Land Use in the Past, Present and Future

We explore why and how land use changes, assess land-change legacies, develop scenarios for the future, and identify the potential consequences of land use changes for ecosystem services such as recreation, agriculture or biodiversity.

Switzerland features a high diversity of land uses within agricultural areas, forests, settlements and more natural habitats. Strong topographic gradients and varying land use intensities provide additional diversity. We study the causes and consequences of past and future land-use patterns for society and ecosystems by accounting for local, regional as well as global drivers of change. Our work serves as an important basis for decision-making for various stakeholders.

Legacies from past land use

Reconstructions of past changes in land use and landscapes rely on historical data from topographic maps, written reports, terrestrial and aerial photos, oral history interviews and various other sources. We specifically look into the land use history of for forests, wetlands and grasslands. This land use history can have long-lasting impacts on the development of ecosystems – effects with high relevance for habitat quality, which have to be considered in the development of effective and efficient conservation measures.

Future land use

We develop scenarios for future land change and identify their likely consequences for  ecosystems and society. To identify major drivers of land change and to delineate magnitude and location of change, we integrate storylines from different sources (e.g., socio-economic and climate change projections or policy narratives). Different quantitative modelling approaches are then used to assess the relative importance of drivers for land change and to project e.g., settlement development, agricultural abandonement and forest expansion. We also include spatial planning and governance as major factors shaping land change trajectories. Consequences of land change are investigated by conflict assessments between (new) ecosystem service demand and supply, e.g. settlement expansion and flood risk or recreation and renewable energies.

Related topics

Publications

Szenarien der möglichen Auswirkungen des Klimawandels auf die Landschaft werden in Geschichten und Bildern dargestellt.

WSL Berichte 1392023
Available languages: GermanFrench

Im Rahmen des Projektes «Klima-, Bestandes-, Nutzungs- und Landschaftsgeschichte in der Region Avers, Kt. GR» beschäftigte sich die WSL mit den Wäldern des Avers. Es umfasste Module zur Waldstrukturentwicklung, Jahrringforschung und Nutzungsgeschichte.

WSL Berichte 1272022
Available languages: German
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Projects

Spatial planning is currently experiencing significant changes driven by digitalisation. This transformation has the potential to influence the way we plan, and important values such as equality, social justice, transparency and efficiency.

Spotlight leverages options to mitigate negative impacts on the ecological environment while meeting human needs for safety and well-being. With an interdisciplinary consortium of lighting engineers, ecologists, and social scientists, we contribute to an evidence-based debate on light pollution.

“Flavescence dorée” (FD) is a harmful grapevine disease associated with the quarantine organism ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma vitis’ (FDp), which may survive in the landscape on deciduous woody species such as black alder (Alnus glutinosa) as well as on gone-wild grapevines.

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Multimedia (German)

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