Application of spatial- and diachronic-process analysis of landscape development in Central Lika, Croatia from 1980 to 2012

The paper presents structural features and the process and intensity of landscape changes in the Central Lika Region of Croatia, in the transitional, post-socialist and post-war periods (1980–2012). The aim of this paper is to analyse regularities and interrelations between the changes in structural features and the intensity of the processes that cause change. By using GIS spatial analysis methods, the shape, position, and condition of landscape patches were defined for each year. The diachronic process analysis, with the application of a specially-developed index — the Landscape Development Index (di) — made it possible to determine the intensity of development of individual landscape elements. The landscape was observed using the concept of Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) and, for this purpose, data from the CORINE Land Cover database were used for 1980 and 2012. The results showed fragmentation and an increase in the number and complexity of patches, as well as a decrease of the core patch area. Consequently, the increase of the share of edge areas has increased vulnerability to external influences and changes. Applying the Landscape Development Index (di) showed advantages compared to a standard comparison of the two conditions or synthetic indices, enabling the intensity of each observed phenomenon/process to be determined, and allowing for deeper spatial and temporal analysis as well as better understanding of landscape development.

Mapping and characterizing animals’ places of interest in forest environment

Fauna impacts its environment as well as spatial environment influences fauna space use. Forest management implies taking into account pressure from animals in fragile-balanced patches. Our goal is to propose maps that would benefit forest planning by reflecting individual movement and space use depending on the animal species and local spatiotemporal environment. The study case focuses on two species, roe deer and red deer, and on a forested site in the northeast of France. Movements of several individuals were analysed from collected GPS locations. Foraging places likely to correspond to intense research behaviour were computed using the First-Passage Time method. These places were assumed as being of interest and were characterized with landscape features and temporal information. Maps were produced to synthetize information about foraging places by defining adapted symbolizations. Then maps about functional space were proposed based on extrapolation of favourable or avoided areas from the characterized observed foraging places and space use. Landscape patches were mapped according to a gradient of potential interest by animals’ species, in order to highlight needs of specific planning actions in the forestry context. Map displays were driven by forestry end-use and designed so that to be compliant to a numeric geographical portal, giving access to different available on-line layers and computed created ones.

Research on Land Use Change and Ecological Environment Effect Based on Remote Sensing Sensor Technology

In the regional landscape pattern, woodland landscape patches are developed in a regular manner, showing a trend of agglomeration as a whole; the concentration and dominance of landscape patches of cultivated land, grassland, and unused land are decreasing, and the overall situation is fragmented; the water landscape pattern is also showing a regular development state to varying degrees. On the whole, the landscape of a certain area is scattered and fragmented, and the dominant landscape types dominate the overall landscape layout of the region. The diversity of land use landscape pattern shows positive autocorrelation as a whole. According to the Moran’s I index of the diversity of land use landscape patterns, the overall agglomeration effect of the region has increased, but the overall trend is in a balanced trend. The ecological service value of urban land use change continues to increase, but the regional differences are significant, the structure is simple, and it is mainly supported by ecosystems such as forest land, water area, and agricultural land. Based on the analysis of the spatiotemporal evolution of land use, an in-depth analysis of the urban water environment, atmospheric environment, soil environment, urban heat island, and other environmental issues of the urban land use in the study area is carried out. The calculation and analysis results of the ecological service value of urban land use change and its flow direction change show that the ecosystem service value has increased, and the regional difference and flow direction of the ecosystem service value have changed significantly.

Does the crested porcupine select coppice forest? Habitat preference and activity patterns of a large rodent in the Lago di Vico Natural Reserve

The crested porcupine Hystrix cristata L. is a large rodent, which mainly occurs in agro-forestry ecosystems in Italy. In this study, we modelled the occupancy of this species in forest ecosystems, to identify environmental characteristics affecting its presence. The study was conducted at Lago di Vico Natural Reserve (Latium, Central Italy) in 2018–2019. The sampling design included a 1 km2 grid, where 263 detections were recorded at 39 out of 57 camera-trap points. Dendroauxometric data were collected at each site as covariates in the statistical models. According to our best occupancy model, the crested porcupine mostly occurs in habitats not totally covered by forests, but composed by mixed landscape patches both for the land use (crops, woods) and for the coverage (forested areas, open areas, bushes). We also analysed activity rhythms of the crested porcupine across seasons and in relation to the moon phases. The analysis of 543 videos showed that crested porcupine is strictly nocturnal throughout the year and avoided bright nights, despite the local absence of potential predators.

