Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 12
Does Landscape Structure Reveal Ecological
Sustainability?
Christa Renetzeder, Thomas Wrbka, Sander Mücher, Michiel van Eupen,
and Michiel Kiers
12.1 Concepts of Landscape Ecology for Sustainability
Impact Assessment
In the last decades, sustainable development has been acknowledged to be of major
importance in the European Union for the future, leading to numerous Commission
Strategies and Action Plans (amongst others CEC, 2001, 2004, 2005a, 2005b,
2005c, 2007). Sustainability Impact Assessment is one option to convert policies
into operational approaches. Considerable efforts are made to assess the impact
of policy on the three pillars comprised of economic, social and environmental
to ensure a holistic benefit for society. Indicators (e.g. EEA, 2005) and guidelines
have been developed to enable an in-depth analysis of sustainability impact assess-
ment (CEC, 2005d). Helming, Pérez-Soba, & Tabbush (2008) and Peterseil et al.,
(2004) showed that changes in a landscape regarding the anthropogenic influence
are a highly integrative indicator for sustainability. The structure of the landscape
reflects not only the natural settings of the landscape but also its history and the
impact of mankind throughout the centuries (Antrop, 2005; Ernoult, Freire-Diaz,
Langlois, & Alard, 2006), so the present spatial patterns are a result of former
activities and processes in the landscape. This “pattern and process” paradigm is
a key concept in modern landscape ecology (Turner, Gardner, & O'Neill, 2001). It
relates to the spatial and functional relationship between distinct local ecosystems
by describing the distribution of energy, resources and species in relation to size,
shape, number and type of ecosystems in a particular landscape. Many European
cultural landscapes developed their own regionally distinct pattern of landscape ele-
ments which has been the aim of ongoing or recently finalised European research
projects. Human influence tends to result in a simplification and geometrisation of
landscape pattern (Forman, 1995; Turner et al., 2001) and impact on ecological
values (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2003; Peterseil et al., 2004; Zebisch,
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