Aesthetic preference for a Swiss alpine landscape: The impact of different agricultural land-use with different biodiversity

Lindemann‐Matthies, Petra; Briegel, Reinhold; Schüpbach, Béatrice; Junge, Xenia

doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2010.07.015

Cited by 166 publications

(87 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…It may be that people perceive it as rather natural or are attached to this landscape as it has been characteristic for the Hamburg Region since historic times. We assume that the rating of agriculture would be much more negative in an intensively farmed landscape with annual crops (Lindemann-Matthies et al 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How do urban dwellers react to potential landscape changes in recreation areas? A case study with particular focus on the introduction of dendromass in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region

Boll¹,

Haaren²,

Albert³

2014

iForest

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© iForest -Biogeosciences and Forestry IntroductionRural areas in the surroundings of metropolitan regions provide various ecosystem services for the cities: they provide drinking water, support the regional supply of food, regulate and improve the regional climate, mitigate flood risks, contribute to regional identity and serve as recreation areas. Recently, the generation of renewable energies from wind, water, solar and biomass has gained new importance among ecosystem services. At the same time, rural landscapes are under pressure from various driving forces such as suburbanization processes and the intensification of agricultural practice (European Commission 2007, Antrop 2004, Palang et al. 2010. Globally, increasing food and energy prices make agricultural production more profitable and land prices more expensive. These economically strong land use interests intensify pressure on the provision of less profitable ecosystem services such as public recreation and landscape aesthetics. The intensification of agricultural practice impacts greatly the visual landscape due to the removal of landscape elements, thus creating larger open spaces (Tveit 2009) and due to the conversion of grassland into fields. In Germany, the energy transition (Energiewende) intensifies pressure on rural agricultural areas due to enhanced demand for bioenergy crops (Franke 2008, Nohl 2001.Contrary to the installation of wind and solar parks, which are immediately visible, the change from food to bioenergy crops is a more subtle and gradual process. However, this change also greatly impacts the visual and recreational functions of the landscape. Bioenergy plants like maize are generally taller than food crops in order to produce more biomass per area unit (TLL 2007). Breeding and genetic modification will make energy crops even taller in the future. This will gradually affect the visual landscape. Agricultural change becomes increasingly visible when the shift is to monoculture farming of bioenergy crops. In many German regions large-scale cultivation of maize has led to protests of citizen groups against biogas plants using maize as a substrate. Especially in regions where tourism plays an important role or in recreational areas close to cities, landscape changes that impair the attractiveness of the landscape are highly controversial and may have negative economic and social implications.In the future the production of dendromass in short rotation coppices (SRC) of willow and poplar could be an alternative to annual energy crops such as maize. In this context we define dendromass broadly as all woody plants. SRC, in contrast to conventional forestry, is the cultivation of dendromass on agricultural fields with harvesting circles of 2-20 years. SRC has many ecological advantages compared to annual crops, such as less erosion, higher biodiversity, improved water quality and better energy input/output ratio (Bemmann 2010, Strohm et al. 2012 Recently, many German regions have seen dramatic landscape changes in agricultural areas due to...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How do urban dwellers react to potential landscape changes in recreation areas? A case study with particular focus on the introduction of dendromass in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region

Boll¹,

Haaren²,

Albert³

2014

iForest

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“…There are different techniques for visualizing landscape scenarios, for example on-site visits, photographs, digital image editing and virtual landscape simulators [40]. For our study, we used digital image editing to generate natural-looking and photo-realistic images [19,41]. The technique allows changing only one variable in the picture, while the others are controlled or remain constant [40].…”

Section: Questionnaire and Interviewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the literature, diversity is generally considered an attribute for a high scenic beauty of landscapes [28,41,46]. Accordingly, Lindemann-Matthies et al [41] found a high preference for diverse landscapes with structural elements in the middle zone but a low rating for arable land. In our study, it was not the most diverse landscape that was rated highest but a medium structured grassland [48].…”

Section: Viewing Human Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can We Model the Scenic Beauty of an Alpine Landscape?

et al. 2013

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During the last decade, agriculture has lost its importance in many European mountain regions and tourism, which benefits from attractive landscapes, has become a major source of income. Changes in landscape patterns and elements might affect scenic beauty and therefore the socio-economic welfare of a region. Our study aimed at modeling scenic beauty by quantifying the influence of landscape elements and patterns in relationship to distance. Focusing on Alpine landscapes in South and North Tyrol, we used a photographic questionnaire showing different landscape compositions. As mountain landscapes offer long vistas, we related scenic beauty to different distance zones. Our results indicate that the near zone contributes by 64% to the valuation of scenic beauty, the middle zone by 22%, and the far zone by 14%. In contrast to artificial elements, naturalness and diversity increased scenic beauty. Significant differences between different social groups (origin, age, gender, cultural background) occurred only between the local population and tourists regarding great landscape changes. Changes towards more homogenous landscapes were perceived negatively, thus political decision makers should support the conservation of the cultural landscape.

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“…Eastern European countries have experienced specific changes in recent decades, due to the political influence of communist regimes and the postcommunist transition (Potapov et al, 2015). Recent studies (Lieskovský et al, 2015;Müller, Leitão, & Sikor, 2013;Pazúr, Lieskovský, Feranec, & Otahel, 2014;Stefanski, Chaskovskyy, & Waske, 2014) have identified land abandonment as one of the most important post-communist directions of change, driven by socio-demographic and institutional shifts (Munteanu et al, 2014). Another driver of change is economic development through tourism, which might lead to land use disturbances (Boori, Vo zenílek, & Choudhary, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape persistence and stakeholder perspectives: The case of Romania's Carpathians

et al. 2016

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Aesthetic preference for a Swiss alpine landscape: The impact of different agricultural land-use with different biodiversity

Cited by 166 publications

References 46 publications

How do urban dwellers react to potential landscape changes in recreation areas? A case study with particular focus on the introduction of dendromass in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region

How do urban dwellers react to potential landscape changes in recreation areas? A case study with particular focus on the introduction of dendromass in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region

Can We Model the Scenic Beauty of an Alpine Landscape?

Landscape persistence and stakeholder perspectives: The case of Romania's Carpathians

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