Changes in vegetation

Vegetation management is a method of design combining human impacts and natural processes and offers an impression of the dynamics of nature.

Impacts/disturbance

In order to avoid the colonisation of woody plants like birches, the plant cover is partially removed at periodic intervals. Once again, mine spoil is heaped on the site and pioneer habitats are created.

These areas will either be sown with seeds of pioneer species or will be left to the natural succession of the existing vegetation which provides plenty of seed sources. The changing system of vegetation management

creates a pattern of different vegeta­tion stages. Through the removal of the plant cover, the contour lines of the vegetation areas are once again clearly structured and linear, but will change over time into an amorphous structure. In addition, the original linear shape of the heaps dissolves gradually due to erosion and removal of the plant cover. The result will be a pattern of different stages of ero­sion.

Acknowledgements

This article describes a design project elaborated at the Department of Landscape Architecture and Spatial Planning, Technical University of Munich. Thanks are due to Prof. Peter Latz.

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