This paper describes refinements to the process of landscape characterisation that have been developed by the Living Landscapes Project (LLP) within the context of the now widely adopted approach to Landscape Character Assessment (LCA) in England. The Living Landscapes project was developed in an attempt to improve the consistency of LCA at different spatial scales within the UK. This was achieved by the introduction of the Land Description Unit (LDU) into the process of LCA, enabling users to develop a consistent spatial framework based upon relatively homogeneous landscape units that reflect differences in the natural and cultural dimensions of landscapes at different scales. The paper describes the method and demonstrates its potential for improved mapping within the Peak District National Park, in the UK.

Urban sprawl causes changes in land use and a decline in many ecosystem services. Understanding the spatial patterns of sprawl and exploration of citizens’ perception towards the sporadic urban expansion and its impacts on an ecosystem to deliver services can help to guide land use planning and the conservation of the urban ecosystem. Here, we spatially examined land use changes in Multan, Pakistan, and investigated public perception about urban sprawl and its impacts on the quality and provision of ecosystem services, using a survey instrument. The spatial analysis of the historical land cover of Multan indicated an exponential expansion of the city in the last decade. Large areas of natural vegetation and agricultural land were converted to urban settlements in the past two decades. The citizens of Multan believe that the quality and provision of ecosystem services have declined in the recent past and strongly correlate the deteriorating ecosystem services with urban sprawl. Education and income levels of the respondents are the strongest predictors of urban ecosystem health literacy. Citizens associated with laborious outdoor jobs are more sensitive to the changes in ecosystem services. We concluded that the rapidly expanding cities, especially in the tropical arid zones, need to be prioritized for an increase in vegetation cover, and economically vulnerable settlements in these cities should be emphasized in climate change mitigation campaigns.

Landscape character assessment (LCA) has a significant contribution to make as a spatial framework for the emerging concept of ‘multi-functional landscapes’, a landscape providing a range of functions, services, and human-derived benefits. The paper reviews the development of LCA in Northwest Europe with a brief description of more recent LCA projects in a Mediterranean context. This is followed by a comparative description of the Living Landscapes approach developed in the UK as applied to Cyprus. The focus is upon the challenges, and limitations, of transferring a method developed in one context to the different physical and cultural setting of the island of Cyprus examining differences in the definition of landscapes, the availability of information on the cultural landscape, the importance of incorporating a strong element of ‘time-depth’, and the potential of LCA for enhancing land use policy at a time of increased land pressures in the Mediterranean.

Spatio-temporal analysis of transitions in land cover is critical to understanding many ecological challenges, especially in environmentally vulnerable regions. For instance, in Sub-Saharan Africa, large-scale cropland expansion is expected due to the increasing demand for fuel, food, and fibre. Clearing land for cropland expansion is a driving factor in the degradation of natural ecosystems. We present a spatio-temporal analysis of land-cover change in Ghana’s Northern, Upper East, and Upper West provinces using Intensity Analysis on the periods from 1992 to 2003 and 2003 to 2015. The objectives of this study were to determine whether the intensity of land-use and land-cover (LULC) change is consistent between the two periods and to investigate the direction and extent of change for different LULC categories in northern Ghana. The methodology measures land-cover changes at the interval, category, and transition levels. The results suggest that the annual rate of land change was higher between 1992 and 2003 compared to that between 2003 and 2015. Furthermore, the category-level analysis reveals that the gains in the arable land and tree/forest-cover classes during both time intervals were higher than the uniform intensity. The transition-level analysis results indicate that most of the gains in arable land and tree/forest-cover came at the cost of semi-arid shrublands during both periods. There is also evidence of local increases in forest-cover, likely linked to afforestation policies established by the Ghanian government; however, overall, there has been a loss of natural habitat. The study provides data to improve our understanding of the magnitude and direction of land-cover change, essential for the development of policies designed to mitigate the impact of land-cover change on the livelihoods of local people and the environment at the national and sub-national levels.