ABSTRACT
Against the background of accelerated changes of landscapes and the threatening danger of losses in the quality of landscapes, a number of scientific disciplines dealing with applied and diachronic landscape analysis have emerged in the last 20 years. This chapter aims to further them by developing an interdisciplinary concept of a Historic Landscape Analysis (HLA) based on a landscape information system (LIS), which can be applied in most parts of Europe. The information system is adapted, on the one hand, from a physiological modelling of landscapes that derives from the patch-matrix-concept developed by the North American landscape ecology. On the other hand, it has roots in the cadastres and topographic maps that were generated in many European countries since the 18th century. In addition, this chapter discusses how to model, set up and apply the landscape information system and, in particular, how to integrate historical data. Methods for analysing and evaluating the structures of, and changes in landscapes as well as for simulating and managing the future development of “traditional” or “historic” landscapes are discussed in another chapter within this book.
