Transformation of the Jeruzalem Hills cultural landscape with modern vineyard terraces

Abstract

The dimensions, form, and inclination of terrace platforms and slopes are completely adapted to the terrain, steepness, and lithological and pedological conditions. Terrace access also depends on these. ABSTRACT: The terraced landscape in the Jeruzalem Hills is the result of specific socioeconomic conditions under communism, and now its appearance is drastically changing for the second time in the last fifty years. This article examines the creation of the new landscape layer of modern cultivated terraces and studies their disappearance and the return to a condition similar to the original state. The analysis is based on interviews and visual interpretation of aerial laser scanning (lidar) data. It focuses on the state of the landscape before terracing, the creation of terraces and formation of a terraced landscape, and its most recent transformation into slopes without terraces. It is determined that, despite the recognized aesthetic value of terraces, legal protection in the form of a nature park has not impacted their preservation because 56% of them have already been leveled. With the conversion of vineyards to vertical plantations, a new challenge is arising: increased erosion. MATEVŽ LENARČIČ

Soil and Water Conservation in Rainfed Vineyards with Common Sainfoin and Spontaneous Vegetation under Different Ground Conditions

“…In southern France, Gómez et al [13] observed in three experimental sites over three years average soil loss rates between 4.5 and 90 Mg ha −1 y −1 under conventional tillage and between 0.7 and 42.7 Mg ha −1 y −1 with cover crops. In Israel, Pipan and Kokalj [14] observed increased soil erosion owing to the conversion of terraced vineyards into recent plantations in slopes without terraces. Such rates are superior to soil erosion under natural, non-cropped conditions, even for steep slopes (1.6 Mg ha −1 y −1 in 63% slopes) [15] and over the tolerable or admissible soil losses that ensure land sustainability (ca.…”

Cultivated terraces in Slovenian landscapes

“…In Jeruzalem (Pannonian low hills), the information gathered in the interviews indicates that vineyard terraces were created around 1965 on land that had been nationalized after the Second World War (Pipan and Kokalj 2017). Due to the lack of manual labor, the terraces were built to accommodate the mechanical cultivation available at the time.…”

“…In individual areas, the continued existence of terraces is also threatened by other factors. One of these is the transformation of terraces into vertical vineyards -for example, in the broader area of the Jeruzalem Hills -which allows a greater number of grape vines per area unit (Urbanc 2002;Pipan and Kokalj 2017). Terraces are also indirectly threatened by changes in land use from cultivated fields to meadows and pastures because grazing livestock gradually level terraced land, as has started to occur in Velika Slevica.…”

Terraced landscapes: an increasingly prominent cultural landscape type

“…In the last article Transformation of the Jeruzalem Hills cultural landscape with modern vineyard terraces (Pipan and Kokalj 2017), the authors emphasize that the terraced landscape in the Jeruzalem Hills is the result of specific socioeconomic conditions under communism. Nowadays its appearance is drastically changing for the second time in the last fifty years.…”