Mechanisms in recent landscape transformation

Change is an essential property of landscape. The continuous interaction between natural processes and human activities defines different landscape dynamics. The general driving forces are well known, as well as the general trends of contemporary landscape transformation. Increased demand on mobility, industrialisation and urbanisation are related and processes that are mainly driven by global economical forces. They cause a polarisation of geographical space in more intensively used core areas and vast areas of marginalisation and even land abandonment. Landscape changes accordingly. However, at the local level the response to these forces can be very different. Based on detailed case studies in different rural areas in Europe, mechanisms of transformation could be recognised. They relate to functional changes in the land use, mainly caused by actors who possess the spatial competence, i.e. the landowners, and rarely planned, gradually and stepwise causing a structural transformation of the landscape. Examples of changing farming practices and residential housing are discussed briefly.