Conectividad Ecológica Territorial. Estudio de casos de conectividad ecológica y socioecológica

NIPO: 781-11-005-XDepto. de Biodiversidad, Ecología y EvoluciónFac. de Ciencias BiológicasTRUEpu

High Nature Value Farming Systems and Protected Areas: Conservation Opportunities or Land Abandonment? A Study Case in the Madrid Region (Spain)

European rural landscapes contain high nature value farmlands that, in addition to being the main economic activity in many rural areas, host habitats and species of great conservation value. The maintenance of these farming systems largely depends on traditional ecological knowledge and the rural lifestyles of the local populations. However, they have not been sufficiently appreciated and protected, and as a result, they are currently threatened. In this study, which was performed in the Madrid region (central Spain), we analyse the social-ecological changes of the rural landscape after the establishment of a protected natural area network. The obtained results highlight a significant loss of these high nature value farming systems and a marked increase in the rewilding processes characterised by scrub–forest transition and the development of forest systems. These processes are linked to the disruption of the transmission of traditional ecological knowledge, which may imply negative consequences for both the high biocultural diversity that these systems host and the cultural identity and the socioeconomics of the rural populations that live there. A useful methodological tool is provided for social–ecological land planning and the design of effective management strategies for the conservation of rural cultural landscapes

Detecting social‑ecological resilience thresholds of cultural landscapes along an urban–rural gradient: a methodological approach based on Bayesian Networks

Context: The difficulty of analysing resilience and threshold responses to changing environmental drivers becomes evident in the social-ecological systems framework due to their inherent complexity. Research is needed to develop new tools able to deal with such challenges and determine potential thresholds for SES variables that primarily influence tipping point behaviour. Objectives: In this paper, a methodology based on the application of Bayesian Networks (BNs) has been developed to quantify the social-ecological resilience along an urban–rural gradient in Madrid Region, detecting the tipping point values of the main socioeconomic indicators implying critical transitions at landscape stability thresholds. Method: To do this, the spatial–temporal trends of the landscape in an urban–rural gradient from Region de Madrid (Spain) were identified, to then quantify the intensity of the changes and explain them using BNs based on regression models. Finally, through inference propagation the thresholds of landscape change were detected. Results: The results obtained for the study area indicate that the most resilient landscapes analysed are those where the traditional silvo-pastoral activity was maintained by elderly people and where there is cohesion between neighbouring rural municipalities. Conclusion: The method developed has allowed us to detect the tipping points from which small changes in socioeconomic indicators generate large changes at the landscape level. We demonstrate that the use of BNs is a useful tool to achieve an integrated socialecological spatial planning

Can We Foresee Landscape Interest? Maximum Entropy Applied to Social Media Photographs: A Case Study in Madrid

Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) are undervalued and poorly understood compared to other types of ecosystem services. The sociocultural preferences of the different actors who enjoy a landscape are intangible aspects of a complex evaluation. Landscape photographs available on social media have opened up the possibility of quantifying landscape values and ecosystem services that were previously difficult to measure. Thus, a new research methodology has been developed based on the spatial distribution of geotagged photographs that, based on probabilistic models, allows us to estimate the potential of the landscape to provide CES. This study tests the effectiveness of predictive models from MaxEnt, a software based on a machine learning technique called the maximum entropy approach, as tools for land management and for detecting CES hot spots. From a sample of photographs obtained from the Panoramio network, taken between 2007 and 2008 in the Lozoya Valley in Madrid (Central Spain), we have developed a predictive model of the future and compared it with the photographs available on the social network between 2009 and 2015. The results highlight a low correspondence between the prediction of the supply of CES and its real demand, which indicates that MaxEnt is not a sufficiently useful predictive tool in complex and changing landscapes such as the one studied here

Rural tourism: crossroads between nature, socio-ecological decoupling and urban sprawl

The development of cultural tourism has turned traditional rural landscapes, characterized by their great natural and cultural values, into focus of tourism attraction, causing important changes in the socioeconomic structure of the regions containing them. The enhancement of this tourism highlights the need to design and implement a sustainable management that guarantees the maintenance and conservation of the landscape and the economic development of local populations. This study, localised in the Lozoya Valley (Guadarrama Mountains, Central Spain), analyses the socio-ecological situation of its municipalities and visitors in two different times. The analysis of its temporal evolution has allowed us to notice a marked socio-ecological decoupling characterized by urban sprawl, loss of traditional landuses and practices and the rurality of local society. At the same time, a decrease is detected in the rural landscape valuation by visitors, increasing their preferences for naturalness. The conducted study is a novel contribution applicable to the conservative management of the landscape and the development of sustainable tourism for nature and society

