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- Tendencies in land use and land cover in Serbia towards sustainable development in 1990-2018Publication . Vulevic, Ana; Castanho, Rui Alexandre; Naranjo Gómez, José Manuel; Quinta-Nova, L.C.The overuse of natural resources by humanity in recent decades has resulted in noticeable changes in environment quality. Global environmental research is particularly interested in the topics of land use change and land cover. The Republic of Serbia has a diverse spectrum of landforms, with agricultural use taking up the largest portions, followed by forestry, water, and building land. Significant anthropogenic pressures (such as mining, deforestation, urbanization, and uncontrolled land use, among other things) have harmed Serbia's natural resources over the past two decades. This study examines the causes of specific trends in land-use change in Serbia, utilizing the CORINE Land Cover (CLC) database to track temporal and spatial changes in the major categories of land use and land cover from 1990 to 2018. The authors explained that focusing on the rational use of natural resources is the only way to promote sustainable development, legal alignment with EU law, and prompt adoption of harmonized laws and planning documents across all sectors.
- Relationship between landscape pattern and human disturbance in Serbia from 2000 to 2018Publication . Quinta-Nova, L.C.; Naranjo Gómez, José Manuel; Vulevic, Ana; Castanho, Rui Alexandre; Loures, LuísThis study intends to verify how the alteration of the landscape configuration, represented by different metrics of configuration and diversity, is related to the intensity of human disturbance. The objectives of the study are: (1) to quantify the change in land use/land cover (LULC) patterns and the degree of human disturbance in Serbia between 2000 and 2018, and (2) to study the relationship between LULC configuration and the impact resulting from human disturbance under different levels of intensity, to understand how changing trends in landscape pattern can serve as indicators to estimate landscape changes resulting from human actions. The Hemeroby Index (HI) was calculated to quantify the impacts on ecosystems resulting from disturbance caused by human actions. Based on the analysis of the variation in the value corresponding to the HI for the period between 2000 and 2018, the level of naturalness increased by only 5% of the territory of Serbia, with this change being verified mainly in SE Serbia. The landscape pattern was quantified using a set of LULC metrics. We used the Spearman method to identify the existing statistical correlations between the geometric parameters of the landscape and the HIs values. At the landscape level, the Mean Shape Index, Edge Density, Mean Patch Fractal Dimension, and Shannon Diversity Index show a strong negative correlation with HI. This correlation suggests that landscapes with greater structural complexity are good indicators of low levels of hemeroby. At the class level, Edge Density and Mean Patch Size correlate significantly with the HI for artificial surfaces, agricultural areas, forests, and semi-natural areas.