Rates of landscape change at the northern fringe of the Swiss Alps: Historical and recent tendencies

There seems to be a general consensus nowadays among the public in many countries that landscape transformation has accelerated drastically. This study examines the question if cultural landscape change has really accelerated during the 20th century on the border of the Swiss Alps. Different cultural landscape change processes, such as the expansion of the built-up area or the road network, and their transformation rates are distinguished and the impact of the local context and the topographical conditions are investigated. A detailed spatial investigation was conducted covering the last 120 years using GIS and topographic maps. The detected transformation rates were analysed with respect to processes, the study areas and their topography. By the end of the 20th century, the acceleration tendencies seem to have given way to a deceleration. We found considerable variation in transformation rates according to the local context and topographical conditions. For planning and policy this means not only considering transformation rates as such but also looking more closely at spatial and contextual specifics in order to be able to account for the susceptibility of spaces or elements for high transformation rates.