Author(s):
Sebastian Eiter - Department of Geography, University of Bergen, Norway
Abstract:
Many landscape diversity measures are indices based on material features of land cover. Human activity, i.e. land use, is included indirectly by its influence on land cover. In recent geography, however, landscape is increasingly seen as a complex of both material and non-material components. Simplified these two categories can be called land cover and land use. Land use comprises human activity, but at the same time perceptions, values and bodies of rules according to which human activity takes place. This paper’s purpose is to explore different ways of how to apply the more comprehensive understanding of landscape to landscape diversity. The study area in the western Norwegian mountains has been divided into five sectors according to broad-scale physical landscape features, mainly relief and bedrock. Land cover has been investigated on different spatial scales in hierarchical order, according to scale-specific classification systems. Data sources are topographic map data, satellite imagery, aerial photographs, and ground mapping in plots and along transects. Landscape diversity measures are computed on this basis. Quantitative and qualitative information about land use have been gathered by interview and questionnaire surveys among landowners and tourists who represent the two major user groups, and literature study. Subsequently, different possibilities for establishing a relationship between land cover and land use diversity are presented.
