Maantiede ja maisemaekologia maaseudun maiseman muutostutkimuksessa

The aim of this article is to review the connections between two sciences: geography and landscape ecology in the studies of changing landscapes. It is normal that cultural landscapes are changing all the time because of human action. The dimension and the volume of the change in rural landscapes can be studied from both visual and/or ecological view. This article concerns methods for studying physical and ecological changes of the landscapes during past decades. The main attention here is focusing on the development of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) by analyzing information from paper maps and aerial or satellite photos. Nowadays this method is the most relevant one in quantifying areal and diversity changes at the landscape level.