it about as well as the size and regional structure of such differences.

English summary is placed in the end of the article.

The Little Sustainable Landscapes Book aims to clarify and disseminate sustainable landscape management methods, and to catalyse their implementation across private and public sectors worldwide.

The book summarises current developments in landscape management, makes recommendations on policy, and explains the importance of landscape initiatives in achieving global goals related to sustainable development. It has been produced in collaboration with world leading experts in agriculture and natural resources, including WWF, Ecoagriculture Partners, The Nature Conservancy, IDH The Sustainable Trade Initiative, and The Global Canopy Programme.

The Little Sustainable Landscapes Book is available online in English, French, Bahasa or Spanish.

Assessments of body condition can provide useful information on changes in the state of individuals within a population, which may in turn help to inform conservation efforts. For example, decreases in body condition over time can indicate reduced food resources. Mass and skull length measures recorded for 195 adult and 467 first winter (cygnets) Bewick’s Swans (Cygnus columbianus bewickii) at wintering sites in the UK between winters 1966/1967 and 2017/2018 therefore were analysed to determine whether a ca. 40% decline in numbers in the Northwest European Bewick’s Swan population between 1995 and 2010 corresponded with poorer body condition from the mid-1990s onwards. Parents and siblings were known for all individuals, allowing us to account for shared genetic factors and rearing environment in our analysis. We used linear mixed-effects models and an information-theoretic approach to test different models of temporal variation in scaled body mass index (SBMI). Within our study population, although SBMI values varied both within and between years, we found no evidence of any directional trends in body condition. Of our competing time models of swan SBMI, a model in which age-specific body condition was constant over time received the greatest support in the data. Body condition was greater for adults than cygnets, but did not vary between sexes or wintering sites. Our findings suggest no connection between the recent declines in population size and body condition. Population decline is therefore unlikely to be caused by inadequate food supplies.

The chapter presents the results of the first comprehensive survey of regional landscapes in Croatia which was carried out for the aim of recognising the of Adriatic Croatia’s outstanding cultural landscapes. The research is based on idea of combined visual/biophysical and cultural/historical cultural landscape assessment. Due to lack of pre-existing research on Croatian Adriatic landscapes, this work was challenged to find a ‘fast’ and operative method that combine several well- known approaches to landscape assessment. The concepts of landscape character, historic landscape character, landscape biography and integrative landscape evaluation framework were carried out, combined and modelled. The final result encompasses agricultural landscape history and classification studies and the register of 62 outstanding cultural landscapes

Habitat restoration has become an important part of biodiversity conservation in the face of extensive habitat loss and fragmentation, especially in agricultural landscapes. Study of invertebrates such as beetles (Coleoptera) may be important to assess the effectiveness of restoration techniques in maintaining native fauna, because they provide a variety of trophic roles and ecosystem services. In this study we examined the conservation value for beetles of revegetation in linear strips and alongside remnant patches compared with remnant vegetation and cleared roadsides. We also assessed how habitat variables structured beetle community composition. Beetle species richness and abundance did not substantially differ between revegetated, remnant and cleared areas, and was not substantially influenced by vegetation type and structure. Herbivorous beetles and the family Curculionidae were more species rich in cleared linear strips. Beetle fauna in these agricultural landscapes may be a robust subset of the pre-clearing beetle community, possibly due to the widespread degradation of remnant areas and the ground layer habitats within them. One beetle species had slightly higher abundance in remnant linear strips, suggesting that remnant habitats may be important for some beetle species. Importantly, environmental variables strongly influenced beetle community composition, signifying that beetle communities are still responding to factors such as soil type and native vegetation, rather than variables mainly associated with land management. The restoration practices currently being undertaken in agricultural areas may not maintain beetle species that require specific habitat variables to survive. Ground-layer attributes need to be included in future revegetation projects, and translocation of specialist species of beetles may be required to restore communities.

Natural living spaces on earth are shaped by human activity, changed through time, and the landscape characters of areas are established based on the usage. The landscape character of an area is a heritage that develops in ages and connects the past to the future. In this context, in order to ensure that the historical and cultural landscape values of regions are preserved as parts of heritage and handed over to the future generations, it is highly important that such values are used in adaptation to the needs and demands of our time and promoted. In this study, the grapevine (Vitis spp.) plant with a high economic value, inherited from ancient civilizations, produced in many regions in Turkey where it shapes the terrain, was introduced, and the importance of grapevine gardens was analysed in terms of cultural landscaping. The problem investigated in this study is that grapevines and grapevine gardens that establish a region's landscape character are not sufficiently utilized or sustainably used today. Therefore, the importance of grapevines and grapevine gardens, which provide genuine character for landscaping was presented, and in order to ensure that they are passed down to future generations, possibilities to use these in landscaping designs were determined by providing examples others. INTRODUCTION The original texture of the earth changes in time due to human and natural activities.The best example for the adverse effects of human on the environment, is the change in landscape characteristics on rural lands as a result of sudden changes in land use preferences. These mentioned changes of preferences not only disrupt the ecological balance and the physical features of the landscape but also destruct the unique landscape elements that enable the inhabitants develop identity. The changes in land use that take place without being planned in details also change the characteristics and aesthetic of the landscape beside changing its appearance (Krivosudský 2014). " Grapevine Gardens " , which have been used from develop their identities in terms of history and culture, are imancient civilizations to the present day for various purposes and enabled regions portant landscape elements but unfortunately they have been the victims of modern lifestyle. The plant " Grapevine " is considered as an important landscape element as it shapes the regional landscape physically, affects the social structure and develops identity for the area. The main research question of the study is that the grapevine gardens that provide characteristics to the regional landscape is not being used efficiently and sustainably. Within this scope, the study presents different use opportunities and the importance of " grapevine plant " , which has had economic value from the ancient civilisations to the present, considering cultural landscape. It is aimed to offer suggestions on the use of grapevine gardens, which provide unique characteristics to the area by changing its physical appearance, so that they can contribute to a large segment of the society in terms of both education and recreation through sociocultural activities. In this regard, the use of grapevine from the past to the present; its contribution to the cultural landscape and the way how it determines the characteristics of the landscape have been set forth using examples and suggestions have been offered in order to ensure its sustainable use.

Yungas es una de las ecoregiones tropicales de mayor diversidad ecológica del mundo y se encuentra entre las zonas arqueológicas menos conocidas de Bolivia. Con el objetivo de determinar las características constructivas y de uso de las terrazas precolombinas de esta región, así como las posibilidades de su recuperación tecnológica, entre los años 2006 y 2008 se realizaron prospecciones y excavaciones en los municipios de Quime, Cajuata e Inquisivi. Como resultado, se documentaron varios conjuntos  de terrazas precolombinas situadas en diferentes pisos altitudinales. La información obtenida sugiere que la tecnología de terrazas de cultivo, a nivel de paisaje, permitió un aprovechamiento agrícola sostenido y la formación de suelos fértiles (Dark soils – “Terra preta”) a gran escala, en un espacio ecológico complementario y fundamental para las sociedades de la vertiente oriental de los Andes.