We evaluated, in this work, soil erosion at three stages concerning natural and human drivers. In this regard, regulating Ecosystem Services for soil erosion prevention is paramount in mountainous areas. We focused on soil erosion because it is one of the biggest threats to wetland conservation, involving negative impacts such as eutrophication and increased risk of flooding and landslides. Therefore, understanding how ES responds to anthropogenic changes is necessary to assess and balance short-term needs with long-term sustainability goals. The most important disturbances are related to (i) the loss of forest stands (ii) fragmentation of extensive, original forests in patched mosaics and (iii) soil erosion and water and soil contamination. They are essential for sustaining life on Earth and represent an accurate indicator of an ecosystem’s health. Ecosystem Services (ES) are the direct and indirect contributions that ecosystems provide to human well-being and quality of life. In the context of global change, land use and land cover (LULC) changes resulting from urban, farmland and livestock expansion have led to the destruction of habitats, ecosystem functionality and the historical services they offer to society. To establish priority actions on water resources worldwide, spatial assessment and environmental mapping play an essential role in defining critical areas for conservation and ecological restoration. In conclusion, the proposed methodology, which could be transferred to other mountain regions, allows to optimise investment for erosion prevention and wetland conservation by using only very specific areas of the landscape for habitat management (e.g., for NBS implementation).Īs water is the most valuable and limited resource for biodiversity, comprehensive knowledge of water-related ecosystem functioning is essential for developing an integrated management scheme that assures its sustainability. The results show a network pattern for forest management that would allow for controlling erosion effects across space and time at three levels: one, by reducing the load that originates upslope in the absence of forest cover two, by intersecting runoff at watercourses related to sediment transport and three, by a lack of former barriers, by trapping erosion near to the receiving wetland systems, main river axes and contributing streams. We achieved this by identifying the most suitable locations for the conservation and restoration of natural forests on slopes and in riparian areas, which may reduce the risk of soil erosion and maximise sediment filtering, respectively. Finally, forest dynamics, wetland distribution and potential erosion were combined in a multi-criteria analysis aiming to reduce the amount of sediment reaching selected wetlands.
#Netmap gep software
At the same time, we obtained the potential erosion using the NetMap software to identify potential sediment production, transport and deposition areas. Overall accuracy scores reached values of 86% for LULC classification and 61% for wetland mapping. We used an S2 mosaic and topography-derived data such as the slope and topographic wetness index (TWI), which indicate terrain water accumulation. We then modelled the distribution of wetlands to identify the areas with the greatest potential for moisture accumulation.
#Netmap gep generator
We applied this forest gain to a scenario generator model to derive a 30-year future LULC map that defines the potential forest extent for the study area in 2049. We estimated a forest cover increase rate of 2 ha/year comparing current and past LULC maps against external validation data. We fed RS-based models with detailed in situ information based on photo-interpretation and fieldwork completed from 2017 to 2021.
#Netmap gep series
We used time series Landsat 5TM, 7ETM+, 8OLI and Sentinel 2A/2B MSI (S2) imagery to map forest dynamics and wetland distribution in Picos de Europa National Park (Cantabrian Mountains, northern Spain). In this work, we develop a Remote Sensing (RS)-based modelling approach to identify areas for the implementation of nature-based solutions (NBS) (i.e., natural forest conservation and restoration) that allow reducing the vulnerability of aquatic ecosystems to siltation in mountainous regions. In mountainous landscapes, the regulation of services such as water quality or erosion control has been impacted by land use and land cover (LULC) changes, especially the loss and fragmentation of forest patches. Human activities have caused a significant change in the function and services that ecosystems have provided to society since historical times.
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