Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Conference papers
Title (Primary) Land use and landscape pattern in mesoscale watersheds: analysis and assessment of their interactions and impacts on processes with regard to the EU water framework directive
Title (Secondary) 27th EGS General Assembly, Nice, France, 21-26 April 2002
Author Volk, M.; Steinhardt, U.; Lausch, A.; Haase, D.; Möller, M.; Frotscher, K.; Rosenberg, M.
Source Titel Geophysical Research Abstracts
Year 2002
Department CLE
Volume 4/2002 (CD-ROM)
Page From abstract #2402
Language englisch
Abstract The implementation of the EU water framework directive requires the comprehensive consideration of environmental impacts within whole watersheds during the next 9 years in order to ensure a sound quality and availability of both surface and groundwater. Especially the change of landscape pattern caused by land use alterations has strong impacts on the water balance and the waterbound fluxes within landscapes. Thus, land use systems and cultivation practices unadapted to the natural conditions of the landscapes can lead to environmental impairments of water and soil affecting the regulation functions. In order to develop concepts for adapted land use systems with respect to the goals of the EU water framework directive, integrated investigation and assessment approaches on different spatio-temporal scales have to be developed. The authors suggest a hierachical nested approach applied on the example of the Saale watershed (ca. 23.000 km2) and some of its subbasins of different sizes (8 km2, 360km2, 5.000 km2). The approach is structured into four main steps: · Investigation and assessment of the effects of actual and future trends of regional, national and european land use changes for the study areas (probability according to the landscape conditions) · Investigation of the effects of these land use changes on the landscape structure · Investigation of the impact respectively the interactions between the (resulted) changes of the landscape structure and fluxes of water and material (retention capability, intensity, duration and range of processes, etc.) · Development of a multiscalar parameter system in order to assess the impact of land use changes on the regulation functions (with particular view on water quantity and quality) and to derive adapted land use systems for their protection (suitability and sensitivity of landscapes for land use types). The approach requires the development and coupling of "classic" methods of landscape analysis with innovative GIS-based investigation and assessment methods (combination of "Top Down" and "Bottom Up" methods). Components of this system are, for instance, object- and knowledge based classification methods (eCognition, including remote sensing techniques and digital terrain analysis) and the application of landscape metrics which both will be applied for the classification and monitoring of land use and landscape pattern. It is aimed to integrate the different modules in a specific landscape model that includes veg etation/habitat models (PATCH, etc.) and integrated hydrological models like SWAT and others (investigation of water and material fluxes). The results of these investigations will meet in the development of the multicriterial assessment system. The studies are part of the interdisciplinary joint project "Integrated Watershed Management on the Example of the Saale River" of the Centre for Environmental Research. The main aspects of the approach with the related theoretical and methodological problems, as well as preliminary results of the studies will be presented at the conference.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=6095
Volk, M., Steinhardt, U., Lausch, A., Haase, D., Möller, M., Frotscher, K., Rosenberg, M. (2002):
Land use and landscape pattern in mesoscale watersheds: analysis and assessment of their interactions and impacts on processes with regard to the EU water framework directive
27th EGS General Assembly, Nice, France, 21-26 April 2002
Geophysical Research Abstracts 4/2002 (CD-ROM)
European Geosciences Union (EGU), abstract #2402