Environmental Stressors as an Integrative Approach to Landscape Assessment - Landscape Modelling: Geographical Space, Transformation and Future Scenarios - page 27

entirely (i.e. changes its character) or compensates for the stress and continues to
function as before. Stress therefore can be compensated for entirely or partially,
or it may not be compensated at all and the system breaks down. Some landscape
ecologists (cf. Ingegnoli, 2002) claim that if the effect of a stressor is continuous
(chronic), this may endanger the general “health” of the landscape.
The Slovak school of landscape ecology devised a theory of environmental stres-
sors (Miklós et al., 2002; Šúriová & Izakovicová, 1995; Izakovicová, Miklós, &
Drdoš, 1997). Other landscape ecologists (Ingegnoli, 2002; Lipský, 1998; Antrop,
2000; Erickson, 1999) also employ the terms environmental stressor, stress or
anthropogenic pressure in connection with a negative effect on environmental
conditions, the pathology of landscape and anthropogenic disturbances.
Within a landscape system, there are of course natural stressors such as natural
disturbances (degradation processes, natural radiation, volcanism, seismic activity
and seismic processes). Environmental systems are able to a greater or lesser extent
to prepare for the effects of these stressors. The other group includes stressors
of anthropogenic nature. Primary anthropogenic stressors are defined by Šúriová
and Izakovicová (1995) as anthropogenic areas and lines (e.g. built up areas, min-
ing areas or intensively cultivated agricultural areas or transport lines). Secondary
anthropogenic stressors are the phenomena that accompany anthropogenic activity
(e.g. the volume and character of waste and pollutants produced, the intensity of
erosion, noise, etc.) From a geographical perspective, anthropogenic stressors form
a continuous system which may be termed a territorial system of environmental
stressors. This system is composed of core, planar and linear stressors.
By monitoring the effect of anthropogenic stressors and quantifying the amount
of stress within an environmental system we are able to determine the degree of
anthropic footprint or the intensity of disturbing influences in the landscape. This
analysis of environmental stress also brings a wealth of information about environ-
mental quality (Adamowicz, Swait, Boxall, Louviere, & Williams, 1997; Bastian
et al., 2002). The higher the degree of stress, the lower is the resulting environmental
quality.
The terms stressor and stress aptly differentiate the agent and the manifestation,
the cause and the consequence. Stress is manifested both in the natural and the
social subsystem of the environmental system. We can talk of stress in relation to all
landscape elements, both natural and social. Stressors comprise both disturbances
and anthropogenic land use areas or the accompanying phenomena such as noise,
smell, etc. In the social elements of landscape, stress is manifested by the presence
of socially pathological phenomena, high crime rate, unemployment, high divorce
rate, low percentage of native inhabitants, etc.
The manifestations or consequences of stress within an environmental sys-
tem, in landscape-shaping processes, often go unnoticed, even though they form
a significant force moulding the character of the landscape.
Attempts to quantify the extent of anthropogenic pressure, anthropogenic impact
on landscape based on the representation of land-use classes or on the anthropogenic
impact on vegetation have been made (Skowronek, Krukowska, Swieca, & Tucki,
2005). In the main, however, these are only partial conceptualisations of the subject.
Measuring the negative impact of human activity may be one suitable indicator for