engleski

Landscape Suitability Evaluation as a Tool for Development and Protection of Valuable Rural Areas

Sustainable development is a frequent phrase in all Croatian development strategies and documents, including the rural and agricultural ones, which are both to be spatially determined within local level spatial plans. If agricultural land is changed into some other land use or is left to ecological succession processes, degradation of landscape qualities is inevitable. In addition to the rural development capabilities assessment, in order to ensure sustainability of the future development, it is very important that protective measures are included within the spatial planning process. Thus, in this paper the potential landscape qualities degradations due to the development of traditional Mediterranean agriculture are observed in relation to the landscape protection requirements. The methodological approach that implies a landscape suitability evaluation of certain Mediterranean agricultural crops is presented in a case study for the wider area of the Krka river. The results indicated (1) the efficiency of the procedure for obtaining the optimized spatial potential for development as well as protection within valuable rural areas and (2) the possibility to include new methods into current planning regulations. The application of the suitability analysis as a landscape evaluation methodology used in this paper represents a systematic approach to optimizing decisions within the spatial planning process, because it simultaneously includes all aspects of developmental requirements as well as landscape qualities, and so contributes to the protection of valuable rural areas as an important factor of the strategic approach to sustainable development.

landscape qualities ; protection ; rural areas ; sustainable development

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