This paper constitutes a preliminary introduction to a project concerning the south-western area of Aquileia in antiquity. Through the collection and the study of historical and archaeological documents, historical maps, modern aerial photos and the fulfillment of geomorphological surveys, the evolution of the forms of settlement and land use will be investigated. Historical maps and modern ort...

Methods: We used early land survey records (1846–1949) of public lands to reconstruct pre-settlement forest composition. The data consist of ranked tree species enumerations at points or for segments along surveyed lines, with enumerations of forest cover types and notes concerning disturbances. An original procedure was developed to weigh and combine these differing data types (line versus poi...

In a wooded region, clearing land of trees is probably the simplest way to expand farmland and provide fuel for a growing population. As long as there is sufficient wooded land people will be able to collect fuel. As land clearance proceeds, it will take more effort to collect fuel. Vegetation Joss may lead to a permanent drop in the water table, increased runoff and wind erosion, and loss of s...

The concept of naturalness was developed to assess to what degree landscapes represent a natural state. Protected areas are often regarded as the remnants of untouched landscapes although many landscapes commonly perceived as pristine have a long history of human impact. Here, we introduced a historical perspective into the concept of naturalness and the analysis of the effectiveness of protect...

Exploring patterns of settlement and land ownership have always been of interest to the historian but could these patterns be used, as it were, ‘in reverse’ not simply to display what is already known but to resolve gaps, uncertainties and ambiguities in the historical record? It was the nature of life in the eleventh century that individuals were rarely named uniquely and were frequently known...

Recent studies in Amazonia historical ecology have revealed substantial diversity and dynamic change in coupled natural human systems. In the southern Amazon, several headwater basins show evidence of substantial pre-Columbian landscape modification, particularly in areas historically dominated by speakers of the Arawak language family. The headwater basin of the Xingu River, the easternmost of...

the present study illustrates the long-term changes in selected socioeconomic variables (population,industrial activities, settlement dispersion, and land-use) together with climate aridity trends in thriasio, the larger industrial area of greece located twenty kilometers far from athens. this region, originally devoted to agriculture, experienced fast industrial and economic development during...

The paper evaluated the Landsat Automated Land Cover Update Mapping (LALCUM) system designed to rapidly update a land cover map to a desired nominal year using a pre-existing reference land cover map. The system uses the Iteratively Reweighted Multivariate Alteration Detection (IRMAD) to identify areas of change and no change. The system then automatically generates large amounts of training sa...