Quantitatively Assessing Ecological Stress of Urbanization on Natural Ecosystems by Using a Landscape-Adjacency Index

Urban spatial expansion poses a threat to regional ecosystems and biodiversity directly through altering the size, shape, and interconnectivity of natural landscapes. Monitoring urban spatial expansion using traditional area-based metrics from remote sensing provides a feasible way to quantify this regional ecological stress. However, variation in landscape-adjacency relationships (i.e., the adjacency between individual landscape classes) caused by urban expansion is often overlooked. In this study, a novel edge-based index (landscape-adjacency index, LAdI) was proposed based on the spatial-adjacency relationship between landscape patches to measure the regional ecological stress of urban expansion on natural landscapes. Taking the entire Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomerations (YRD) as a study area, we applied the LAdI for individual landscape classes (Vi) and landscape level (LV) to quantitatively assess change over time in the ecological stress of YRD from 1990 to 2015 at two spatial scales: municipal scale and 5 km-grid scale. The results showed that the vulnerable zones (LV ≥ 0.6) were mainly distributed in the north of the YRD, and cultivated land was the most vulnerable natural landscape (Vi ≥ 0.6) at the 5 km-grid scale. The most vulnerable landscape at the municipal scale was cultivated land in 19 of 26 cities in each period, and that in the remaining 7 cities varied at distinct urbanization stages. We used scatter diagrams and Pearson correlation analysis to compare the edge-based LAdI with an area-based index (percent of built-up area, PB) and found that: LV and PB had a significant positive correlation at both the municipal scale and 5 km-grid scale. But there were multiple LVs with different values corresponding to one PB with the same value at the 5 km-grid scale. Both indexes could represent the degree of urban expansion; however, the edge-based metric better quantified ecological stress under different urban-sprawl patterns sharing the same percent of built-up area. As changes in land use affect both the size and edge effect among landscape patches, the area-based PB and the edge-based LAdI should be applied together when assessing the ecological stress caused by urbanization.

Applicability of connectivity concept for disaster management and hazard mitigation

<p>The concept of geomorphic connectivity is being widely used since last two decades to understand and explain the various earth surface processes and dynamics. Its applicability to understand inter- and cross-scale process-response systems is now well established. In the present work, we have evaluated the applicability of the geomorphic connectivity framework (Singh et al., 2020, ESPL) for managing and mitigating various geological hazards. For an effective hazard mitigation and management planning, we need to know (a) source of hazard, (b) hazard propagation pathways, (c) probable affected areas, and (d) identification of escape routes/pathways. The connectivity concept can be effectively utilised to satisfy aforementioned requirements. For example, sediment and hydrological connectivity can be used to evaluate the potential pathways, identify sources and affected areas, and to assess return periods of fluvial-related hazards such as debris flow and riverine flash floods. Similarly, the potential sites of landslide, stream congestions (and hence, flash flood)- can be identified by evaluating the channel-slope sediment connectivity and longitudinal hydrological connectivity. The concept of landscape connectivity can play a pivotal role in understanding the forest fire probabilities by evaluating the connectivity between various fire-prone patches of forests, fuel, and the spatial positions of fire-breaking landscape patches. Based on connectivity concepts, the potential paths of forest fire propagation can be demarcated in advance and can play a crucial role in forest fire mitigation. Other than identifying the risk-prone zones with respect to various hazards, connectivity concept can also be used to plan evacuation routes as well. Therefore, we propose that the geomorphic connectivity framework can be a robust tool to manage and mitigate various geological hazards.</p>

Trends and hotspots in landscape transformation based on anthropogenic impacts on soil in Hungary, 1990–2018

