How Do Policies Shape Landscapes? Landscape Change and its Political Driving Forces in the Limmat Valley, Switzerland 1930–2000

Abstract Over the past few decades, urbanization, agricultural intensification, and greening have enormously changed the traditional cultural landscape of the study area in the Swiss lowlands. The aim of this research is to quantify the importance of political driving forces, to identify the most important ones, and to describe the landscape changes associated with them. The landscape changes were quantified based on the comparison of historical maps and driving forces were compiled and linked with changes based on document analysis and expert interviews. We found that political driving forces contributed 26% to landscape change. Landscape changes such as new roads and buildings, changes in the agricultural and forestry network, the loss of elements of the traditional agricultural landscape, new solitary trees, and new roadside slopes have been associated with political driving forces. Though many political driving forces shaped the landscape, depending on the question, a few crucial ones might be appropriate for understanding and managing many aspects of landscape change.