scholarly journals Mapping Green Infrastructure Elements Based on Available Data, A Case Study of the Czech Republic

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-103
Author(s):  
Hana Skokanová ◽  
Inés Lasala González ◽  
Tomáš Slach

AbstractThe contribution of Green Infrastructure (GI) in vital areas such as regional development, climate change, agriculture, forestry and environmental protection is already acknowledged and listed as one of the priorities in several key EU policies, and is the basis for the EU Green Infrastructure Strategy. However, the concept is not yet fully integrated into actual planning strategies, in this respect the Czech Republic is no different. A major problem in doing so is a lack of guidelines/ how to identify and map GI using available sources and thus keeping costs down. The existing data sources for land cover or land use often do not fulfil the requirements in terms of thematic coverage, resolution or accuracy. In order to work around such limitations, we analyse the existing land use/land cover data in the Czech Republic from the GI perspective. Furthermore, we propose a GI mapping methodology based on the diagnosis of three mapping approaches at the regional level, grounded on the utilisation and processing of different data sets. We compared GI maps based on European data from CORINE Land Cover Database, Czech national database called Consolidated Layer of Ecosystems (CLE) and combination of Czech national and regional data and manual vectorization. Our results show that CORINE based GI map is suitable for transnational scale but unsuitable for regional scale. The CLE based GI map is good for both national and regional scale but its information on GI in urban areas is lacking. The detailed regional GI map is good for regional and to some degree even for local scale but its creation is time consuming. However, careful combination of existing national and regional data can provide good outcome in creating GI map usable for territorial planning.

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (22) ◽  
pp. 9529
Author(s):  
Dohee Kim ◽  
Wonhyeop Shin ◽  
Heejoon Choi ◽  
Jihwan Kim ◽  
Youngkeun Song

Anthropogenic land use has led to the loss and fragmentation of native habitats and disruption to ecosystem processes, resulting in a decline in landscape connectivity and biodiversity. Here, in order to find the potentials of improvements in ecological connectivity, we provide a spatial analysis to present differences in ecological connectivity based on land cover maps and urban habitat maps in Suwon city, Republic of Korea. We generated two permeability maps for use in a network analysis, one being land cover and the other urban habitat, including a 5-km buffer area from the city boundary. We then determined the current-flow betweenness centrality (CFBC) for each map. Our results indicate that forests are typically the most highly connected areas in both maps. However, in the land cover map results, nearly all high-priority areas were in the mountainous region (CFBC value: 0.0100 ± 0.0028), but the urban habitat indicated that grasslands and rivers within the city also significantly contribute to connectivity (CFBC value: 0.0071 ± 0.0022). The CFBC maps developed here could be used as a reference when introducing green infrastructure in cities. Before establishing ecological networks for urban areas, future work should integrate the land use and ecological data of different administrative districts with continuous ecological connection.


2009 ◽  
Vol 55 (No. 4) ◽  
pp. 200-210
Author(s):  
T. Medonos ◽  
L. Jelínek ◽  
J. Humpál

This paper addresses <i>(ex ante)</i> the issue of the potential impact of the modulation of direct payments on a sector and regional scale in the Czech Republic. The ultimate version of the compulsory modulation measure adopted under the Health Check of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) assumes the reduction of direct payments if the total individual claim exceeds 5 thousand € or 300 thousand € level. The Czech agricultural sector will be impacted by this measure substantially, given the large scale farming enterprises. In 2013, the total farmers’ direct payments will be cut by more than 10% (€ 91 million). Moreover, there are regional differences in farm structures (the average farm size and the extent of collectivization) which will bring about various effects of policies in the heterogeneous regions. The analysis further shows that the regions that are least affected are at the same time more environmental sensitive and are mostly situated in the mountainous or sub-mountainous parts of the country or more urban areas than the average. Hence the effect of the modulation, from a purely environmental perspective, may not contradict the objectives of other environmental policies. That is to say the regions that need support the most will be reduced the least. However, the picture is less obvious in the regional economies where more rural regions (potentially more vulnerable with socio-economic problems) tend to be more affected.


Geosciences ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 312
Author(s):  
Barbara Wiatkowska ◽  
Janusz Słodczyk ◽  
Aleksandra Stokowska

Urban expansion is a dynamic and complex phenomenon, often involving adverse changes in land use and land cover (LULC). This paper uses satellite imagery from Landsat-5 TM, Landsat-8 OLI, Sentinel-2 MSI, and GIS technology to analyse LULC changes in 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020. The research was carried out in Opole, the capital of the Opole Agglomeration (south-western Poland). Maps produced from supervised spectral classification of remote sensing data revealed that in 20 years, built-up areas have increased about 40%, mainly at the expense of agricultural land. Detection of changes in the spatial pattern of LULC showed that the highest average rate of increase in built-up areas occurred in the zone 3–6 km (11.7%) and above 6 km (10.4%) from the centre of Opole. The analysis of the increase of built-up land in relation to the decreasing population (SDG 11.3.1) has confirmed the ongoing process of demographic suburbanisation. The paper shows that satellite imagery and GIS can be a valuable tool for local authorities and planners to monitor the scale of urbanisation processes for the purpose of adapting space management procedures to the changing environment.


