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Wechsung, & Kenneweg, 2004) and biodiversity (Moser et al., 2002; Pino, Rodà,
Ribas, & Pons, 2000; Schindler, Kati, & Poirazidis, 2007; Zechmeister & Moser,
2001; Zechmeister et al., 2003) of landscapes have been shown. The removal of
small biotopes or changes in the patch size of land-use parcels to larger units can
therefore be seen as an unsustainable development, at least in terms of ecological
sustainability. Opposite processes, such as the introduction of small biotopes, can
be seen as sustainable development in its ecological dimension.
Complex biophysical, historical and political patterns in Europe lead to con-
siderable regional differences in economic, social and environmental situations
(Jongman, 2002). In general, the current knowledge about landscape structure and
sustainability comes from case studies (Turner & Ruscher, 1988; Moser et al., 2002;
Wrbka et al., 2004). Consequently, consistent and statistically robust information
on structure in the different parts of Europe is still missing. To achieve an accu-
rate spatially explicit sustainability impact assessment, the regional complexities
need to be considered and indicator systems adapted to the regional level (Blaschke,
2006). Identifying and delineating spatial units that are relatively homogeneous in
both biophysical and socio-economic contexts allow a successful upscaling of the
approaches.
To meet these concerns, the Spatial Regional Reference Framework (Renetzeder,
Van Eupen, Mücher, & Wrbka, 2008) was developed within the FP6-project
SENSOR: In this integrated project, the main objective was to develop an ex-ante
sustainability impact assessment tool including pan-European databases and spatial
reference frameworks for the analysis of land and human resources in the con-
text of European land-use policies. This approach was enabling the identification
of European regions (EU 27 + Norway and Switzerland) that are to a certain extent
similar in terms of their environmental, social and economic situations. Within these
regions, thresholds and limits of European sustainability indicators were defined.
The spatial unit is NUTS 2/3-regions, because many social and economic data are
only available on the administrative level.
Herein, the process of a consistent European pattern analysis is examined, results
of the differences in landscape structure among ten European regions are pre-
sented and the use for sustainability impact assessment of agricultural landscapes
is discussed.
12.2 Material and Methods
Important input data for sampling design was the stratum of the Spatial Regional
Reference Framework (SRRF - Renetzeder et al., 2008). It covers the EU 27,
Norway and Switzerland and delineates 27 SRRF regions and identifies spatial
administrative units on the basis of statistical clustering of biophysical (climate,
topography and bedrock) and socio-economic data (including population density,
population change rate, activity rate, gross domestic production, unemployment
rate, functional urban areas and land cover data). This product was used in
order to have a definition of more or less homogeneous regions and to randomly
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