Agricultural Land-Use Structure Across Hierarchical Classification Levels in Kosovo

Fine-grain heterogeneity in agricultural landscapes is often obscured by coarse land-use classification schemes. This study provides a structural characterization of agricultural land use in selected sites within the Dukagjini and Kosova Plains of Kosovo using fine-grain, field-mapped data. Agricultural land-use structure was analyzed across three hierarchical classification levels, from broad categories to specific crop types, focusing on patterns of composition and configuration. Descriptive analyses and non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) were used to examine structural patterns across thematic resolution and spatial grouping, with topographic and geographic variables included as contextual variables. Landscape metrics derived from field mapping were also compared with the ESA WorldCover dataset to evaluate how global land-cover products represent agricultural landscape structure. The results show that coarse classifications limit detectable structural differentiation. While broad land-use categories showed limited compositional variation and low diversity, finer classification levels revealed stronger contrasts in composition, configuration, and diversity. At the finest classification level, significant differentiation was detected among villages and municipalities, while contrasts between plains were weak. Topographic and geographic variables showed limited but detectable associations with structural patterns. Overall, this study provides a descriptive baseline of agricultural land-use structure in a data-scarce region.