Are agricultural landscapes dynamic or stable? Case study in Lake Tota (Boyacá, Colombia)

Abstract

Lake Tota, Colombia’s largest Andean wetland, has gone through change processes regarding land use due to anthropic activities that affect its management and conservation. The article assesses the dynamics of change in land cover during a 20-year period (1992-2013), through the drawing of land cover maps, principal component analysis (pca), the identification of use transitions through Land Change Modeler, the analysis of landscape structure, and the identification of socioeconomic and contextual factors related to that change. Findings showed that persistence of landscape was 96.31% and 72.36% in the periods 1992-2000 and 2000-2013, respectively, with a systematic transition from grasses and grass mosaics to crops and a similar landscape structure over time. pca made it possible to organize the area’s municipalities into different use transitions: Sogamoso, with industrialization phase; Aquitania, with profitable agricultural intensification; and Cuítiva and Tota, with subsistence agriculture, all related to the analyzed patterns and factors. Future studies of use in the lake should focus on the socio-ecological and socioeconomic factors to be taken into account for territorial planning.