Based on an innovative spatial research approach and by comparing comprehensive numbers of hunted game across the region, the project \342\200\236Landschaft im Visier\342\200\234, aims to 1) measure landscape quality qualitatively as well as quantitatively, 2) use this data to analyze and assess the changes in the provision of ecosystem services which will 3) be used to develop guidelines for the improvement of future landscapes. As a first step, the project will be realized in South Tyrol but it should be the basis for future comparisons on an international scale.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Since the middle of the last century, the increase of areas used for human settlements, production, and traffic as well as the intensification of agriculture have significantly affected the landscape and its appearance. In many places, these developments have led to urbanization, an agglomeration of cities, natural areas became rarer. On the other hand, marginal agricultural and silvicultural areas have increasingly been abandoned in particular in European mountains leading to a loss of traditionally managed cultivated landscapes, large scale reforestation, and the emergence of new wilderness zones. Scientists regard some of these changes as important reasons for the decline of biodiversity and the transformation of ecosystem services. Their effects on the complex landscape scale has hardly been investigated though, partially because there are hardly any methods and indicators which are able to measure the multifunctionality of a landscape in its entirety. Furthermore it is still largely unknown and a challenge for science and praxis how the quality of a landscape can be measured, described and assessed with regard to the interests of various stakeholders. With the project \342\200\234Landschaft im Visier \342\200\223 landscape at sight\342\200\235 we want to deliver a significant contribution to this topic.

The project is closely connected with \342\200\234Sustainable development in South Tyrol within the alpine context\342\200\235 which aims at contributing to a balanced and shared territorial development in South Tyrol, and focuses on the key research field 'Sustainability\342\200\223monitoring in human-environmental systems' of the 2012-2016 Strategic Plan of the Institute for Alpine Environment.

Download the project report HERE