Status: National research project within COST Action A27
Duration: 2004–2008
Funding: Third-party funding, plus equity capital of the Institute of Urban and Regional Research at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, total volume: EUR 130,000
Partner: Assignment from the Austrian Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT)
Project coordination, design and realization: Oliver Bender
The project was based on the assumption that understanding the historical changes of a landscape allows useful statements concerning its future development. To that end, the landscape changes in rural areas of Central Europe have to be recorded on a large scale using land use plots since the end of the period of the traditional self-sufficiency economy and interpreted with respect to the influences of natural and socio-economic factors. The analysis by means of a geographical information system (GIS) used suitable serial data sources (e.g. land registers, aerial photographs, etc.) to develop standardizable methods. This innovative approach allows forecasts and scenarios of future landscape changes. It provides a basis for evaluating and coordinating different control and planning instruments in terms of functional development objectives.