Unpacking Layers of Space –Time Complexity in Land–Use Dynamics. A Case Study from the Olive Agrosystems of Sicily (Italy)

The biocultural heritage of historical landscapes is an expression of intertwined ecological and socio-cultural dynamics at different temporal and spatial scales. Such a legacy is what confers high nature value on agricultural systems worldwide. Today there is an urgent need to develop approaches that may allow a more integrated study of biocultural heritage in order to better direct future endeavours for the sustainable management on such agricultural systems. Here, a methodological approach to unpack space-time complexity in the land-use dynamics of historic and current-day agrosystems is presented, based on the use of contextual and spatial-relational segmentation techniques within the research framework of historical ecology. With reference to work done in a case study area in Sicily, the authors first extract geographic contextual configurations and develop a spatial-relational ontology for their semantic interpretation, before using these spatial objects as temporal proxies to disentangle the spatial and temporal dynamics of land use. The result is a cross-disciplinary approach in which perspectives from historical ecology can be used to achieve a deeper understanding of evidence extracted from remotely sensed images. At the same time, advanced spatial analysis techniques may provide a further interpretative tool for scientific inquiry into biocultural heritage.