Assessing Village Authenticity with Satellite Images: A Method to Identify Intact Cultural Landscapes in Europe

Abstract

The village with its characteristic zones of different land use from the center to the periphery is a basic unit of Europe's cultural landscapes. However, loss of the authentic pre-industrial village structure characterized by a fine-grained structure of arable land and wooded grasslands is a threat to both cultural heritage and biodiversity in many rural landscapes. Therefore, it is important that the extent and rate of change of such authentic villages in a landscape can be monitored. We studied to what extent loss of authenticity with increasing time after abandonment can be assessed by quantitative analysis and visual interpretation of satellite images. The study was carried out in the Bieszczady Mountains, SE Poland in 1999. Using Landsat Thematic Mapper data from 1998, both the grain size of landscape elements (size of fields) and land-cover composition (encroachment of shrub and forest) were quantitatively described 6 type villages representing different stages of deterioration of the authentic village structure. Historical maps were used to delineate the border of the villages and the former extension of forest and open land was measured. The present land use and the degree of abandonment expressed as grain size and forest encroachment were mapped using satellite data. Deterioration occurred along 2 transformation paths: abandonment and ultimately becoming forest, or intensified agriculture, respectively. To validate these results we classified 22 other villages in a 1000 km2 area by visual interpretation of the original satellite images into 1 of 4 types. We then collected historical data on human population changes over the past six decades. The classification of village authenticity was clearly related to the rate of human population decline. We address the importance of validating and applying this approach for rapid assessment of the authenticity of cultural landscapes in European regions being subject to ongoing as well as expected future change, related to expansion of the European Union. Finally, we argue that the village represents a scale at which integration of natural and social sciences is possible.

A holistic approach to studying social-ecological systems and its application to southern Transylvania

“…We used the village as the basic unit of analysis because it represents a useful scale for the analysis of social-ecological systems in rural landscapes (Angelstam et al 2003). The study area contained 448 villages.…”

Catchment land cover as a proxy for macroinvertebrate assemblage structure in Carpathian Mountain streams

“…Previous landscape studies in this region (Angelstam et al, 2003a;Kuemmerle et al, 2006) have demonstrated that land use histories differ dramatically on opposite sites of borders between regions with different economic history and geopolitical development. The land cover types in this ecoregion represent gradients from naturally dynamic forest ecosystem in Ukraine and intact pre-industrial agricultural woodland landscapes (e.g., northern Romania) via landscapes with only moderate deterioration of naturalness and cultural authenticity (e.g., Southwest Ukraine), and to unmanaged forests that have developed on abandoned agricultural land (e.g., Poland) (Angelstam et al, 2003a;Elbakidze & Angelstam, 2007;Soloviy & Keeton, 2009). Thus, Carpathian Mountain streams and rivers provide the unique opportunity to compare habitat characteristics at multiple spatial scales with the composition and structure of the macroinvertebrate benthic fauna in catchments with different levels of human impact within one ecoregion.…”

“…Owing to a dramatic political and social development associated with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian or Habsburg Empire and the Soviet Union as well as the emergence of the European Union (e.g., Kann, 1980;Chirot, 1989;Snyder, 2003;Bezak & Halada, 2010), adjacent catchments located on opposite sides of borders between countries with different management systems show high contrast in land use and cover. The diversity of land cover types in the Carpathian Mountains is thus extreme and ranges from forest remnants with high levels of naturalness to intensively managed agricultural land (Angelstam et al, 2003a;Kuemmerle et al, 2006;Elbakidze & Angelstam, 2007). The transition between these extremes includes 60-year-old secondary deciduous forest successional stages after forced abandonment after World War II of pre-industrial, cultural landscape mosaics with wooded grassland with seminatural forest, wooded grasslands that are mowed, grazed natural grasslands, and abandoned fields (Angelstam et al, 2003a), as well as different forest management system and strictly protected nearnatural forest (Soloviy & Keeton, 2009).…”

“…The diversity of land cover types in the Carpathian Mountains is thus extreme and ranges from forest remnants with high levels of naturalness to intensively managed agricultural land (Angelstam et al, 2003a;Kuemmerle et al, 2006;Elbakidze & Angelstam, 2007). The transition between these extremes includes 60-year-old secondary deciduous forest successional stages after forced abandonment after World War II of pre-industrial, cultural landscape mosaics with wooded grassland with seminatural forest, wooded grasslands that are mowed, grazed natural grasslands, and abandoned fields (Angelstam et al, 2003a), as well as different forest management system and strictly protected nearnatural forest (Soloviy & Keeton, 2009). This geopolitical hotspot with its dramatic land use history have affected landscapes very differently within a limited area in the Carpathian mountains, and provides opportunity to acquire new information about reference conditions from an European perspective, as the ''ghost of forest and land use past'' (Angelstam, 1996;Harding et al, 1998).…”

“…Owing to a complex history of land use and change in neighboring regions and countries, catchments with different levels of naturalness and cultural genuineness occur closely together in the Carpathian Mountains in Romania, Ukraine, and Poland in Central Europe (Angelstam, 2006). Previous landscape studies in this region (Angelstam et al, 2003a;Kuemmerle et al, 2006) have demonstrated that land use histories differ dramatically on opposite sites of borders between regions with different economic history and geopolitical development. The land cover types in this ecoregion represent gradients from naturally dynamic forest ecosystem in Ukraine and intact pre-industrial agricultural woodland landscapes (e.g., northern Romania) via landscapes with only moderate deterioration of naturalness and cultural authenticity (e.g., Southwest Ukraine), and to unmanaged forests that have developed on abandoned agricultural land (e.g., Poland) (Angelstam et al, 2003a;Elbakidze & Angelstam, 2007;Soloviy & Keeton, 2009).…”