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Dynamic land use change modelling for CAP impact assessment on the rural landscape

Final Report Summary - LUMOCAP (Dynamic land use change modelling for CAP impact assessment on the rural landscape)

Given that agriculture activities require about half of the European Union territory, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is a main driver determining land use structure and landscape quality. CAP is implemented to ensure rural development and with satisfactory income to farmers, including landscape preservation and sustainability of agri-ecosystems through agri-environmental schemes. Moreover, CAP wishes to maintain agricultural activity in less favoured and environmentally sensitive areas while avoiding degradation of the associated landscapes.

The LUMOCAP project was directly related to the CAP and aimed at delivering an operational tool for assessing land use changes and their impact on the rural landscape according to a CAP orientation. The end product was planned to be an open ended, transparent, computer based policy support system (PSS) which would:

1. enable the user to interactively enter policy options under specific sets of climate and socioeconomic conditions serving as external driving forces,
2. formulate land use scenarios,
3.assess the impacts of both driving forces and scenarios on the quality of rural landscapes using a series of relevant indicators,
4. identify areas of adverse land use related environmental change due to non sustainable agricultural ecosystems.

Therefore, the project focussed on the relations between CAP and landscape changes and emphasised the spatial and temporal dimensions of this process. A dynamic land use model was developed, based on an existing simulation platform, and calibrated, based on existing data. Moreover, the model was used to assess policy development scenarios, which consisted of a combination of external factors and policy measures, by forecasting the future spatial distribution of land use, land cover and related landscape indicators. Selected study areas were utilised to perform evaluation analyses of the PSS at a regional scale.

The PSS and its results were presented and discussed with potential end users during a series of events and training workshops. A questionnaire survey demonstrated that the proposal could be used in policy analysis and appeared to be user friendly; however, more interaction and testing were necessary to assess the full capabilities and limitations of the approach. Documentation, including a user manual and model descriptions, was prepared following the undertaken method optimisation activities. Other dissemination initiatives included participation in conferences, development of a project dedicated website and publications in scientific journals.