► Increasing urban demand for goods and services provided by peri-urban agriculture. ► Post-productive characteristics in peri-urban agriculture. ► Development potential for multifunctional ...agriculture.
Peri-urban areas around urban agglomerations in Europe and elsewhere have been subject to agricultural and land use research for the past three decades. The manner in which farming responds to urban pressures, socio-economic changes and development opportunities has been the main focus of examination, with urban demand for rural goods and services representing a driving factor to adapt farming activities in a multifunctional way. Working within the peri-urban framework, this review pays particular attention to the relevance of multifunctional agriculture. Academic discourses and empirical insights related to farm structure and practices beyond conventional agriculture are analysed. Diversification, recreational and environmental farming, landscape management and specialisation, as well as direct marketing are all taken into consideration and discussed within the context of landscape functions. The provision of rural goods and services is contrasted with societal demands on peri-urban agriculture. This review finds that multifunctional agriculture has been commonly recognised in peri-urban areas – a phenomenon that includes a large variety of activities and diversification approaches within the context of environmental, social and economic functions of agriculture. In response to the post-productive, consumption-oriented requirements of the urban society, peri-urban farmers have intensified their uptake of multifunctional activities. Nevertheless, not all multifunctional opportunities are being fully developed when one considers the large and growing urban demand for goods and services provided by agriculture carried out near the city. This paper discusses policy and planning approaches to support multifunctional agriculture in peri-urban areas.
The circumstances of contemporary rural tourism have complicated the orientation and interests of stakeholders and transformed people's aesthetic judgment and negotiation on landscapes. Previous ...studies have revealed the preference variations among stakeholders' cohort individuality; however, few have illustrated how the pathway discrepancy between perception and cognition resulted in the heterogeneity of rural landscape aesthetics. In this research, a tourist village in Southwest China was selected for a case study. A method of structured photographs scale was applied to elicit aesthetic judgment by landscape preference and indicators, as approaches via perception and cognition pathway. Comparative analysis showed that pathway discrepancy can be considered an essential part of the aesthetic heterogeneity mechanism. Based on the results, the authors provide some suggestions on rural landscape governance: (1) the procedure of public participation in landscape assessment ought to take participant's place attachment, epistemology standpoint and demographic features into account to consolidate aesthetic justice; (2) measures for rural landscape improvement should shift the focus from physical landscape to livelihood, lifestyle and other non-gaze essence of rural area; (3) in order to bring aesthetic conflicts to a common ground in tourism development, landscape management should invite different stakeholders to cognize and attach more to the land.
•Tourism gives rise to stakeholders' aesthetic conflicts on rural landscape.•Perception and cognition result in different aesthetic judgements on rural landscape.•People's aesthetic choices depend on their place attachment, epistemology standpoint and demographic feature.•The heterogeneity rules of landscape aesthetics affect the result of landscape assessment.•Attachment and comprehension conciliate conflicts in rural landscape negotiation.
The sustainable development of SII (small inhabited islands) has critical impacts on human well-being and requires balancing complex multiobjectives, for which the most beneficial actions must be ...prioritized, with limited financial and labor support. The effect of current plans based on single-scale or single-objective assessments may be overestimated, and multiscale landscape assessments and plans offer a potential solution. This study aimed to bring more attention to SII and use landscape ecology theories and methods to develop a multiscale landscape assessment framework that integrates multiobjectives to identify priority action plans for sustainable development. This framework consists of a LEHA (landscape ecological health assessment) based on the PSR (pressure-state-response) index system and a TLSA (tourism landscape suitability assessment) based on the AHP (analytic hierarchy process) index system at regional and unit landscape scales, respectively. And we verified it on Xiaodeng Island in Xiamen, China, near Kinmen Island in Taiwan Province, which is a typical case of SII that are in the administrative division of “township” consisting of villages only. Our framework is characterized by overall consistency, hierarchical transmission and spatial variability, which ensures the scientific and operability of plans that can meet both ‘top-down’ management objectives and ‘bottom-up’ development needs. The application in Xiaodeng Island confirmed its feasibility. We proposed 4 strategies and an action plan network of 12 actions with specific content, location and order based on the assessment results with the goal of mitigating climate change, particularly in marine ecosystems, and providing more sustainable development opportunities for SII residents. In the future, we need a long-term monitoring database, scenario modeling predictions and quantitative analysis of the plan effectiveness for SII; furthermore, we need to implement this framework at different landscape scales in other areas.
•SII (Small inhabited islands) need more attention.•We developed a multiscale landscape assessment framework using PSR and AHP methods.•Achieving a more precise spatialisation of problems and actions through multiscale.•Multi-stakeholders in SII will all benefit from our study.
