News
New Article in Landscape and Urban Planning
17 Jun 2026
How do changing landscapes affect how we experience nature?
We connect with our surrounding landscape in many non-material ways: it can be a place of attachment, identity, well-being, and overall enjoyment. And when the landscape changes, our relationship with nature changes with it. A new paper by Schirpke et al. shows: Even where natural spaces are reclaiming the land, people might still have a hard time dealing with change.
While landscape science has become increasingly sophisticated in measuring physical changes to landscapes, understanding how these changes are perceived and experienced by people remains a major challenge. The same landscape transformation can be welcomed by some and perceived as a loss by others, depending on personal experiences, cultural backgrounds, values, and local contexts.
In their new article published in Landscape and Urban Planning, Prof. Uta Schirpke and her colleagues Sebastian Candiago, Konrad Gray, Franziska Komossa, Karoline Hemminger, Markus Meyer, Thomas M. Schmitt, Brenda Maria Zoderer, and Manuel Ebner analyzed discussions from an expert workshop and examined:
How can we measure the effects of landscape change on people?
While maps or satellite data can tell us about physical landscape changes (e.g. forest cover, land use changes, number and size of habitat patches), these metrics cannot capture how people experience those changes. For that, researchers need to engage directly with the people, for example through interviews, questionnaires, participatory approaches, or social media analysis.
Why do people perceive landscape changes differently?
People react very differently to landscape changes, depending on context and personal factors. Social background, cultural traditions, political systems, and information sources all influence how people perceive change, alongside personal factors such as age, gender, education, values, and individual interests.
How can landscape science better support decision-making?
Based on a SWOT-analysis, the researchers found that landscape science can help decision-makers understand how landscape change affects both ecosystems and people. However, important social and cultural dimensions are sometimes overlooked. Novel approaches such as AI, social media analysis, and participatory techniques offer great potential for better integrating people's perspectives. But it remains difficult to translate research findings into decision-making processes.