Understanding the consequences of land-use changes on aesthetic values associated with mountain landscapes is important for decision-making and landscape planning. While most research on aesthetic landscape values has been carried out at small scales and disregarding landscape changes, this study aims at analysing changes in aesthetic landscape values for three time steps between 1950 and 2010 across the European Alps. We first map aesthetic values at the landscape scale for selected municipalities using a spatially explicit modelling approach that relates people’s landscape preferences with visual landscape characteristics. We then transfer mean values at the municipality level to compare aesthetic values across space and over time. Our results indicate heterogeneous spatial patterns of aesthetic values: Highest aesthetic values were located mainly in the central high-elevated Alps, while lowest aesthetic values occurred at lower elevations with intensive agriculture or dense settlement areas. Between 1950 and 2010, aesthetic values generally decreased due to changes in agricultural activities, with lower elevated areas being more affected than those at higher elevations. While the abandonment of summer pastures led to more homogeneous landscape patterns and hence to reduced aesthetic values due to an increase in forest areas and the closing of open patches, the change from arable land to other land-use/cover types had positive effects in some low-elevated areas. Such knowledge on the relationships between landscape changes and aesthetic values may provide an important basis for developing management strategies of mountain landscapes.

理解土地用途变化对与山地景观相关的美学价值的影响，对于决策和景观规划非常重要。尽管大多数关于美学景观价值的研究都是在小规模的研究中进行的，而忽略了景观的变化，但本研究旨在分析欧洲阿尔卑斯山在1950年至2010年之间三个时间步长的美学景观价值的变化。我们首先使用空间明确的建模方法在选定城市的景观尺度上绘制美学价值，该方法将人们的景观偏好与视觉景观特征相关联。然后，我们在市政当局一级传递均值，以比较跨空间和随时间推移的美学价值。我们的结果表明美学价值的异质空间格局：最高的审美价值主要集中在高海拔的阿尔卑斯山中部，而最低的审美价值发生在集约化农业或密集居民区的低海拔地区。在1950年至2010年之间，审美价值通常由于农业活动的变化而下降，高海拔地区的受影响程度要低于高海拔地区。夏季牧场的放弃导致更均匀的景观格局，并由于森林面积的增加和开放土地的封闭而降低了审美价值，但从耕地向其他土地利用/覆盖类型的转变在某些方面产生了积极影响低海拔地区。这些关于景观变化和审美价值之间关系的知识可能为开发山区景观管理策略提供重要的基础。