Rural Landscape and Countryside

Rural Landscape and Countryside

Switzerland is famous for its attractive rural landscape. It can only be preserved, however, if we are able to recognise and assess the most important processes involved in changing it.

Agriculture and society are reliant upon ecosystem services. Pollination and the encouragement of beneficial insects, for example, are important services for the producing agricultural sector, whilst the landscape also provides a service for society as a whole. Ecosystem services must be assessed not only at individual plot level, but in the landscape context. For this reason, in the ‘Landscape’ activity field we deal with interactions between seminatural habitats and conventionally used agricultural land, with the assessment of the landscape at landscape level, and with the assessment of ecosystem services of new cultivation systems such as agroforestry. Since Geographical information systems are an important tool for this analysis, GIS coordination is also allocated to this field of activity.

Project Information

Project title:
Rural Landscape and Countryside