Physical accessibility of landscape and its
relationship to landscape development
Juraj Lieskovský, Tibor Lieskovský, Veronika Piscová
Aim of the study
In our analyses we focused on the role of landscape accessibility for changes in
landscape in three different time periods of landscape development:
1. from prehistoric to medieval times, when accessibility was the determinant for
settlement location
2. during the socialistic collectivization of agriculture, when accessibility played a
role in preservation of traditional agricultural landscapes in certain areas
3. during the post-socialistic period, when accessibility played a role in the
abandonment of traditional agricultural landscapes
Physical accessibility variables
Distance variables
• Cost distance to watercourses
• Cost distance to fertile soils
• Cost distance to settlements
• Cost distance to regional capital cities
Topographic variables
• Slope steepness
• Relief curvature
• Index of edges
• Difference of local relief
Cost distance analyses
Cost distance analyses
Cost distance to
regional capital cities
Euclidean distance to
regional capital cities
Cost distance analyses
ANISOTROPIC COST DISTANCE MODELATION
DEM
SLOPE
FRICTION
SURFACE
COST SURFACE
Cost distance analyses
VARCOST module of the IDRISI software
Case study area
Landscape acessibility as a determintat of settlements location
from prehistoric to medieval times
processual paradigm in archaeology:
„Human occurrence is determined by natural conditions“ (Binford, 1962)
396 localities (10% excluded for the validation)
Landscape acessibility as a determintat of settlements location
from prehistoric to medieval times
1. Excluding non–significant variables by the comparison of their presence in the
archaeological locations with their overall presence in the study area (KolmogorovSmirnov test and and the Mann-Whitney test for continuous variables and the Chisquare test for nominal data)
2. Finding the overall role of the variable (concentration coefficient derived from
Lorentz Curve)
3. Testing the variables correlation (Pearson and Kendall coefficient)
Concentration coefficients for continuous predictor variables (coefficient shows
the percentage difference between the equal distribution of predictors and
distribution affected by preferences of archaeological localities)
Accessibility variable
Relief curvature
Index of edges (“RIM” Index)
Difference of local relief within radius of 500m
Difference of local relief within radius of 100m
Slope
The cost-distance to all watercourses
The cost-distance to large and medium-sized watercourses
The cost-distance to the border of fluvial sediments
Concentratio
n coefficient
(%)
10.03
9.96
17.85
20.38
22.50
17.85
26.26
38.44
Landscape acessibility as a determintat of settlements location
from prehistoric to medieval times
Accessiblity to soils
- probability of settlement location near the most fertile soils and near soil types
covering larger areas around settlement (differential index of significance)
Differential index of significance for the settlements located in proximity to the
most fertile soils or in localities surrounded by suitable soils (Values close to 0
represent no preferences, negative values represents negative preferences,
positive values represent positive preferences)
On site
Proximity to most fertile soils
Area surrounded by suitable soils
0.519
0.519
Within
100 m
0.502
0.523
Within
500 m
0.342
0.524
Within
1000 m
0.453
0.448
Role of accessibility in preservaton of traditional agricultural
landscapes during the agriculture collectivization
Traditional agricultural landscape
1950
• 2 287 000 ha
• More than 50% of
the area of Slovakia
2010
• 44 466 ha
• Less than 1 % of the
area of Slovakia
Traditional agricultural landscapes in Slovakia
Traditional agricultural landscape
Mapping the Traditional Agricultural Landscapes from aerial
photos
Traditional agricultural landscape
Distribution of the Traditional Agricultural Landscapes in
Slovakia
Traditional agricultural landscape
• 3014 Traditional agricultural landscapes mosaics of a total
area of 44 466 ha were identified from Google Earth photos
• 598 mosaics were visited in the field
Distribution of the Traditional Agricultural Landscapes in
Slovakia
Traditional agricultural landscape
• 274 Traditional agricultural landscapes mosaics
• total area 6 606 ha
Slope steepness as a factor of the traditional agricultural
landscapes preservation
Traditional agricultural landscape
Distance to settlements as a factor of the traditional
agricultural landscapes preservation
Traditional agricultural landscape
Distance to regional capital city as a factor of the traditional
