During the last decades, landscape ecology has developed tremendously. It concerns both the theoretical basis and practical application. The authors follow a hierarchical approach that is inherent in landscape structures and processes as well as in planning practice. They show first approaches for the inclusion of factors of the landscape balance into planning procedures and new methods (GIS-coupled modeling, remote sensing) combined with more classical approaches from the basis of landscape assessment. Approaches for multicriterial landscape assessments are also presented. The overall target is to give recommendations for sustainable landuse and management. Each chapter concludes with a synthesis of the theme under discussion. Ideas concerning the state of the art are integrated as well as future trends in research. All methodological approaches are explained, with examples from differing regions.

1 Introduction: Landscape balance and landscape assessment

2 History of landscape assessment
3 Databases, data organization and data processing
4 Researching state and dynamics in landscape using remote sensing
5 The analysis of spatio-temporal dynamics of landscape structures
6 Scales and spatio-temporal dimensions in landscape research
7 Landscape balance
8 Landscape assessment
9 Landscape function assessment and regional planning: Creating knowledge bases for sustainable landscape development
10 Decision support for land use changes - A combination of methods for policy advising and planning.