The author investigates the changes introduced to the remaining rural landscape in the municipality of Estância Velha, Rio Grande do Sul, and its relationship with the historical origins of this territory in the German colonization. She uses four typologies as indicators of the land-use change process in rural areas; she compares the findings with the structure of the territory, the organization and the characteristics of the German colonies, verifying their relationship with the changes in the landscape, and, finally, she observes a historical trend to the fractionation of the lots, currently intensified, which puts the long-term existence of this rural area at risk.
