IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Favilli, F.; Ravazzoli, E.; Hoffmann, C.; Streifeneder, T. | |
| The Carpathian Ecological Network GIS approach to detect the landscape permeability for particular umbrella species | |
| 2014 Conference Proceeding | |
Large protected areas are fundamental for ecological processes to operate over spatial and temporal scales and for the survival of wildlife. Nevertheless, the increasing landscape fragmentation in Europe, due to the extension of human-related facilities, poses serious threats to the survival of biodiversity. In this respect, BioREGIO Carpathians, and ETC European project, aims to face this issue studying biodiversity in the Carpathian area and introducing a GIS analysis to enhance ecological connectivity between protected and natural areas. The GIS analysis is based on three steps. First, a habitat suitability model is created by using CorridorDesign. It identifies patches of suitable habitats by assigning different suitability values to ecological factors for each species. The model returns the suitability value (0-100%) indicating the appropriateness of particular land cover patch for the dispersal of a species. The second step consists on reclassifying the suitability values by considering the presence of species-specific ecological factors. It enables to identify core areas for each species. The third step seeks to identify ecological corridors by using LinkageMapper; it allows to detect the most probable corridors by applying a minimum-cost analysis and calculating the least cost paths for passing through the land cover matrix. This comprehensive GIS approach has been applied in two protected areas at the border of Romania and Serbia. The on-going study is enabling us to highlight the role of protected areas in maintaining viable wildlife populations identifying the main core areas and dispersal paths for terrestrial and aquatic mammals. Additional aims are also to study the barriers blocking the dispersal and to suggest policy recommendations for their overcome. |
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