Context
Despite calls for landscape connectivity research to account for spatiotemporal dynamics, studies have overwhelmingly evaluated the importance of habitats for connectivity at single or ...limited moments in time. Remote sensing time series represent a promising resource for studying connectivity within dynamic ecosystems. However, there is a critical need to assess how static and dynamic landscape connectivity modelling approaches compare for prioritising habitats for conservation within dynamic environments.
Objectives
To assess whether static landscape connectivity analyses can identify similar important areas for connectivity as analyses based on dynamic remotely sensed time series data.
Methods
We compared degree and betweenness centrality graph theory metric distributions from four static scenarios against equivalent results from a dynamic 25-year remotely sensed surface-water time series. Metrics were compared at multiple spatial aggregation scales across south-eastern Australia’s 1 million km
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semi-arid Murray–Darling Basin and three sub-regions with varying levels of hydroclimatic variability and development.
Results
We revealed large differences between static and dynamic connectivity metric distributions that varied by static scenario, region, spatial scale and hydroclimatic conditions. Static and dynamic metrics showed particularly low overlap within unregulated and spatiotemporally variable regions, although similarities increased at coarse aggregation scales.
Conclusions
In regions that exhibit high spatiotemporal variability, static connectivity modelling approaches are unlikely to serve as effective surrogates for more data intensive approaches based on dynamic, remotely sensed data. Although this limitation may be moderated by spatially aggregating static connectivity outputs, our results highlight the value of remotely sensed time series for assessing connectivity in dynamic landscapes.
Context
Species distribution models (SDMs) usually describe the landscape through single landcover types as explicative and independent variables. However, species distribution responds to ecological ...processes that are represented in spatial patterns of landcovers, which are not usually considered in SDMs.
Objectives
From the hypothesis that Iberian lynx occurrence will depend on landscape functioning and that spatial organisation of landcovers is a reliable indicator of landscape functionality, we built a SDM based on landscape structure, to: (i) assess the relevance that spatial organisation of landcovers has for SDMs; (ii) describe the suitable landscape for the presence/conservation of the Iberian lynx.
Methods
Spatial organisation of landscape is identified by recognising landscape mosaics, which are sets of patches with a similar pattern of boundaries. We identified landscape mosaics within western area of the province of Madrid. Then, we used field-collected lynx scats to test if species’ preferences are related to landscape mosaics.
Results
The species shows its preference for two out of eight identified mosaics. It shows preference for mosaics with low human-modified holm oak forests, but it does not show rejection of traditional land-uses such as pasture or non-intensive agriculture. The relevance of watercourses was also shown, since two of four mosaics with characteristic riparian vegetation prove to be relevant in the model.
Conclusions
As landscape includes spatial interactions (boundaries) among landcovers it is a more holistic descriptor than single landcovers. This contributes to increase SDMs performance and usefulness for designing more accurate conservation actions, compared to those based on single landcover composition.
This paper addresses the complexity of change processes and related management challenges of rural landscapes. With a reference to the European Landscape Convention, a need for integrated and ...collaborative approaches to landscape governance is discussed. A landscape strategy-making approach with the potential to meet such demands is introduced. Two examples where the approach has been applied are analysed in respect of processes and immediate outcomes, including goals, spatial plans and strategic projects. With reference to the cases, the applied model is discussed within a wider landscape governance perspective. It is concluded that the model represents a way forward towards a more inclusive, integrating and pro-active landscape governance. Landscape strategy making is suitable for bringing different types of landscape-related challenges and perspectives together with different forms of collaboration and social capacity building to guide rural landscape developments. However, the approach cannot replace traditional land use regulations.
