Exploring Switzerland’s Land Cover Change Dynamics Using a National Statistical Survey

Article Article scientifique Article Exploring Switzerland’s Land Cover Change Dynamics Using a National Statistical Survey eng 2023-07-11 author Nicholson Thomas Isabel Mary 937129 author Giuliani Gregory 0000-0002-1825-8865 94488 Services communs de l'Institut des sciences de l'environnement (ISECO) 1-20 1386 10.3390/land12071386 2073-445X https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/7/1386 Timely and reliable Land Use and Cover change information is crucial to efficiently mitigate the negative impact of environmental changes. Switzerland has the ambitious objective of being a sustainable country while remaining an attractive business location with a high level of well-being. However, this aspiration is hampered by increasing pressures that are significantly impacting the environment and putting serious demands on land. In the present study, we used the national Land Cover (LC) dataset, named ArealStatistik, produced by the Federal Statistical Office, to explore the spatiotemporal patterns of Land Cover in Switzerland, providing a comprehensive assessment of land cover change at the national scale. Results indicate that, in general, Switzerland has undergone small, spatially dispersed, dynamic, and gradual change trends, with high rates of transition between low growing Brush Vegetation and forest LC classes in recent years. These pixel-level trends are more important in the lower altitude plateau and Jura regions, while greater changes in the spatial configuration of LC are observed in the alpine regions. However, findings also suggest that identifying drivers and understanding the rate of change are limited by the spatial resolution and temporal update frequency of the ArealStatistik. The ability to understand these drivers would benefit from a high-resolution annual LC dataset. Such a data product can be produced using the ArealStatistik together with dense satellite data time-series and Machine/Deep Learning techniques. Land cover change Spatial patterns Intensity Transitions Aerial imagery Statistical survey Dewey 500 Dewey 333.7-333.9 18 Institut des sciences de l'environnement 0DB 2 Faculté des sciences 1 false 673 Envirospace Lab 1057 TIGERS 859 Global Resource Information Database (GRID) 941 ISE Pôle Informatique environnementale 938 ISE Pôle Sciences 970b71ee-b344-4440-bc52-c9af263975d0 Living Earth Lab Land 12 23897e45-7af7-4e56-80da-991196d4148d Article (Published version) Public land-12-01386.pdf 8542680 application/pdf CC BY-4.0 902ade9e15b443a897bc3d1b034dbd3ec38b527d413c4c222558216bb0ad259c openAccess Centres et instituts / Institut des sciences de l'environnement Faculté des sciences

Title	Published in	Access level	OA Policy	Year	Views	Downloads

Exploring Switzerland’s Land Cover Change Dynamics Using a National Statistical Survey	Land			2023	111	266

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Nicholson Thomas, Isabel Mary