Terraced landscapes are widely applied in many mountainous regions around the world as a result of the necessity to practice subsistence agriculture. Hence, they can be regarded as one of the most ...diffused anthropogenic modifications of the Earth’s surface. Different techniques have been used for their implementation leading to the artificial immobilization of debris and soil along the slopes whose surface is interrupted by a sequence of sub-horizontal and sub-vertical areas often using stone walls. In some areas of the world, such interventions are thousands of years old and their resistance to the degradation caused by the morphogenetic system can be attributed to the permeability of the stone walls as well as to their regular maintenance. In some other areas, the lack of maintenance has been the main cause for degradation processes ending with their collapse. The effects of climate change manifested through higher intensities and higher frequencies of rainfall are likely to accelerate the degradation process further by causing terraces to act as a source of debris or hyperconcentrated flow. This will in turn increase the severity of geo-hydrological hazards. The measures concerning reduction of geo-hydrological hazards are sought through identification of abandoned terraces and assessment of the potential for their sudden collapse. The present paper describes a framework for identification of abandoned terraces and estimation of the potential volume of shallow landslides that can be generated. The research conducted aims to advance the existing hazard assessment practices by combining numerical modeling with processing of high-resolution LiDAR data. A new algorithm is developed to support localization of terraces. The catchment scale approach applied to eight smaller catchments enables estimation of the total volume of soil and debris trapped along the slopes. It also generated some important quantitative data which will be used in the future risk assessment work. The work has been carried out within the EU-funded H2020 project RECONECT.
Cultivated terraces distinctively mark the landscape and are a result of human adaptation to steep areas. Terraces were studied with regard to their morphometric qualities, ownership structure, and ...land use at eight pilot sites in various landscape types in Slovenia. Twenty-six detailed interviews were carried out with local residents and experts. In current agricultural practice, terraces mostly represent obstacles, and for owners they create a loss rather than profit; however, they represented an advantage in the past, when they were cultivated manually. Land use is intensifying on economically profitable terraces. Among those examined, the Jeruzalem terraces stand out because these are the youngest ones (created in socialist Yugoslavia around 1965). Because of their aesthetic value, they are the best known among the public. Profitability in particular will be an important driving force for the future maintenance of terraces.
This paper presents a case study of the village of Mrkovi in the Bay of Kotor, Montenegro, showing the importance of landscape identification and assessment in planning the revitalization and ...development of Mediterranean rural settlements. The research revealed the methods of identification and evaluation of different landscape types. Moreover, it showed how such an approach could considerably contribute to the preservation of the space’s identity and quality by taking into account the existing characteristics of the space or the relationship between cultural and natural heritage. The identification of the landscape types was followed by the evaluation of individual elements and assessment of vulnerability in relation to the space’s natural, cultural, and visual quality. The first step in the process of preserving the elements that contribute to the landscape’s identity was the spatial identification of the cultural pattern of traditional terraces with drystone walls. The results of analysis indicate a high risk of degradation of the basic landscape value. The effects of future interventions in the space, especially the planned construction of a tourist resort, can be mitigated if they comply with the guidelines related to the rational use of the space and delimitation of the construction zones. This paper points out the importance of a responsible attitude and planned approach regarding the cultural and natural landscape of Mediterranean rural settlements.
Small-scale agriculture (SA) is regarded as unsustainability because of its low benefit. To protect traditional agricultural landscapes like terraces through SA will be difficult. However, in China, ...terraces are still maintained well by smallholders now. This study takes the family as a basic unit and SA in Hani terraced region as an object to explore its sustainability from the perspective of labor productivity (LP) through the questionnaire method. The findings are that peasant households work on both farm and non-farm jobs. They get a low income (3854.5 yuan RMB) from hybrid-rice-cropping and a high income (44,665.8 yuan RMB) from non-farm jobs but spend a small part of labors (34.23 person
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days) in growing hybrid-rice and expended lots of labor (522 person•days) for non-farm jobs. In conclusion, LP of hybrid-rice-cropping is 1.32 times that of non-farm jobs for a household. The result shows SA in Hani terraced region has a higher return of labor investment than non-farm jobs. It is different from the common impression of the low benefit of SA and also explains why SA still continues to exist in the mountainous area in China now. However, SA in Hani terraced region also faces challenges with salary level rise of non-farm jobs and part-time farmers’ requirement for living quality improvement. In the future, promoting industrial integration development in this region to add local employment for improving farmers’ income is a feasible approach to protect terraced landscapes.
