A method to identify and map the land use patterns relevant for environmental services in agricultural landscapes

[Departement_IRSTEA]Territoires [TR1_IRSTEA]DTAM [Axe_IRSTEA]DTAM3-ECOPRA; International audience; The association of natural and farmed areas is of primary importance for ecological networks in agricultural landscapes. The main goal of this work is to present a method to rapidly quantify and map the spatial configurations (SC) of the main landscape elements in farmed landscapes. Such land use patterns are relevant for agro-environmental policies since a better knowledge of main CS in landscapes is needed. The method we developed was in four steps: (1) to identify the main objectives of agro-environmental policies and of their relationship with local land uses; (2) to qualify the CS relevant for policies through field surveys, aerial photos observation, qualitative spatial representations, also in order to describe each CS by spatial indicators; (3) to test the relevance of the indicators describing CS using Pearson Chi-squared and Wilcoxon signed rank tests; (4) to map the spatial distribution of the identified CS in the analyzed agricultural landscape. We applied this method to a case study in Southern Tuscany, a Mediterranean inland hilly landscape of 1500 ha. Five CS were identified and described. Selected indicators were proper to distinguish CS. The mapping of the CS showed a total coverage of the analyzed landscape, with some overlapping among different CS. The method reliability has been tested on another grassland oriented landscape in Central France showing a higher predictive value of agro-environmental services for Mediterranean landscapes characterized by an higher land use diversity.