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 807
Author(s):  
Simone Valeri ◽  
Laura Zavattero ◽  
Giulia Capotorti

In promoting biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service capacity, landscape connectivity is considered a critical feature to counteract the negative effects of fragmentation. Under a Green Infrastructure (GI) perspective, this is especially true in rural and peri-urban areas where a high degree of connectivity may be associated with the enhancement of agriculture multifunctionality and sustainability. With respect to GI planning and connectivity assessment, the role of dispersal traits of tree species is gaining increasing attention. However, little evidence is available on how to select plant species to be primarily favored, as well as on the role of landscape heterogeneity and habitat quality in driving the dispersal success. The present work is aimed at suggesting a methodological approach for addressing these knowledge gaps, at fine scales and for peri-urban agricultural landscapes, by means of a case study in the Metropolitan City of Rome. The study area was stratified into Environmental Units, each supporting a unique type of Potential Natural Vegetation (PNV), and a multi-step procedure was designed for setting priorities aimed at enhancing connectivity. First, GI components were defined based on the selection of the target species to be supported, on a fine scale land cover mapping and on the assessment of land cover type naturalness. Second, the study area was characterized by a Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA) and connectivity was assessed by Number of Components (NC) and functional connectivity metrics. Third, conservation and restoration measures have been prioritized and statistically validated. Notwithstanding the recognized limits, the approach proved to be functional in the considered context and at the adopted level of detail. Therefore, it could give useful methodological hints for the requalification of transitional urban–rural areas and for the achievement of related sustainable development goals in metropolitan regions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5355
Author(s):  
Vilém Pechanec ◽  
Ondřej Cudlín ◽  
Miloš Zapletal ◽  
Jan Purkyt ◽  
Lenka Štěrbová ◽  
...  

Global and regional biodiversity loss is caused by several drivers including urban development, land use intensification, overexploitation of natural resources, environmental pollution, and climate change. The main aim of our study was to adapt the GLOBIO3 model to the conditions of the Czech Republic (CR) to assess loss of naturalness and biodiversity vulnerability at the habitat level on a detailed scale across the entire CR. An additional aim was to assess the main drivers affecting the biodiversity of habitat types. The GLOBIO3 model was adapted to CZ-GLOBIO by adapting global to local scales and using habitat quality and naturalness data instead of species occurrence data. The total mean species abundance (MSA) index of habitat quality, calculated from the spatial overlay of the four MSA indicators by our new equation, reached the value 0.62. The total value of MSA for natural and near-natural habitats was found to be affected mainly by infrastructure development and fragmentation. Simultaneously, intensity of land use change and atmospheric nitrogen deposition contributed primarily to the low total value of MSA for distant natural habitats. The CZ-GLOBIO model can be an important tool in political decision making to reduce the impact of the main drivers on habitat biodiversity in the CR.


2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 084596 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhongchang Sun ◽  
Xinwu Li ◽  
Wenxue Fu ◽  
Yingkui Li ◽  
Dongsheng Tang

Author(s):  
Pavla Štěpánková ◽  
Miroslav Dumbrovský ◽  
Karel Drbal

Flash floods (or torrential rain flooding) is another type of flood hazard which has caused casualties and significant property damages. A methodology for identification of urban areas, which can potentially be burdened by that type of flood hazard, was proposed. This method, also called Method of Critical Points (CP), is a repeatable process able to identify areas, which are significant in terms of formation of surface run‑off and erosion. As addition to the preliminary flood risk assessment according to EU Directive 2007/60/ES on the Assessment and Management of Flood Risks, the presented methodology was applied for the entire area of the Czech Republic and the results are being used for the updating of non‑technical measures, e.g. urban planning. In the article, the principles of methodology of CP are described and results of the first application in the Czech Republic are presented, as well as possible interpretations of them.


Author(s):  
Ibrar ul Hassan Akhtar ◽  
Athar Hussain ◽  
Kashif Javed ◽  
Hammad Ghazanfar

Developing countries like Pakistan is among those where lack of adoption to science and technology advancement is a major constraint for Satellite Remote Sensing use in crops and land use land cover digital information generation. Exponential rise in country population, increased food demand, limiting natural resources coupled with migration of rural community to urban areas had further led to skewed official statistics. This study is an attempt to demonstrate the possible use of freely available satellite data like Landsat8 under complex cropping system of Okara district of Punjab, Pakistan. An Integrated approach has been developed for the satellite data based crops and land use/cover spatial area estimation. The resultant quality was found above 96% with Kappa statistics of 0.95. Land utilization statistics provided detail information about cropping patterns as well as land use land cover status. Rice was recorded as most dominating crop in term of cultivation area of around 0.165 million ha followed by autumn maize 0.074 million ha, Fallow crop fields 0.067 million ha and Sorghum 0.047 million ha. Other minor crops observed were potato, fodder and cotton being cultivated on less than 0.010 million ha. Population settlements were observed over an area of around 0.081 million ha of land.&nbsp;


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document