An investigation of water and matter balance on the meso-landscape scale: A hierarchical approach for landscape research

The realization of strategies for sustainable land use assumes specificresearch concepts from the local to the global scale (micro-, meso- andmacroscale). Therefore, landscape ecological science has to provideinvestigation methods for all these different scales. By combining“top-down” and “bottom-up” approaches in addition tocoupled GIS-model applications and traditional methods, the investigation oflandscape ecological structures and processes seems to be possible. Thepresented studies show this approach on examples of two study areas in EasternGermany: A watershed of 400 km2 and an administrativedistrict of about 4000 km2. The scale-specificapplicability of several models and methods were tested for theseinvestigations, and the validation of the calculated results are presented. Animportant outcome of the project should be the prevention of conflicts betweenagriculture, water management and soil, and water and nature conservation;based onrecommendations for land use variants with decreased pollutant loading withinagricultural areas. The scale specific investigations can be considered as abase for establishing sustainable land use.