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An exploratory landscape metrics approach for agricultural sustainability
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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Socio-economic growth and urban change have been an increasing concern for decision makers
in recent decades. Led by the creation of new infrastructures to support economic activity, periurban
areas have mostly become adversely affected and the consequences for the ecological but
also the rural landscape have become a lasting concern. The monitoring and mapping of land-use
change, especially in areas where urban change has been high, is crucial. The collision between
traditional economic activities related to agriculture in tourist areas such as the Algarve and
current demand for tourism infrastructures in urban regions is also leading to loss of economic
activity. This paper uses a combined Geographical Information System approach with remotesensing
imagery and land cover databases to perform a Markov analysis for the purpose of
quantifying changes in agricultural areas. The paper then expands on the nature of the
agricultural changes observed, and offers a multi-temporal assessment by means of landscape
metrics in order to understand the shifting land-use patterns for the Algarve in land use planning
and regional economic equilibrium: (1) forest regions become transformed into agricultural areas
and agricultural areas become urban; (2) areas which are initially agricultural become scattered
residential regions created by economic investors; and (3) changes in the land-use have a cyclical
nature in which in the course of the economic recession we may witness a shift in this effect
brought about a decrease in tourism and focus on traditional sectors.
Description
Keywords
land use change markov transition matrix landscape metrics agricultural land loss
Citation
Vaz, E., Noronha, T., Nijkamp, P. (2013) “An Exploratory Landscape Metrics Approach for Agricultural Sustainability”, Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 38(1): 92–108