Landscape Diversity and the Directions of Its Protection in Poland Illustrated with an Example of Wielkopolskie Voivodeship

Abstract

As part of the implementation of the provisions of the European Landscape Convention, a landscape audit of the provinces has been underway in Poland for a few years. The main objectives of the audit are the delimitation of landscape units, assessment of their values, and identification of the priority of landscapes to be protected. This study presents the results of research on the landscape division of the Wielkopolskie voivodeship and a geostatistical analysis of the differentiation of ecological units. With reference to legal regulations in force in Poland, the landscape diversity of the province was characterized using two divisions: geophysical regionalization and landscape typology. In the case of regional division, the meso- and microregions of physical and geographical rank are referenced. The proposed microregional division is the first example in Poland of such a detailed landscape analysis completed for the area of the voivodeship. In the case of typological division, the study conducted in cooperation with the Wielkopolska Bureau of Spatial Planning in Poznań was used. The statistical analysis included metrics to quantitatively characterize landscape composition, including the landscape division index (DIVISION), Shannon’s diversity index (SHDI), and Simpson’s diversity index (SIDI). The results of the study were then compared with the distribution of areas associated with different forms of landscape protection such as national parks, landscape parks, and protected landscape areas. The applied methodology and the results obtained indicate the important role of physical and geographical microregions in the complex analyses of landscape diversity and their broad application in procedures connected with landscape planning and environmental protection.

Permanent areas and changes in forests, grasslands, and wetlands in the North European Plain since the eighteenth century—a case study of the Kościan Plain in Poland

“…On the one hand spatial arrangement of the landscape within the designated preservation areas in the Greater Poland Province reveals that these protected regions exhibit a notably rich and diverse array of natural elements, with a high density of different natural units 80 . On the other hand there was an increase in the share of agricultural areas by 73–81% and an increase in forest areas by 10–16.4% in the communes of Kościan and Śmigiel in the period between 1989 and 2005 39 .…”

Coupling Relationship between Rural Settlement Patterns and Landscape Fragmentation in Woodlands and Biological Reserves—A Case of Nanshan National Park

“…The second was the relationship between landscape patches, including patch separation, aggregation, connectivity, etc. [65][66][67][68]. This type of index could reflect the material flow, spatial structure, and change trends in the landscape systems, and it was an important indicator for determining whether the regional landscape system could continue to exist and develop in a coordinated and stable manner.…”

“…Division refers to the degree of separation of the individual distribution of different landscape patches in the same landscape type [66,67].…”

Analysis of the effect of landscape component classification on landscape diversity index

“…For example, the species richness and β diversity in the calcareous mosaic landscape are higher than those in the siliceous mosaic landscape (Jentsch et al 2012). However, the study of landscape diversity is also dependent on the landscape context, and natural and geographical micro-regions have an important role in the complex analysis of landscape diversity (Brodka et al 2021). For example, in complex landscapes, landscape diversity was not significantly correlated with insect richness, while it was significantly negatively correlated in simple landscape contexts (Rosch et al 2013).…”