Suburban scenario development based on multiple landscape assessments

Housing suburbanisation led in the past decades to problems caused by deconcentration of population and intensive area-consumption. Major social, economic and ecological functions for a sustainable spatial decision support in the suburban landscape are described and functionalised by indicators and modelled using GIS with the aim to minimise the problems related to the suburbanisation. The indicators chosen include human-ecological functions, accessibility and infrastructure development and the regulation and regeneration of population and biocoenosis. Out of a balanced list of 11 indicators (one is used twice) the regulation of traffic noise immissions, the landscape accessibility to the nearest freeway and the habitat network integration of sites are modelled, assessed and discussed detailed. The indicator modelling operationalises a wide range of methods including the analysis of travel costs, distance functions, visibility analysis and landscape metrics on the basis of public available data (biotope types, digital elevation model and road data). The methods are applied to a suburban agricultural landscape northeast of Leipzig in Saxony/Germany (66 km²). Three scenarios developed for the aggregation of multiple considerations are demonstrated with maps — based on the status quo of the “(mono)-functional landscape”, the “multi functional landscape” and the “sustainable landscape”. The scenarios aggregate an increasing number of indicators to form a comprehensive assessment. The result maps clearly show the suitable areas for private housing that fulfil e.g. silence, recreational functions while simultaneously ensuring nature protection. The paper emphasises the integrative prospects of landscape functions for monitoring, indicator assessment and the integration to land use decision-making in the context of spatial planning.