Understanding the landscape dynamics from a devastated to revived cultural landscape : the case of the First World War in Flanders through the lens of landscape patterns

The First World War (1914-1918) wreaked an overwhelming damage in Flanders. Allied and German forces battled four years, transforming the pre-war landscape with scenic views into a destroyed landscape fully covered with craters. Afterwards, the landscape was entirely reconstructed by the help of local initiatives and by national and international policy. In this paper, changing landscape patterns are analysed with historical land use/land cover data to unravel the underlying landscape dynamics of the restored area until present. The composition and spatial configuration of the landscape are observed by focussing on the post-war reconstructed landscape. Furthermore, the relation between the degree of military impact during the war and the observed patterns in the reconstructed landscape is studied. Results show that the fragmentation and diversity increased in the past hundred years whereby changes were first seen in urban areas and afterwards in the countryside. Additionally, changes in size and the complexity of fields proved to have a significant relation with the military impact. This study observed the reconstruction period with landscape changes, to understand the post-war land use policy in an innovative manner