A metrics-based approach for modeling covariation of visual and ecological landscape qualities

Landscape ecological aesthetics is a relevant conceptual framework for studying landscape multi-functionality. While the relationships between aesthetic and ecological landscape qualities have been explored and debated in landscape research they have been addressed very little in spatially explicit approaches, and never in a dynamic way. However, a set of spatial metrics can be used to characterize the visual and ecological dimensions of landscape and changes in them. In this study, we propose a framework for analyzing covariation between visual and ecological landscape qualities based on spatial metrics measured from land-cover changes. We apply this framework to the urban agglomeration of Besancon (France) and its urban-rural fringes, which have been subject to several forms of change such as urbanization and agricultural transformations. Cross-mapping of visual and ecological variations reveals both their possible convergences and divergences in space. The study area is empirically affected by much more marked convergence (16.5%) than divergence (5.3%). This contribution to landscape ecological aesthetics provides insights for integrated landscape management with an alignment of visual and ecological goals for landscape sustainability.