How farmers shape cultural landscapes. Dealing with information in farm systems (Vallès County, Catalonia, 1860)
Authors:
- Carme Font (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
- Roc Padró (Institut d’Estudis Regionals i Metropolitans de Barcelona)
- Claudio Cattaneo (Masaryk University, Brno)
- Joan Marull (Institut d’Estudis Regionals i Metropolitans de Barcelona)
- Enric Tello (Universitat de Barcelona)
- Aureli Alabert (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
- Mercè Farré (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Year: 2020
In this paper is proposed an approach to understand how different farmer’s goals can contribute to structure
cultural landscapes and how the information-as-structure held in energy flows within farm systems can be
measured. It starts from a historical case study located in a Mediterranean landscape in the Vallès County
(Catalonia, 1860) and apply an optimization model by using a socio-metabolic approach that responds to three
different strategies at farm gate: maximizing population, minimizing labour, and maximizing income. The
modelled farm pattern of energy flows, the information indicator and the landscape structure that would be
obtained under each optimization strategy are then compared with actual historical data. The results obtained
confirm that it is the farmers’ know-how and culture what allows to manage the energy distribution into the farm
system in order to maintain a sustainable management of the territory.
Font , C., Padró, R., Cattaneo, C., Marull, J., Tello, E., Alabert, A., & Farré, M. (2020). How farmers shape cultural landscapes. Dealing with information in farm systems (Vallès County, Catalonia, 1860). Ecological Indicators, 112(106104), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106104
