Urban expansion, land use change and development of landscape diversity in Södra Sandby, Lund municipality 1940-2019

Diversity is an important part of the health of our planet’s ecosystems and processes. Anthropogenic factors like urbanization and agriculture have altered the landscape and in turn had a negative effect on diversity. Efforts to maintain and preserve diversity for long term ecological strength, have led to more holistic approaches by handling many types of diversity under the same field of “landscape ecology”. This thesis focuses on interconnection between two types of diversity within the field of landscape ecology; landscape diversity and biodiversity. More specific, the focus is on the relationship between landscape composition, landscape structure, biodiversity and anthropogenic land use change. The study was based in and around a rural town within Lund municipality called Södra Sandby. The study area has historically been dominated by agriculture but contains multiple protected areas of high nature values. The area has previously experienced substantial urban expansion during the 20th century and is now in the plans for an expansion of 26000 residences until 2040. The municipality strives for a greener future and aims to strengthen the connection between its urban areas and the countryside. To meet the aspirations, it is important to understand how previous expansion has affected the landscape. The aim of this study was to map the land use change between 1940-2019 in Södra Sandby, to analyze the landscape structure change over time as an effect of anthropogenic land use change and discuss what implication it could have on biodiversity. This was done by interpreting orthophotos between 1940-2019 (1940, 1973, 2004, 2010 and 2019) using a geographical information system and by quantifying landscape structure metrics for area, shape, fragmentation, diversity and evenness using FRAGSTATS. The land use interpretation resulted in five classes (agriculture, built up area, forest, water, and roads) which were then used to conduct the landscape structure analysis. From 1940-2019 the total area of agriculture decreased by 11%, built up area increased by 424%, forest increased by 80%, water increased by 35% and roads increased by 43.6%. The major changes in the landscape over the period was transitions from agriculture to built up area, and from agriculture to forest. The structure analysis showed that the study area has become less fragmented over the period (besides the class of agriculture). There was an increase of total core area in all classes besides agriculture. All classes experienced an increase in shape complexity, indicating a more natural shape for patches of forest but a less complex shape for built up area. The results of Shannon´s diversity index and Shannon´s evenness index showed an increase in both diversity and evenness over the period. The results point to a positive development of the landscape structure over time despite the previous urban expansion in the area. It has been heavily dominated by agriculture but over the period this class have declined. With agriculture becoming less dominant and more fragmented while built up area and forest becoming more prominent, it is highly possible that this has had a positive effect on the diversity and evenness of the landscape. The development of landscape structure over the period could also potentially indicate a positive direction for species richness and biodiversity in the area. High shape complexity, large patches, sufficient core area, low amount of isolation and increasing diversity and evenness could indicate a potentially well maintained and enhanced biodiversity. This however cannot be proven in this study as biodiversity was not quantified or tested.