Enhanced parameterization of the CALEROS model of landscape dynamics and its consequences for a geo-archaeological reconstruction of a study area in the Calabria high lands.
Summary
The Hidden Landscapes project began in 2005 and focuses on biases in Mediterranean Landscape Archaeology. The project aims to study and reveal so called Hidden landscapes, which have been so far unrecorded and undetected, such as uplands and mountains in Italy. The system of settlements and land use is strongly related to the past and main anthropogenic and geomorphologic processes forming the landscape. Therefore, a dynamic and process based model for landscape dynamics of Mediterranean mountainous areas is developed by University Utrecht (the Calibrian Erosion model, Caleros). Caleros is applied for a pilot area in Northern Calabria, the Contrada Maddalena, wherefore model performance is measured. A detailed parameterization is performed for different soil physical-, climate-, and PFT dependent- parameters, using approximate data, field- and sample-measurements and conditional simulation. Given the complex and strong interactions between man, vegetation, hydrology, climate and soil, a dynamic vegetation module is implemented. Model performance is examined by a validation of LAI outcome with NDVI measurements and by a test run, where patterns in vegetation become clear.