Dynamics of rural landscapes and their main driving factors: A case study in the Seine Valley, Normandy, France

Land cover and landscape patterns dynamics over a 25 year period are analysed for a case study in Normandy. With the help of cartography, GIS and multivariate analysis, factors contributing to landscape structures and changes are studied. The results point out three main driving factors responsible for the landscape change: Agricultural practices which lead to intensification of some areas and abandonment of others, urbanisation which modifies the structure and organisation of the landscape, and finally, as factor of stability comes the conservation policies which check these changes in certain zones. Despite this last factor, the global resulting impacts are, up to now, the progressive disappearance of the organisation of the sites landscape.