作为实现“美丽中国”“美丽乡村”“建设生态文明”“乡村振兴战略”目标的关键，受自然和人类活动相互作用的影响而形成的、可以被人所感知的具有明显特征的“景观”，是综合提升人居环境形态美、功能美和文化美的重要载体和纽带，是保护魅力国土特征、重塑区域特色禀赋、提升地方文化自信的重要基础。景观立法体系的构建既有助于科学划定生态、农业、城镇等主要控制线，对农业发展、生态功能的恢复及保护、城乡融合发展具有重要意义，又有助于乡村振兴战略中生态宜居的美丽乡村建设。本文介绍了6个国家（经济体）开发的针对乡村景观资源的评估规划技术和保育治理体系，并分析了其通过立法机制推动景观资源保育工作由被动向主动转化的经验。同时，本文从建立乡村景观资源特征数据库、探索景观特征营造和立法保育技术体系、通过地方实践探索适宜我国国情的工作路径等方面提出了我国通过立法机制促进乡村景观可持续利用的建议。Landscapes,as perceived by people,are a product of either natural process or human intervention in the natural environmentthey are a fundamental element in achieving the goals of Beautiful China,Beautiful Villages,Ecological Civilization,and Rural Revitalization policies.They are also vital in improving human habitats ecologically,functionally,and culturally.Landscape protection,management,and planning are significant for maintaining spatial features,shaping regional characteristics,and enhancing cultural confidence.The enactment of a landscape legislation system is conducive to the scientific delineation of the zoning lines of ecol
Context
Landscape studies often focus on determining how the landscape around a discrete set of field sites affects an abiotic or biotic response measured at those sites. To run this type of ...analysis, a decision must be made about the spatial extent over which the landscape affects the response. Many authors have acknowledged the limitations of common approaches to estimating this spatial extent of a landscape effect and some have proposed alternatives. However, many alternative methods have thus far been difficult to implement.
Objectives
The R package, ‘scalescape’ which we introduce in this paper, builds on and improves the usability of these alternative methods for estimating the spatial scale of a landscape effect on an abiotic or biotic response.
Methods and results
The package uses established approaches that weight landscape variables based on their distance from where a response is measured. It integrates well-used functions for performing regression in R, such as lm(), glm(), lmer(), glmer(), and gls(), with landscape weightings of spatial predictor variables. Here, we provide an introduction to ‘scalescape’ including a user guide detailing its functionality and step-by-step instructions. We also conduct simulations to illustrate and validate the ‘scalescape’ approach.
Conclusions
We conclude that ‘scalescape’ builds on previously proposed methods for landscape analyses by making it easier to implement distance-weighted approaches and by improving the statistical validity of these analyses through the use of GLS models and bootstrapping.
Context
Understanding how the Northern Forest landscape has changed and is likely to change, both in terms of forest extent and forest configuration, has important implications for management.
...Objectives
We examined historical changes in forest pattern and extent to: (1) characterize recent forest cover change and potential drivers of that change, (2) identify areas vulnerable to future forest loss, (3) assess the impact of such loss on forest fragmentation, and (4) examine correlations between projected forest loss and socioeconomic variables to help inform future planning.
Methods
We developed a cellular automata model to simulate changes in forest land cover in the Northern Forest region from 2015 to 2075. The model was parameterized from observed historical trends (1985 to 2015) and correlating spatial variables using Bayesian Weights of Evidence. Using our model outputs, we identified areas most vulnerable to change, and impacts of these changes on forest fragmentation.
Results
Though we find an overall trend of decreasing forest area across the region, rates of change vary spatially and temporally, with an overall increase in forest cover between 2000 and 2015. Areas most attractive for development (e.g. high population density, low slope and elevation) were most likely to experience deforestation. Forest fragmentation increased during observed and simulated time steps, even during an observed period of net forest regeneration.
Conclusions
Forest loss and fragmentation due to development represent a formidable threat to the Northern Forest. Historical trends indicate that simply increasing forest extent is not sufficient to restore forest connectivity in the region.
Context
Grassland corridors are set aside for biodiversity conservation within the commercial timber plantation landscape of South Africa, potentially connecting high value conservation areas ...together. However, the impact of the production landscape on functional connectivity within these corridors has not been investigated.
Objectives
We combine stacked species distribution modelling, functional connectivity analysis, species turnover calculations, and community analysis, to improve our understanding of how grassland corridors contribute to functional connectivity and biodiversity conservation within plantation landscapes.
Methods
Grasshoppers, which are reliable indicators of grassland quality, were used as model organisms and sampled within grassland corridors. Remote sensing and machine learning was used to predict functional connectivity and its influence on grasshoppers.
Results
Wide corridors along an elevation gradient with different aspects support different grasshopper assemblages and promote species turnover. Sensitive species occur at high elevations with a north-west facing slope in wide corridors that are functionally connected to large high-quality remnant patches. Maintenance of functional connectivity is dependent on the availability of high-quality habitat, which is shaped by prescribed burning, and has a significant effect on range restricted species. Not all high-quality habitat is functionally connected, attributed to exclusion of fire and/or invasive plants, requiring conservation intervention.
Conclusions
Prescribed burning should be used to maintain functional connectivity. We recommend less frequent fires, burning every 2–3 years, guided by NDVI. Large corridors at high elevation are priority. In estates with narrow corridors and low functional connectivity, stepping-stone habitats and grassland buffers next to roads should be considered for improved functional connectivity.
