Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Varotto, Mauro
• Bonardi, Luca
• Tarolli, Paolo

Titel

Terraced Landscapes in the Canary Islands: La Gomera, “The Terrace Island”

Ist Teil von

• World Terraced Landscapes: History, Environment, Quality of Life, 2019, Vol.9, p.97-118

Ort / Verlag

Switzerland: Springer International Publishing AG

Erscheinungsjahr

2019

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The Canary Island aim of this work is to map and characterize the maximum surface area of terraced slopes on La Gomera Island. To do so, two digital orthophotos, from 1964 and 2016, were used and analyzed with GISGeographic information systems (GIS). These sources represent two key moments in the recent historyHistory of the island, corresponding in the first instance to a peak in population and agricultural activity and in the second to the fall into disuse of the terracesTerraces. In this study, terrace characterization was based on a map-based analysis of environmental and human factors which influence this kind of landscape. The environmental factorsEnvironmental factors considered were topographically—(slope, elevation, landforms) and geologically-based, while the human factors analyzed were land useLand use, land cover, and protected natural areas. The results show the enormous, diverse, and vulnerable heritageHeritage of the terracesTerraces, which are an example of a cultural landscape whose historyHistory reveals the isolation, scarcity, subsistence, and identity of La Gomera islanders, as well as the terracesTerraces’ current state of abandonment and degradationAbandonment and degradation. This research constitutes the beginning of an inventory processInventory process (identification, location, and description) which will serve as a prior step to classification and evaluation, necessary to protect this landscape. It is also the first contribution from an Atlantic-MacaronesianMacaronesia island to the atlas of world terracesAtlas of world terraces, as promoted by the International Terraced Landscapes AllianceInternational Terraced Landscapes Alliance (ITLA) (ITLA).