Protected Landscapes in Spain: Reasons for Protection and Sustainability of Conservation Management

Landscape conservation efforts in many European countries focus on cultural landscapes, which are part of the cultural identity of people, have a great heritage significance, improve the living standards of local populations and provide valuable cultural biodiversity. However, despite a wide arrange of protective measures, the management of preserved areas is seldom effective for the protection of cultural landscapes. Through a multi-approach analysis, we characterise the main heritage attributes of 17 Protected Landscapes in Spain and assess their management effectiveness by quantifying the evolution of the spatial pattern inside and outside protected landscapes. Our method has proven useful to quantitatively describe the spatial-temporal patterns of change of the protected and unprotected landscapes studied. We highlight the following results: (i) the concepts of uniqueness and naturalness are not appropriate to preserve cultural landscapes; (ii) the land protection approach currently adopted is not useful for the protection of cultural landscapes, particularly of the most rural ones; (iii) the landscapes studied with greater rural features can be considered as “paper parks”. We recommend that different protection measures focused on the needs and desires of the rural population are taken into account in order to protect cultural landscapes that are shaped by traditional rural activities

Conectividad ecológica horizontal y vertical

Se ha estudiado el funcionamiento del paisaje con perspectiva sistémica y expresándolo en términos cartesianos.El objetivo de fondo es la conservación de la naturaleza, asumiéndose que quizá no debiera seguir considerándose la idea con el objetivo básico de delimitar espacios naturalísticamente valiosos, pues, reconociéndose el importante logro que representa disponer de 'espacios naturales protegidos', el concepto de sistema debe llevarse a la práctica de una vez. Tanto la gestión de la 'trama ecológica natural', que nunca queda limitada a los límites de un espacio protegido, como la consideración de las poblaciones humanas deben entrar a formar parte decididamente de los objetivos de la conservación. La conectividad se concibe como un proceso 'horizontal' y 'vertical'. El primero lo constituye un conjunto de fenómenos físicos y biológicos que generan conexiones espaciales a manera de trama o tejido territorial. En la conectividad se han incluido también procesos 'verticales', derivados de la interacción entre la estructura del paisaje y la socioeconómica, asumiéndose que buena parte del funcionamiento de los hoy llamados 'sistemas socioecológicos' deriva de la interdependencia entre ambas estructuras. Se ha llevado a cabo una descripción de estos procesos de manera simple, mediante modelos cartográficos previamente ensayados, ecuaciones sencillas de regresión, superficies de tendencia y productos de matrices de datos. En el estudio se ha considerado la relevancia de la ampliación de la red de carreteras 2000-2025 del territorio español, que constituye un ejemplo de interferencia entre las citadas infraestructuras naturales y rurales y esta red artificial, identificándose puntos de 'tensión' entre ambas, modelizándose y cartografiándose los costes ambientales o 'impactos' derivados de esta interferencia. Se han analizado también lagunas legales detectadas al tratar de aplicar estas ideas a la conservación de la naturaleza y a la planificación ambiental, indicándose las posibilidades de adaptación y aplicación de leyes y normativas a estos nuevos objetivos

Environmental valuation by the local population and visitors for zoning a protected area

Protected natural areas have traditionally played an important role in tourist destinations. There are over one hundred thousand of these areas throughout the world and to date, their landscapes and biodiversity have constituted the main factor attracting visitors. Although these components have not lost their power to attract, many tourist destinations now highlight the relationship between nature and traditional culture. On one hand, the planning and management of natural areas have fundamentally been based on biophysical aspects; hence, their name. But, on the other, the socioeconomic perspective is of great importance and should be incorporated further into this management. The professional field of the sciences of ‘nature’, which so far has played a major role in these areas, along with the disciplines of social sciences and humanities, faces the challenge of integrating their analysis methods, which can be directly applied to an understanding of the dynamics of present-day tourism. This integration could consider protected areas and territories beyond their physical boundaries. Our team, with experience in the development of environmental analysis models applied to the zoning and subsequent declaration of these areas, has proposed a new procedure for evaluating carrying capacities and tourism potentialities, integrating environmental (landscape), anthropological (local society and visitors) and socioeconomic (living standard and quality of life of local population) perspectives. The research relates this kind of components through multivariate analyses, geo-referenced databases and questionnaires. The pathway of the model is landscape functioning (ecosystem) and its function for society (ecosystem services)

Renovación de las prácticas de Ecología: Aprendiendo Ecología Acuática

Depto. de Biodiversidad, Ecología y EvoluciónFac. de Ciencias GeológicasFac. de Ciencias BiológicasFALSEsubmitte