Landscape Change in Europe
María García‐Martín, Cristina Quintas‐Soriano, Mario Torralba, Franziska Wolpert, Tobías Plieninger
Abstract
The study of the evolution and change of landscapes’ ecological conditions through history has fascinated professional and amateur scientists for centuries. However, the understanding of why these changes happen and what these changes fully entail is still an emerging field of research, which nowadays broadly covers the study of the evolution of landscapes as complex social-ecological systems. This field has become particularly relevant in the current context of rapid global change, widespread environmental degradation and increasing land use conflicts, as an important source of information to facilitate sustainable landscape management. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the current state of landscape change research in Europe and of the main findings and methodological challenges therein. These methodological challenges are bound up with the complex, dynamic and interlinked nature of landscapes, which require co-designed approaches that combine different perspectives, such as quantitative analysis with participatory approaches, and that capture diverse spatial and temporal scales. Together, these make it possible to achieve a comprehensive understanding of past changes and future trajectories.