The Driving Forces Inducing Land Cover Changes in Israel's Northern Sharon Plain from the End of the Nineteenth Century to the Present Time

Abstract

abstract:This research focuses on Israel's northern Sharon region, an area that underwent radical land cover changes. It examines the driving forces behind the changes in the northern Sharon Plain over four time periods: 1881, 1917, 1954–58, and 2011. To do this, historical land cover was reconstructed using different cartographical sources. The results show that the Sharon Plain has changed from mostly natural land cover features to mostly human-made ones. Some land cover categories have disappeared altogether (marshes, barren sand dunes). Each period examined had different proximate drivers that caused the land cover change. Moreover, at first, the main underlying causes of the change were mainly cultural, but in later periods these became more political and economic. This study demonstrates the importance of using historical map sources and the driving forces approach for understanding land cover changes over time.