da Silva Alessandra Leite, de Nunes Adélia Jesus Nobre, Marques Mara Lúcia, Ribeiro Admilson Írio, Longo Regina Márcia
Postgraduate Program in Environmental Sciences, Paulista State University (UNESP), Rua Quirino de Andrade 215, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Department of Geography and Tourism CEGOT- Centre of Studies in Geography and Spatial Planning, University of Coimbra (UC), Coimbra, Portugal.
Environ Monit Assess. 2021 Mar 9;193(4):172. doi: 10.1007/s10661-021-08953-y.
The environmental vulnerability of a landscape is directly associated with any physical, geomorphological, and spatial factors which directly interfere with the ecological functionality of natural areas. Therefore, the composition, diversity, and structure of fragmented forest areas are essential to identify the patterns in the landscape and propose the most appropriate management measures for its conservation. The present study set out to analyse the applicability of landscape metrics for assessing the environmental fragility of forest remnants of different geographical conditions and phyto-physiognomies. This would contribute to landscape assessment and the diagnosis of remnants, and support decision making for strategic and effective environmental planning. The study areas selected were two river basins, the Atibaia river basin in Brazil, and the Cértima river basin in Portugal. The maps used as a basis for the selection of the forest remnants analysed were made available by public managers and date from 2015 for both basins. The analyses were performed with GIS software, and two groups of landscape metrics were considered: the first applied to the general landscape of the basin and the second applied to each remaining forest patch as a landscape unit. At the remaining forest level, the metrics analysed were the area, central area index, circularity index, shape index, distance from the nearest neighbour, proximity of the remnant to the road network, and proximity to the watercourse. The results showed that there are many remnants in both basins with predominantly small size and located close to each other. However, their fragilities vary in each basin, indicating that the applied metrics are effective tool for the preliminary diagnosis of natural vegetation remnants in areas with different geospatial and phyto-physiognomic conditions. Therefore, the results obtained are of great importance as a basis for formulating landscape development policies, by integrating appropriate land management strategies.
景观的环境脆弱性与直接干扰自然区域生态功能的任何物理、地貌和空间因素直接相关。因此，破碎森林区域的组成、多样性和结构对于识别景观格局以及提出最适当的保护管理措施至关重要。本研究旨在分析景观指标在评估不同地理条件和植物外貌的森林残余地环境脆弱性方面的适用性。这将有助于景观评估和残余地诊断，并为战略和有效的环境规划决策提供支持。所选研究区域为两个流域，巴西的阿蒂巴亚河流域和葡萄牙的塞尔蒂马河流域。作为分析所选森林残余地基础的地图由公共管理者提供，两个流域的地图日期均为2015年。分析使用GIS软件进行，并考虑了两组景观指标：第一组应用于流域的总体景观，第二组应用于每个剩余的森林斑块作为一个景观单元。在剩余森林层面，分析的指标包括面积、中心面积指数、圆形度指数、形状指数、到最近邻的距离、残余地与道路网络的接近度以及与水道的接近度。结果表明，两个流域都有许多主要面积较小且彼此相邻的残余地。然而，它们在每个流域的脆弱性各不相同, 这表明所应用的指标是在不同地理空间和植物外貌条件下对自然植被残余地进行初步诊断的有效工具。因此，通过整合适当的土地管理策略，所获得的结果作为制定景观发展政策的基础具有重要意义。
