Dynamics of rural landscapes in marginal areas of northern Spain: Past, present, and future

Abstract

European marginal areas hold multifunctional landscapes threatened by current changes in socio‐economy. Understanding both common and singular drivers behind the changes in the local socio‐economy and the landscapes is crucial to design sustainable policies at several spatial scales, which guarantee the provision of multiple ecosystem services in those areas. This work investigated the evolution of the local socio‐economy as well as the changes in landscape structure and composition in two areas (one in lowlands and other in high mountains) from northern Spain, which are representative of the European Union marginal territories. The censuses of local human population and livestock species together with landscape metrics from 1956 and 2011 were evaluated from both areas. Depopulation due to rural exodus, land abandonment, and drastic changes in livestock production systems concurred with reforestation, shrub expansion, and grassland reductions, which led to landscape fragmentation in the highlands and compactation in the lowlands. Eucalyptus plantations proliferated, whereas croplands virtually disappeared in the lowlands, where dairy systems were substituted by beef cattle. In the highlands, broom expanded and heathlands declined as small ruminants disappeared. Improvements in rural development and reformulated land management strategies at landscape scale will be crucial to control social and environmental degradation associated with the expansion of certain classes.

Soil quality and soil organic carbon storage in abandoned agricultural lands: Effects of revegetation processes in a Mediterranean mid‐mountain area

“…Thus, for centuries, the Mediterranean mountains in Europe, especially those of mid‐altitude, were subjected to strong pressure from humans, who made use of natural resources for agrosilvopastoral activities (Lasanta et al, 2017; Sluiter & de Jong, 2007). Land use by humans expanded to its maximum between the mid‐19th and mid‐20th centuries, coinciding with greater demographic pressure (González Díaz, Celaya, Fernández‐García, Osoro, & García, 2019; Sancho‐Reinoso, 2013). Prolonged occupation by humans constructed cultural landscapes, featuring very diverse land uses in which grazing and agricultural land were the landscape matrix, whereas forest and shrubland covered a smaller area (De Aranzabal, Schmitz, Aguilera, & Pineda, 2008; García‐Ruiz & Lasanta, 2018).…”

“…Thus, for centuries, the Mediterranean mountains in Europe, especially those of midaltitude, were subjected to strong pressure from humans, who made use of natural resources for agrosilvopastoral activities (Lasanta et al, 2017;Sluiter & de Jong, 2007). Land use by humans expanded to its maximum between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries, coinciding with greater demographic pressure (González Díaz, Celaya, Fernández-García, Osoro, & García, 2019;Sancho-Reinoso, 2013).…”

“…The Mediterranean mid-mountains are currently seen as a marginal area, due to the severe depopulation, land degradation, scarcity of economic activities and the uniformity of the landscape resulting from intense revegetation processes recorded from the mid-20th century (González Díaz et al, 2019;Lasanta, Vicente-Serrano, & Cuadrat, 2005;Marathianou, Kosmas, Gerontidis, & Detsis, 2000;Sluiter & de Jong, 2007). Mediterranean mid-mountains have all the limitations of mountain areas: steep slopes, few flat areas, a tough winter climate, few inhabitants, scant infrastructure and services, and poor communication channels with cities.…”

Remote Sensing-Based Analysis of Landscape Pattern Evolution in Industrial Rural Areas: A Case of Southern Jiangsu, China

“…Rural tourism aims to sustain rural architecture and landscapes, thereby promoting creative activities related to the natural and historical backgrounds of rural areas for the appropriate development of these rural landscapes and their cultural heritage. This is also a major pathway in the sustainable development of rural areas [11,12].…”

Integration of Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 for Classification of Small Urban Areas in Rural Landscape aided by Google Earth Engine

“…For this task, for accurate classification, researchers use high-resolution imagery (< 5m). Taking in consideration that highresolution imageries are not of open-source character, not many studies can be found in the literature on the particular topic [4,5].…”