Managing Green Infrastructure in Central European Landscapes (MaGICLandscapes)

This English manual version was compiled as Output O.T1.2 of the Interreg Central Europe Project MaGICLandscapes „Managing Green Infrastructure in Central European Landscapes“ funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). This publication and its short versions in Czech, German, Italian and Polish languages can be downloaded from the project website: https://www.interreg-central.eu/Content.Node/MaGICLandscapes.html

This English manual version was compiled as Output O.T3.2 of the Interreg Central Europe Project MaGICLandscapes “Managing Green Infrastructure in Central European Landscapes“ funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). This publication is also available in Czech, German, Italian and Polish languages and can be downloaded from the project website https://www.interreg-central.eu/Content.Node/MaGICLandscapes.html.

This E-Book was compiled as Deliverable D.C.6.2 of the Interreg Central Europe Project MaGICLandscapes “Managing Green Infrastructure in Central European Landscapes“ funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

This English manual version was compiled as Output O.T2.1 of the Interreg Central Europe Project MaGICLandscapes “Managing Green Infrastructure in Central European Landscapes“ funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). This publication is also available in Czech, German, Italian and Polish languages and can be downloaded from the project website https://www.interreg-central.eu/Content.Node/MaGICLandscapes.html.

First Output (O.T1.1) within the framework of the Interreg Central Europe Project MaGICLandscapes – Managing Green Infrastructure in Central European Landscapes.

Green Infrastructure (GI) defined as a strategically planned network of natural and semi-natural areas is a key strategy in the European biodiversity strategy and the landscape connectivity agenda. To implement this approach in Central Europe’s (CE) landscape planning policies the Interreg project MaGICLandscapes (ML) tried to operationalise the GI concept in CE as well as in nine case studies, to provide land-managers, policy makers and communities with tools and knowledge, at different spatial levels. Based on the example of the Austrian case study area, the aim of this paper is to present an easy to use approach, as implemented in ML, for producing a highly-detailed regional GI database to overcome the difficulty of realising comprehensive biotope mapping surveys as well as the rather coarse resolution of CORINE Land Cover (CLC). By compiling regional cadastral and agricultural information, highly detailed data on the water network as well as Pan-European High Resolution Layers (HRL), this detailed representation of the regional GI network allows to enhance the regional applicability and acceptance of GI initiatives and provides a crucial foundation for assessing GI connectivity and functionality to develop evidence-based strategies and action plans through stakeholder involvement to direct future actions and investment in GI.

The concept of Green Infrastructure (GI) is still relatively new in the Czech Republic. When looking at the definition of GI, one can recognise a relationship with the Czech Territorial System of Ecological Stability (TSES), which is defined as “an interconnected system of natural as well as modified semi-natural ecosystems keeping the natural balance”. TSES is a designed system and is an integral part of territorial plans. This article focuses on TSES and its relationship to GI, how it is implemented in a Czech case study representing intensively used agricultural region in South Moravia, what the main obstacles are to its implementation and how TSES can contribute to the connectivity of the landscape. Our results show that nearly two thirds of the planned TSES in the case study area already exist to some degree. There is a difference between the number and the area of existing TSES elements: the area of existing elements shows higher relative values than the number. This is mainly due to bio-centres that exist in large forest complexes and their pre-set minimal parameters. Creation of TSES elements increases connectivity of GI, especially those characterised as core areas and bridges

The contribution of Green Infrastructure (GI) in vital areas such as regional development, climate change, agriculture, forestry and environmental protection is already acknowledged and listed as one of the priorities in several key EU policies, and is the basis for the EU Green Infrastructure Strategy. However, the concept is not yet fully integrated into actual planning strategies, in this respect the Czech Republic is no different. A major problem in doing so is a lack of guidelines/ how to identify and map GI using available sources and thus keeping costs down. The existing data sources for land cover or land use often do not fulfil the requirements in terms of thematic coverage, resolution or accuracy. In order to work around such limitations, we analyse the existing land use/land cover data in the Czech Republic from the GI perspective. Furthermore, we propose a GI mapping methodology based on the diagnosis of three mapping approaches at the regional level, grounded on the utilisation and processing of different data sets. We compared GI maps based on European data from CORINE Land Cover Database, Czech national database called Consolidated Layer of Ecosystems (CLE) and combination of Czech national and regional data and manual vectorization. Our results show that CORINE based GI map is suitable for transnational scale but unsuitable for regional scale. The CLE based GI map is good for both national and regional scale but its information on GI in urban areas is lacking. The detailed regional GI map is good for regional and to some degree even for local scale but its creation is time consuming. However, careful combination of existing national and regional data can provide good outcome in creating GI map usable for territorial planning.

Green infrastructure (GI) as a term and concept has recently become better known in the Central Europe. The GI represents green and blue patches grouped together into strategically planned network with aim to deliver variety of benefits that can also be expressed as ecosystem services. While in some countries GI means something brand new and innovative, in others such as the Czech Republic and Slovakia it has to be confronted with already existing and established concepts containing smaller or larger part of the approach offered by the GI. In both mentioned countries, it is primarily concept of the Territorial System of Ecological Stability of the Landscape (TSES). Lowland region of Kyjovsko, Czech Republic, experiences problems connected with intensive agriculture such as accelerated erosion, reduction of landscape permeability or decreasing biodiversity. Therefore, it was selected as an example how to assess and possibly find ways how to enhance the GI with respect to the existing and/or planned TSES. In the Kyjovsko, 50 % of total more than 1 800 planned TSES elements already exist in the landscape. With the knowledge of their spatial distribution, it is possible to prioritize areas for realisation of the missing ones. However, it is also very important to assess in more detail functionality of the already existing TSES elements.

Historical landscape structures (HLS) have been disappearing throughout Europe due to their abandonment, especially in the mountains (Jepsen et al. 2015), or agricultural intensification (Cvitanovic et al. 2017) and urbanization (Schulp et al. 2019), typical for the lowlands. HLS are result of traditional, usually manual management. They are represented by narrow strips of arable fields, vineyards or orchards and small woody, grassed and wetland patches, which can be seen as an integral part of Green infrastructure (GI). On examples from agricultural landscapes in the Czech Republic, we will show causes and consequences of disappearance of HLS in the past 200 years and what impact it can have on presence and especially connectivity of GI. (The presented paper is a result of project CE897 MaGICLandscapes from INTERREG CENTRAL EUROPE, supported by ERDF.)

Introduction about MaGICLandscape project, first prelimenary results from case study Kyjovsko. Presentation was held in Czech.

Introduction of the MaGICLandscape project. The poster is in Czech.

Green infrastracture is considered as a key strategy in the European landscape connectivity agenda. It is an essential planning concept towards protecting natural capital and simultaneously enhancing quality of life. This approach, however, is not yet implemented in central Europe landscape planning policies, which seldom consider the ability of land to deliver multiple benefits. MaGICLandscapes project will operationalise this concept in central Europe by providing land managers, policy makers and communities with tools and knowledge. The main objective of MaGICLandscapes is to increase the capacities of institutions to improve the managementof the green infrastructure resource and promote sustainable land use, both in areas of high biodiversity and surrounding intensively used areas. There are 9 case study areas in 5 countries – Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy and Poland.