Vallés-Planells, M., F. Galiana, and V. Van Eetvelde. 2014. A classification of landscape services to support local landscape planning. Ecology and Society 19(1): 44.http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-06251-190144

Land use changes have been investigated in the surroundings of 14 rural Montenegrin settlements in order to get specific information about trends in land abandonment since around 1950. Permanently, seasonally and less inhabited settlements with different geographic conditions were studied. This was done by interviewing local inhabitants, which enabled a holistic approach to reveal the underlying processes of land abandonment. According to the observed patterns of land use change, the study sites can be categorized into intensified, urbanized, extensified, overgrown and forested cases. The category of extensified settlements is characterized by a highly reduced agricultural management intensity, resulting in an increase in grasslands and fruit trees at the expense of cropland. This land use change is mainly related to emigrating and aging inhabitants, having less livestock. Such extensive land use is found in both permanently inhabited and abandoned villages. Only some studied settlements became largely overgrown by bushes and forest. The steep average slope gradients and a large distance to the nearest city are explanatory factors of such land abandonment. Land use intensification takes place in low-lying areas located nearby towns.

Stormwater runoff is the major source of surface flooding in urban communities. Urban surface water flooding is one of the most worrisome issues, due to their negative impacts on public health. Green infrastructure has developed as an alternative approach to cope with urban surface water flooding. The runoff reduction capacity of green infrastructure needs to be elucidated to better support green infrastructure planning. There are some models to assess the runoff reduction capacity of the landscape. However, these models do not consider landscape patterns and usually need large time, data, making it less accessible to urban planners and decision-makers. A group of studies have indicated that landscape structures are significantly affecting the surface runoff. Therefore, an empirical model was adapted in this study, including two parameters of runoff coefficient and landscape metrics, to map the runoff reduction capacity of green infrastructure in the city of Ghent. The results show that grasslands contribute most to stormwater runoff reduction of 118.3 million ${\mathrm{m}}^3$ and forests controlled the lowest runoff of 44.8 million ${\mathrm{m}}^3$. Agriculture lands with the highest reduction amount per square kilometer of 3.51 million ${\mathrm{m}}^3$/ $\mathrm{k}{\mathrm{m}}^2$, and Forests with the lowest of 1.92 million ${\mathrm{m}}^3$/ $\mathrm{k}{\mathrm{m}}^2$. The spatial distribution of runoff reduction capacity of green infrastructure indicates the high capacity green infrastructure is mainly concentrated in the southwest and northeast suburban areas. The core areas scattered with less green infrastructure and low runoff reduction capacity. The results provide a better understanding of spatial characteristics and stormwater runoff reduction capacity of existing green infrastructure in Ghent.

Change is an essential property of landscape. The continuous interaction between natural processes and human activities defines different landscape...