Characterizing European cultural landscapes: Accounting for structure, management intensity and value of agricultural and forest landscapes

We present a landscape characterization based on three dimensions of rural cultural landscapes. Landscapes are categorized using maps of landscape structure, management intensity, and landscape value and meaning. We map distinct spatial patterns of cultural landscapes across Europe. Our paper can help to identify pressures to cultural landscapes and thus to target measures for the conservation of these landscapes, to link similar landscapes in different regions, and to inform policy design on the most important characteristics of cultural landscapes at a regional scale.