Context
Landscape ecology as an interdisciplinary science has great potential to inform landscape planning, an integrated, collaborative practice on a regional scale. It is commonly assumed that landscape ecological concepts play a key role in this quest.
Objectives
The aim of the paper is to identify landscape ecological concepts that are currently receiving attention in the scientific literature, analyze the prevalence of these concepts and understand how these concepts can inform the steps of the planning processes, from goal establishment to monitoring.
Methods
We analyzed all empirical and overview papers that have been published in four key academic journals in the field of landscape ecology and landscape planning in the years 2015–2019 (n = 1918). Title, abstract and keywords of all papers were read in order to identify landscape ecological concepts. A keyword search was applied to identify the use of these and previously mentioned concepts in common steps of the planning cycle.
Results
The concepts Structure, Function, Change, Scale, Landscape as human experience, Land use, Landscape and ecosystem services, Green infrastructure, and Landscape resilience were prominently represented in the analyzed literature. Landscape ecological concepts were most often mentioned in context of the landscape analysis steps and least in context of goal establishment and monitoring.
Conclusions
The current literature spots landscape ecological concepts with great potential to support landscape planning. However, future studies need to address directly how these concepts can inform all steps in the planning process.
The natural and cultural landscapes of the Northern Coast of São Paulo State (Brazil) are threatened by increasing urban growth, as a result of inefficient land use management and fast population growth. Our work analysed land use/cover changes (LULCC) between 1985 and 2015 at 5 year intervals, to describe and understand the main processes and drivers of landscape change. LULCC were mapped using Landsat images and geographic object-based image analysis (GEOBIA), based on the Random Forests supervised algorithm. Over 30 years, we show a dichotomic trend for the two main land change trajectories: forest persistence and fast urban growth. We found only 8% of forest disturbance within the State Parks, while dense urban settlements grew 163% outside the park, mainly replacing rural uses. We estimate that all available land for human settlement may be occupied by 2030 as a result of this fast urban growth. Our study exemplifies a likely pattern of land use change for coastal regions, with fast urban growth driven by economic interests in transforming these regions into urban and touristic hubs, clashing with environmental policies for forest conservation and afforestation. The history of LULCC in the Northern Coast of São Paulo State has resulted in several land use conflicts in the present, especially when considering fast urban growth versus a very large proportion of areas where no human settlement is permitted. This complex combination of drivers has led to rural depopulation and decrease in small-scale agricultural uses, reducing the diversity and functionality of the studied landscape.
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