agricultural landscapes preservation
Traditional agricultural landscape
Comparison of traditional and collectivized fields
Traditional
agricultural landscape
Comparison
of traditional
and collectivized fields:
TRADITIONAL FIELDS:
• Boundaries from 2010
• Land use from topographic
millitary maps 1955 – 1957
• Mosaics
COLLECTIVIZED FIELDS:
• Boundaries from 2010 (LPIS
maps)
• Land use from Corine Land Cover
map 1990
• Monocultural land-use
• Classification trees (R Statistics – R.part package)
Comparison of traditional and collectivized fields
Traditional
agricultural landscape
Comparison
of traditional
and collectivized fields:
Role of accessibility in abandonment of traditional agricultural fields
after the transition to market-oriented economy
Traditional
agricultural landscape
Comparison
of traditional
and collectivized fields:
1. regularly managed mosaic: from 70% to 100% of the managed plots within the site
2. occasionally managed or partly abandoned mosaic: from 30% to 70% of the
managed plots in the site
3. mostly abandoned mosaic, overgrown by shrubs and trees: from 0% to 30% of the
managed plots in the site
Role of accessibility in abandonment of traditional agricultural fields
after the transition to market-oriented economy
Traditional
agricultural landscape
Comparison
of traditional
and collectivized fields:
1. regularly managed mosaic: from 70% to 100% of the managed plots within the site
2. occasionally managed or partly abandoned mosaic: from 30% to 70% of the
managed plots in the site
3. mostly abandoned mosaic, overgrown by shrubs and trees: from 0% to 30% of the
managed plots in the site
Role of accessibility in abandonment of traditional agricultural fields
after the transition to market-oriented economy
Traditional
agricultural landscape
Comparison
of traditional
and collectivized fields:
1. regularly managed mosaic: from 70% to 100% of the managed plots within the site
2. occasionally managed or partly abandoned mosaic: from 30% to 70% of the
managed plots in the site
3. mostly abandoned mosaic, overgrown by shrubs and trees: from 0% to 30% of the
managed plots in the site
Role of accessibility in abandonment of traditional agricultural fields
after the transition to market-oriented economy
Traditional
agricultural landscape
Comparison
of traditional
and collectivized fields:
Role of accessibility in abandonment of traditional agricultural fields
after the transition to market-oriented economy
Traditional
agricultural landscape
Comparison
of traditional
and collectivized fields:
Managed
Partly managed
Abandoned
Slope (°)
Distance to
settlements (min)
Dist. to regional
cap. cities (min)
8.15±2.81
8.94±2.26*
10.29±2.29***
3.94±4.61
9.22±9.38***
10.23±6.89***
38.94±7.70
40.72±9.95
45.62±10.54***
* significant at P < 0.05; ** significant at P < 0.01; *** significant at P < 0.001
Summary
Traditional
agricultural landscape
Comparison
of traditional
and collectivized fields:
Geomorphological variables
•
landscape changes remain closely associated to the geomorphological
characteristics of the territories (Bürgi et al., 2009)
•
High slopes were unsuitable for agriculture in Neolithic times, with the development
of technologies, and increased demang for agricultural land during the medieval
period, the higher slopes became accessible and started to be used for agriculture
•
Inacessiblity of steep areas for heavy machinery determined the survival of traditional
agricultural landscapes during the collectivization of agriculture, but also caused their
abandonment in recent times, when the use of old technologies became unprofitable
and unsuitable
Summary
Traditional
agricultural landscape
Comparison
of traditional
and collectivized fields:
Acessibility to water
•
fundamental factor for settlement locations in the past, with the development of
infrastructure became unimportant
•
increasing effect of global warming in the next decades could make the accessibility
to water resources (and distance from flooded areas) important determinant of
landscape change again
Summary
Traditional
agricultural landscape
Comparison
of traditional
and collectivized fields:
Acessibility to agricultural fields
•
settlements were most likely located within 500m of soils suitable for agriculture
•
traditionally managed agricultural landscapes located closer to the settlements were
more likely to survive the collectivization of agriculture and were less likely to be
affected by abandonment
•
Accessibility to local capital cities was the least influential variable
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION
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