Assessing the ecological suitability of land-use change. Lessons learned from a rural marginal area in southeast Portugal

Land-use planning practice and policy are still lacking a landscape perspective that takes into account landscape history integrated with land suitability. This article presents a method that allows assessing the ecological suitability of land-use change. This method was applied to Baixo Guadiana, a rural marginal area in southeast Portugal. The first step of the land-use change ecological assessment is the study area delimitation. Baixo Guadiana limits were obtained through land morphology and slopes cartography, based on the "morphological landscape unit” concept. The second step - land suitability analysis - includes a characterization of the landscape ecological suitability. The third step - land-use change analysis - combines landscape history, with land-use change analysis and historical literature review. The final step – land-use change ecological assessment – is the evaluation of the land-use changes regarding land suitability. This paper highlights how the integration of two widely used methods, land-use change and land suitability analysis, supports land use policy analysis. Firstly, this research shows how past policies did not consider Baixo Guadiana Landscape Suitability. The current lack of natural regeneration of holm and cork oaks, the death of these adult trees and the low production of stone pine plantations, represent the main challenges to the planning and recovery of this landscape. Secondly, besides highlighting how these problems resulted from past inadequate land uses, promoted by national and European agricultural policies, this study indicates the areas where landscape recovery actions should be financed.