Loading...
| Name: | Description: | Size: | Format: | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 390.92 KB | Adobe PDF |
Authors
Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
The Land Use Land Cover (LULC) pattern of landscapes is a key element of basic landscape structure; accordingly, this pattern has a vital role in landscape management, nature conservation, and preservation. On the other hand, the human impact on the ecological environment has attracted significant attention. The study aimed to investigate the relationship between human disturbance intensity and landscape pattern configuration and quality. The objectives are: (1) to analyze the spatiotemporal dynamics of landscape and human disturbance in the process of land use change in Continental Portugal between 1990 and 2018, and (2) to explore the relationship between the landscape change trajectories and human disturbance/ naturalness metrics, to reveal how landscape-pattern-change tendencies can be used as indicators of the level of sustainability. We quantified the landscape configuration through a set of land use metrics, such as Mean Patch Size, Mean Shape Index, Total Edge, and Mean Patch Fractal Dimension. The LULC Corine Land Cover databases from 1990, 2006, and 2018 were used to calculate the landscape metrics. Patch level and landscape level metrics were calculated for 163 quadrats of 25 km2 each, covering the country, with the Patch Analyst extension of the Arc GIS 10.8 software. The Hemeroby Index (HI) was calculated to measure the level of human-induced disturbance in the landscape. Correlation analysis revealed the statistical connections between the change in landscape metric parameters and the change in HI. The change in Total Edge metrics negatively correlates with the change in human disturbance. That suggests that the increase in complexity of the landscape corresponds to low levels of disturbance. Landscape metrics could be appropriate for describing the landscape's human disturbance/naturalness status, confirming the results obtained in previous studies. Using a set of structural and quality indicators can be helpful for planners and decision-makers to analyze trends in land use patterns at a regional level.
Description
Keywords
Landscape pattern LULC change Sustainability
Citation
QUINTA-NOVA, L.C. (2024) - Recent land use land cover change tendencies in Continental Portugal: Are they sustainable?. In Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation. Springer.