264 years of change and persistence in an agrarian landscape: a case study from the Swiss lowlands
Summary (2 min read)
Introduction
- Originally an activity of historical geographers, the study of landscape changes has become an important topic in landscape ecology and more recently an important approach used in landscape ecology (Rhemtulla and Mladenoff 2007) and land change science (Turner et al. 2007).
- Historical sources are not randomly available, but certain historical circumstances can lead to favorable source availability.
- Producing maps, which necessitates surveying the land, requires significant resources.
- For this location, the authors specifically address the following research questions:.
- But also explicitly studying driving forces of landscape persistence.the authors.
Study area
- The municipality of Limpach is located in the Limpach Valley, in the central Lowlands of Switzerland (Fig. 1).
- Today, due to peat mining and drainage with subsequent mineralization, this depth is generally reduced.
- Historically, due to its position in the lowlands, Limpach was part of the so-called ‘‘Grainland’’ (‘‘Kornland’’—Mathieu 1992), which encompassed most rural areas of the Swiss lowlands.
- From the mid-eighteenth century onwards, an agricultural reform movement, the so-called agricultural revolution, spread from England to large parts of Europe, and resulted in Switzerland in the abandonment of this three-field system (Pfister 1983; Lowood 1987).
Materials and methods
- Landscape change in Limpach was reconstructed based on historical maps, supplemented by historical documents and secondary literature, most of which were found at local, state, and federal libraries and archives.
- The first map included in the study shows the situation before the agrarian revolution, as it dates from 1749.
- The original map consists of a series of single maps which were drawn by Jean David and Abraham Vissaula, who were famous for outstanding surveying in their day (Grosjean 1996).
- Additional information on agricultural land use was taken from the contemporary cadastral register, however for some parcels, no information was available (white patches in Fig. 2).
Results
- Land cover and land use Agricultural land (i.e., the remaining 70–75 %) was about equally divided between grassland and arable land at both points in time (i.e. ratios of 0.95 and 0.98, respectively).
- During the next 57 years, the major land cover classes remained stable, except for a significant expansion in grassland at the expense of arable land, which by 1939 encompassed almost twice as much area as arable land (ratio of 1.88).
- The road and path network experienced considerable changes during the study period (Fig. 4; Table 1).
- During the following 133 years, a system of drainage channels was created and the meandering river Limpach was straightened.
- Only very few paths divided the land, as the management was organized in a way that the single farmer had access to his land, for example for the grain harvest, by his neighbors land, which already had to be harvested by this time.
Discussion
- Over the past 264 years, almost all aspects of landscape and land cover considered showed their largest annual change in the period 1939–1943 (Table 3).
- The authors may thereby conclude that landscape change was neither uniform nor continuous, but that major changes occurred in the course of one specific project, i.e., the melioration project devised to increase agricultural production triggered by attempts to increase self-sufficiency during World War II.
- Including linear elements in the analysis Despite using multiple sources, their analysis of change and persistence is primarily based on historical maps, which have specific limitations that have to be taken into account (see Gimmi et al. 2011).
- The authors consider this aspect to be of minor importance in the case presented, as—with the exception of small stretch in the north-eastern corner of Limpach—all forests delineated on the map of 1749 were surrounded by individual parcels, and did not share a boundary with the common land (Fig. 3).
Conclusion
- For the proper study of landscape dynamics, considering not only changes, but also persistence is meaningful and provides valuable insights into stabilizing factors as well as factors fostering changes.
- It might be interesting to test in further studies, which additional factors, such as e.g. natural constraints, can further act as stabilizing factors, depending on the specific context.
- If society considers the rate of landscape change to be too high, such studies might provide valuable insights what additional factors might help to slow down this process apart from the legal restrictions which show to be a powerful measure in the case study presented.
- The authors propose that these two approaches are valuable strains of research in order to analyze driving forces in landscape change and provide basic information on stabilizing and destabilizing factors for cultural landscapes.
- The rates of changes are highly variable over time.
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"264 years of change and persistence..." refers background in this paper
...2007), (b) studies focussing on specific trends, such as urbanization (Antrop 2004; Seto and Fragkias 2005), loss of wetlands (Gimmi...
[...]
...…(a) descriptive approaches (Bender et al. 2005; Hamre et al. 2007), (b) studies focussing on specific trends, such as urbanization (Antrop 2004; Seto and Fragkias 2005), loss of wetlands (Gimmi et al. 2011) or agricultural abandonment (Gellrich and M. Bürgi (&) D. Salzmann U. Gimmi Research…...
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Frequently Asked Questions (2)
Q2. What future works have the authors mentioned in the paper "264 years of change and persistence in an agrarian landscape: a case study from the swiss lowlands" ?
It might be interesting to test in further studies, which additional factors, such as e. g. natural constraints, can further act as stabilizing factors, depending on the specific context. The authors suggest that similar processes were at work in many parts of Europe. While comparatively stable periods, such as the one the authors determined for their study region from the mid-nineteenth century up to World War II, might be used as a reference/baseline and the region itself may be referred to as a traditional cultural landscape, such periods should not be misinterpreted as being stable from a historical perspective.