The transformation of the landscapes due to the anthropogenic activities is increasing worldwide. These changes are also manifested in the change of soil-forming processes. The land cover (LC) changes evaluated according to their influence on anthropogenic features of soils allows to distinguish between LC changes resulting increased and decreased human impact (HI). In our study, we assess the changes of HI on landscapes and its spatial distribution across Hungary. The changes were evaluated by using LC data of four periods between 1990 and 2018 reclassified based on the related anthropogenic soil features. To identify the hotspots of the changes 1×1 grids were applied in which the direction (increasing, neutral or decreasing HI) and frequency (number of landscape patches with LC changes) of changes were evaluated. In our research, the hotspots were identified over the studied four periods. We point out that the spatial distribution of hotspots is very different. The hotspots of the increased human impact are 2,449 cells (643.0 km2 ) between 1990 and 2018, and the most of it localized in the Pest Plain (67), Csepel Plain (64) and Nagykálló-Nyírség (60). Most of the multiple hotspots are in the outskirts of Budapest to Kiskunlacháza, Bugyi, Délegyháza. As we examine the decreasing hotspot data we found 1,679 cells (1,524.9 km2 ) between 1990 and 2018. In largest number, they occur on the Kiskunság Sand Ridge (38), Majsa–Szabadka Sand Ridge (37) and Nagykállói-Nyírség (36). Multiple hotspots are located in settlements Izsák, Ásotthalom, Vatta and Nyírmihályi. Regions with numerous hotspots require special management to moderate its negative consequences on soils to consider both increased anthropisation, but also extensification of land use and their consequences.

Structural Characteristics of Patches in the Central Lika Landscape – Application of Spatial and Regression Analysis

This paper analyses the structural characteristics (shape, position and condition) of landscape patches in Central Lika according to landscape types and for the landscape of Central Lika as a whole. A set of indicators for the landscape structure was used along with GIS technology. Interrelation of the structural characteristics of landscape patches were determined using regression analysis. When determining the landscape types of Central Lika, a method based on land cover/land use was applied. For this purpose, data from the CORINE database for the year 2012 were used. At the level of the landscape type in Central Lika and the landscape of Central Lika as a whole, a set of indicators for the landscape structure were used, based on a variety of spatial analysis methods: Mean Shape Index – for the landscape patch shapes; Core Area Index – for the condition of the landscape patches, and Average Nearest Neighbour – for the position of the landscape patches. The most important result of this paper was to confirm the correlation between the shape and condition, and between the shape and position of the landscape patches of Central Lika, while no correlation between the condition and position of the landscape patches of Central Lika was found.

Study of marsh wetland landscape pattern evolution on the Zoigê Plateau due to natural/human dual-effects

Zoigê Plateau, China’s largest plateau marsh wetland, has experienced large-scale degradation of the marsh wetland and evolution of the wetland landscape pattern over the past 40 years due to climate warming and human activities. How exactly do the wetland landscape pattern characteristics change? How do climatic change and human activities affect the wetland evolution? These questions are yet to be systematically investigated. In order to investigate changes to the marsh wetland on the Zoigê Plateau, field investigations, spatial and statistical analysis were undertaken. Findings from our study indicate that from 1977–2016, the area of marsh wetland on the Plateau reduced by 56.54%, approximately 66,700 hm2 of marsh wetland has been lost. The centroids of both marsh and marshy meadow migrated and the landscape centroid migration behaviors were also correlated with the distribution and variation of the marsh wetland on different slopes. In addition, the number of marsh landscape patches initially increased before decreasing; the number of marshy meadow landscape patches also recorded an initial increase, followed by a decline before a final increase. As the effects of human activities weakened, the aggregation degrees of both marsh and marshy meadow increased. Overall, the fragmentation degree, diversity and fractal dimension of the marsh wetland all declined. An investigation into the driving factors affecting the Plateau area shows that the increase of annual average temperature was the natural factor while trenching and overgrazing were the main human factors resulting in wetland degradation. Results from this study provide basic data and theoretical foundation for the protection and restoration of marsh wetland in alpine regions.

A GIS Based Model Proposal for Assessing the Transversal Connectivity of Natural Landscapes Along the Urban Rivers in support of NBS

<p>This study aims to present a GIS-based method for estimating the transversal connectivity among natural landscape patches along urban rivers within the metropolitan area. The method presented here relies on the transversally connected natural landscape mosaics (TCNLM) model, which is based on a reclassification procedure for landscape patches based on their relative connectivity to the water sources. The identified existing and potential TCNLMs can be considered as focal areas for providing ecosystem services in the metropolitan zone. The raw material of the analytical process is Urban Atlas (UA) land cover data. All phases of the process are modelled in Graphical Modeler in QGIS software. The metropolitan areas of London and Paris are selected as specimens of urban agglomerations along major waterbodies such as Thames and Seine River. The selected cases have considerable similarities and differences among them. Jointly with the results, they provide a comparative ground for a quantitative and qualitative evaluation. The results show that the method is easily reproducible in other European metropolitan areas being developed along watercourses. The presented model brings a rapid method for highlighting the transversal connectivity capacities of the natural landscapes along rivers within the metropolitan area in support of Nature Based Solutions for urban challenges.</p>