Evolução do Uso Solo e Avaliação do Valor Paisagístico e de Recreio na Área de Paisagem Protegida da Serra do Açor

Changes in the Landscape Protected Area of Serra do Acor, occurred as a consequence of the interaction of environmental factors such as climate and geomorphology, with cultural social and economic driven forces. This work studied the extent of the changes in land use that occurred in the area during a thirty year period and proposes an operational way of computing an amenity index for the area, based on spatial attributes such as visibility, accessibility and visual diversity, and other intrinsic attributes of the different patches. We came to the conclusion that the studied area has high dynamics in what concerns land use changes. The main evidence is the fact that the area of broadleaved increased whereas the area of pine forests and agricultural areas decreased dramatically. That index, with a quantitative and spatial dimension, allowed the discrimination of areas with different recreation and landscape potential values, as well as the identification of the sensitive areas from the landscape point of view. Additionally it can be used in decision aid