TRuLAn: A high-resolution method for multi-time analysis of traditional rural landscapes and its application in Emilia-Romagna, Italy

• High-scale parametric analysis provided new insights into changes in rural settlements.
• Homogeneity/variety of landscape characters was determined using a time-spatial perspective.
• Specific parameters focus on the buildings, farmyard, and boundary elements.
• Quantitative knowledge of traditional landscape structures supports planning choices.

This paper proposes the TRuLAn method (Traditional Rural Landscape Analysis) for the quantitative analysis of changes in the signs of traditional rural landscapes at the farm scale. We present the general framework of TRuLAn and a set of parameters that represent part of the method focusing on rural settlement (farmstead and farmyard), as experimentally applied to an Italian study area. TRuLAn consists of the following phases: preliminary identification of the elements that make up the physiognomy of landscape, synchronic and diachronic inventory of rural landscape signs, definition of parameters and integrated interpretation of the multidimensional nature inherent in the spatial and time diversification of the physiognomical characters. Complementary reading perspectives and representation forms allowed us to analyze the evolution of the main characters of the rural settlement and its components (buildings, open spaces, and boundaries), focusing on the overall trends within a given area and on the homogeneity/diversification among the various study cases. The high spatial- and time-resolution study of the evolution of the physiognomy of the rural settlements proved useful to support the description, planning, and meta-design of rural settlements and to improve the definition of agricultural development policies and planning tools on the local scale.