Landscape change: Plan or chaos?

doi:10.1016/S0169-2046(98)00068-1

Landscape and Urban Planning

Volume 41, Issues 3–4, 6 July 1998, Pages 155-161

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Abstract

Landscape is a dynamic phenomenon that almost continuously changes. The overall change of a landscape is the result of complex and interacting natural and spontaneous processes and planned actions by man. However, numerous activities by a large number of individuals are not concerted and contribute to the autonomous evolution of the landscape in a similar way as natural processes do. Consequently, landscape changes in a somewhat chaotic way and man tries to control this evolution regularly by planned actions, which however, are seldom realised as they were intended. Landscapes are formed by many components which all have their own dynamics of change. Therefore, studying change must consider the nature of the component or feature looked to, as well as its specific frequency, pace and magnitude of change. To detect changes, the method to describe or measure the landscape features is important as well as the availability of adequate and comparable information in map-like format for different time periods. However, studying the change of landscape components separately seldom gives a good idea about the overall change of the landscape. The landscape as a whole looks more stable and much small change do not necessarily change its holistic appearance, its type or identity. Landscape holism is closely related to structural aspects, which reflect order and chaos. The main force behind change is the reorganisation of the existing structures to optimise their functioning. Existing landscape structures form the framework and constraint of all processes and activities in this geographical space. New needs for functioning will demand new adapted structures and will induce change. Structural order and disorder is also linked with entropy and information theory offers possibilities to describe the holistic aspects of a landscape and to measure and monitor the overall change of a landscape. A method is proposed to determine the distribution of the entropy in the landscape based upon transect sampling of landscape features on old and recent topographical maps, aerial photographs and by field survey in order to create time series. The results show that different landscape types are characterised by different entropy distributions and that changes in time can be monitored indicating different complex processes of overall landscape change.

Introduction

Landscapes are dynamic features which evolve almost continuously. These changes are seen and evaluated by man as improvement or deterioration of the previous or existing state. However, this judgement is mainly based upon a particular view of utility or in relation of achieving a particular goal or situation. Consequently, changes are not always perceived by all in the same way and positive and negative evaluations may be conflicting for the same type of change. In this paper, three questions are discussed: what is the nature of change in the landscape, what factors are involved, and how can changes of the landscape as a whole be measured in a structural way?

Section snippets

Change

Landscapes are the expression of the interaction between the natural environment and man's activities who tries to make his environment more suitable for his living and needs. Both the natural conditions and man's needs change in time and are controlled by different but highly interactive factors. In order to study change at least four questions should be considered:

1.
Change of what?
2.
What is the frequency of change?
3.
What is the magnitude of change?
4.
What reference time-base is used?

Landscapes are

Methods and study area

One important holistic property of landscape is the way its composing parts are organised in space. Complex spatial patterns are easily recognised by man and used to define landscape types and to evaluate them aesthetically. In general, completely chaotic or too strictly organised landscapes are disliked (Antrop, 1996). The degree of order perceived in the landscape is an important factor. Order, chaos and entropy are closely related concepts. The concept of entropy comes from the

Results and discussion

Two examples from different landscapes in north-eastern Flanders (Belgium) illustrate the possibilities of this method for monitoring changes of the overall holistic structural characteristic in different landscapes. Fig. 2 represents the evolution of the distribution of entropy since 1910 of the landscape in Destelbergen, based upon 104 transects. Destelbergen is a municipality that was gradually absorbed in the urban fringe of the city of Ghent. Fig. 3 shows the evolution of the distribution

Conclusion

The holistic overall change of a landscape is the result of complex interaction of more autonomous processes and planned actions by man. Autonomous processes are both natural ones as the result of the numerous individual, not concerted actions by man. The landscape changes accordingly in a somewhat chaotic way, while at certain times man tries to steer and (re)direct the evolution by planned actions. Studying and monitoring all the interfering changes that occur in the landscape is impossible.

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