Translating land use change to landscape change for a scenario study in Europe

The objective of this paper is to translate land use changes (EU 25) into landscape changes. In contrast to land use maps the proposed landscape maps take the neighbourhood of a location into account additionally to solely the land use in a particular cell. Land use categories are reclassified into three main land use types and the dominant land use in a circle around the location is calculated. In addition, land use structure in the surroundings of a location is taken into account by calculating Shannon¿s diversity index and reclassifying this into two categories. By combining these two dataset six landscape types are identified. By comparing the landscape maps for 2000 and 2030 we constructed a landscape change map. The results show a great spatial variety in landscape change within Europe. The relation between land use change and landscape change is non-linear depending on the nature and structure of the initial landscape and land use changes.