The Changing Character of Agricultural Infrastructure: Investigating Historic Terrace Systems in Catalonia Using Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis
Agricultural terrace systems stand out as a conspicuous type of landscape infrastructure. Interpretation of their origins and development can be confounded by difficulties in assessing their extent and understanding their context. In this paper, we use a combination of historic and modern remote sen...
| Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | article |
| Status: | Published version |
| Publication Date: | 2025 |
| Country: | España |
| Institution: | Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya) |
| Repository: | Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:recercat.cat:10459.1/467430 |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1080/14662035.2024.2445927 https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/467430 |
| Access Level: | Open access |
| Keyword: | Historic landscape characterisation (HLC) Airborne laser scanning (ALS) Remote sensing Infrastructure Terraces Catalonia Local indicators for categorical data (LICD) |
| Summary: | Agricultural terrace systems stand out as a conspicuous type of landscape infrastructure. Interpretation of their origins and development can be confounded by difficulties in assessing their extent and understanding their context. In this paper, we use a combination of historic and modern remote sensing data, Historic Landscape Characterisation, and spatial-statistical analysis to examine the recent transformation of terrace networks in a case study in Catalonia, Spain. In-use terraces comprise roughly 26 per cent of our study area, a reduction of at least 10 per cent from 1945, and at least 30 per cent of the landscape currently under forest or scrub contains abandoned or ‘relict’ terrace networks. Our analysis shows how the use of remote sensing data can add new dimensions to the characterisation which better reflect the impact of changing land-use histories. |
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