Integrated analysis of land use/cover dynamics and landscape functionality

摘要: Human induced land use changes can have major effects on landscape patterns and the functioning of the landscape, either through a complete change in land cover or through changes in the spatial configuration of the landscape. Land use changes are caused by a change in the demand for land-based commodities. Demand for land depends on market dynamics, driven by anthropogenic or environmental processes, or it can be induced by policy. Current research on land use change aims at predicting land cover change in response to land use change, driven by global demographic and economical processes. Because land use and land cover are presumed to be related, we refer to this type of research as land use/cover modeling. Investigating land use/cover dynamics is of great potential interest to policy makers, as they can use the outcomes to design and fine-tune policies that aim at best uses of landscape resources. Specific tools to explore future scenarios of land use/cover change are used to assess impacts of this change and evaluate possible results of land use policies (Uran & Janssen 2003, Geertman & Stillwell 2004, McIntosh et al. 2007). As land use changes are a result of different processes at different scales (Verburg & Chen 2000, Walsh et al. 2001, Bürgi et al. 2004) these land use/cover change tools should ideally be able to capture all important land use related processes at multiple scales.Changes in land cover and its composition and pattern can influence the functionality of the landscape (Metzger et al. 2006). With landscape functions we refer to the capacity of the landscape to provide goods and services to society …