Europe retains a great variety of cultural landscapes that constitute a significant part of the European cultural heritage. In the last decades, these high-quality landscapes are facing several ...challenges due to socio-economic transformations that often compromise their integrity. This situation is even worse for terraced landscapes, as in the case of the Porto Venere and Cinque Terre UNESCO World Heritage List site. The Management Plan developed for this area needs to deal with different issues: abandonment of terraced cultivations and growth of secondary forests, hydrogeological risk and high touristic pressure. Public participation is increasingly important in the process of decision-making, for incorporating the ideas and the needs of the local communities, helping to find effective solutions for the valorization of historic landscapes and for improving the quality of life. This research has investigated the perception of the local community regarding the current landscape dynamics and other critical issues studying the opinions of two social groups: farmers and residents. The purpose was to identify the best management strategies for the Management Plan and to actively involve the population in the decisions. The involvement of the local community turned out to be a very effective tool for the development of the Management Plan, suggesting a focus on the conservation of dry-stone terraces and the reduction of reforestation processes, as the strongest perceived threat is the abandonment of cultivated terraces and the resulting risk of landslides. The methodology applied in this study can be reproduced in other cultural landscapes characterized by high quality, complexity and fragility, while an active involvement of the population turned out to be important also for increasing the feeling that institutions take care of its issues.
This study investigates the distribution of terraced landscapes in Slovakia and analyzes their structural characteristics and land use. We found that traditional farming and terrace building as a ...part of agricultural intensification resulted in two types of terraced landscapes: historical terraced landscapes and new terraced landscapes. The two types differ in size, structure of various elements, their management intensity, and the impact of these spatial structures on biodiversity. Historical terraced landscapes in Slovakia have been partially preserved in vineyard regions, but they are mainly found in mountainous areas. New terraced landscapes are mainly linked to vineyard landscapes. The plant species composition on the mapped terraced landscapes shows a high diversity of habitats and terraces as agrarian relief forms create islands of species diversity in extensively managed agricultural landscapes.
This article presents the findings of a study on long-term land-use changes in eight areas of various Slovenian landscapes. The emphasis is on comparing changes on terraced and non-terraced land from ...the early nineteenth century to the present and on a typological classification of land-use change, whereby a fifth type (i.e., extensification) is added to the established four types in Slovenia: afforestation, grass overgrowth, intensification, and urbanization. The article explains which factors have a decisive impact on land-use changes, especially in terms of abandoning terrace cultivation. The methodology used proves that there are important differences in the rate of land-use change between terraced and non-terraced land.
In Daqing, years of oil exploration have led to severe oil pollution, aggravating salinization particularly. In this study, the concept of terraced landscape design combined with T. ambiguum Bieb. ...and microbial inoculums is proposed as a restoration technology for saline and alkali land, with the aim of removing oily substances and recovering soil fertility. The technology of 454 high-throughput sequencing was deployed to analyze the microbial community of the inoculums and the salinity and alkalinity changes of terraced land. The removal rate using T. ambiguum Bieb. and microbial inoculums was 94.7 % after seventy days. The dominant phyla for the saline and alkali soil after the treatment were Firmicutes (61.74 % of total bacteria) and Proteobacteria (35.91 %), At a general level, the relative abundances were Lactobacillus (6.22 %), Lysinibacillus (13.61 %), Clostridium (12.98 %), Clostridium XI (18.39 %), Lachnospiraceae (16.74 %) and Enterobacteriaceae (15.30 %). Microbes were reinforced biologically in advantageous clusters in microbial inoculums. In a landscape design for terraces that used the principle of gravity sedimentation, the pH approached 7, alkalinity was reduced by 50 % on average, and salinity was decreased by 75 % at the upper level, indicating a considerable decrease in salinity and alkalinity. The landscape measure of a trapezoidal terrace using natural sedimentation combined with plant-microbial inoculums offers a treatment technology and pattern for the protection and development of saline and alkali land in oil exploration areas.
The terraced landscape in the Jeruzalem Hills is the result of specific socioeconomic conditions under communism, and now its appearance is drastically changing for the second time in the last fifty ...years. This article examines the creation of the new landscape layer of modern cultivated terraces and studies their disappearance and the return to a condition similar to the original state. The analysis is based on interviews and visual interpretation of aerial laser scanning (lidar) data. It focuses on the state of the landscape before terracing, the creation of terraces and formation of a terraced landscape, and its most recent transformation into slopes without terraces. It is determined that, despite the recognized aesthetic value of terraces, legal protection in the form of a nature park has not impacted their preservation because 56% of them have already been leveled. With the conversion of vineyards to vertical plantations, a new challenge is arising: increased erosion.
English
The history of viticulture has been widely studied in Europe. Knowledge of the landscape history of the viticulture once widely practised on terraced slopes is lacking, however. This paper ...contains an outline of the history of such vineyards. The forces driving the terracing of steep slopes are discussed, as are the advantages of building terraces and of using dry stone walls as retaining structures. The building fabric of historic terraced vineyards located in south-western Germany and in the Swiss canton of Valais was analysed employing a historical landscape analysis. The construction and function of the different elements of the vineyards, and their interactions, were a particular focus. Also presented are insights into how the building fabric may provide indications as to the owners and the construction history of such winegrowing areas. Finally, strategies for the preservation of these terraced vineyards, which are of great value from both a nature and a heritage conservation perspective, are presented, as are the benefits of continued research.
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