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iLaria MarengoPhD Research StudentDegree in Geography with Hons. (Genoa-Italy) MSc Remote sensing and image processing (Dundee-Scotland)
Supervisors:
tel: +44 1786 466542 |
Research Project Background
Landscape character is defined as a distinct, recognisable and consistent pattern of elements in the landscape that makes one landscape different from the others, rather than better or worse (C.Swanwick and Land Use Consultants, 2002).
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Since 1994 the character of Scotland's landscapes has been systematically recorded through a process called Landscape Character Assessment (LCA). This process has been developed and published by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH). However, in more than a decade of use and application the LCA has proved not to be thouroughly effective therefore SNH considered to enhance the whole process by introducing Geographical Information System (GIS) as an analytical tool.
Primarily the weaknesses of the LCA lies in the lack of measurable and explicit definitions of the landscape elements which contribute to the landscape character. Terms as "rolling hills" or "steep slopes" can mean many things and can be interpreted in slightly different way depending on who iscarrying out the landscape character assessment. As a consequence, a subjective component is added to the LCA and there is an inability to repeat an identical assessment resulting in inconsistency in the outcomes.
This indicates the need for a new approach, based on the use and application of GIS, which is designed to bring a robust, consistent and quantitative basis to the LCA.
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Research aim and interests
The research aim is to develop a GIS-based methodology that identifies the landscape character by asking:
- Which attributes of the landscape elements can be quantified and used as parameters in order to describe the landscape character?
- Where and how are the landscape elements geographically (spatially) distributed? Do they form clusters?
- If so, where do the clusters occur? What are the elements that contribute to each of the clusters?
- Compared to the current LCA reports, do the identified clusters match with landscape character types?
- Is the GIS-based landscape characterisation efficient and successful? Is it a useful and helpful support tool for making decisions?
To date the implemented methodology is going to answer these questions by:
- Defining and calculating landscape character indicators. Cross tabulating datasets and selecting the elements that are rare/abundant/dominant;
- Performing a multivariate cluster analysis that takes into account spatial autocorrelation rules;
- Testing and validating the methodology and results with landscape professional practitioners and end users;
- Comparing the results with the current LCA studies through seeking feedback from the end-users in order to record their response.
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