Conservation of Bio- and Geo-Diversity and Landscape Changes II

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Land, Biodiversity, and Human Wellbeing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (5 March 2024) | Viewed by 10171

Special Issue Editors

Doctoral School of Urban Planning, “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urbanism, 010014 Bucharest, Romania
Interests: environmetrics; systems ecology; spatial ecology; geostatistics; urban ecology; landscape ecology; land cover and use; land cover and use changes; sustainable spatial development
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Faculty of Geography and Geology, University “Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, 700506 Iași, Romania
Interests: land use/land cover changes; image processing; satellite image analysis; digital mapping; natural and environmental risk assessment through remote sensing; urban sprawl and remote sensing; heritage and remote sensing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Faculty of Geography and Interdisciplinary, Centre for Advanced Research on Territorial Dynamics, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
Interests: urban expansion process; spatial planning; territorial governance; rural development; post-socialist dynamics; socio-economic disparities; small towns
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the Special Issue of Land on "Conservation of Bio- and Geo-Diversity and Landscape Changes II".

The Rio Convention on Biological Diversity has established biodiversity as a key concept governing the development policies of most countries towards assuming responsibility for the environment. Many scientists equate biodiversity (and also geo- and eco-diversity) with the ecological infrastructure of our planet. The convention has also recommended measures dealing with the conservation of biodiversity, as well as the measures needed to ensure that the future development is made in a way that does not affect the biodiversity. At the same time, as part of the “global changes”, land cover and use changes are a major threat to biodiversity. The Special Issue deals with the relation of the two, and with the factors able to affect it, such as drivers and possibilities to control it. We welcome pure and applied research, as well as comparative studies. Examples of possible topics include:

  • Impact of the land cover and use changes on bio-, geo-, and eco-diversity: drivers and means of controlling or mitigating it;
  • Impact of the land cover and use changes on the natural protected areas: drivers and means of controlling or mitigating it;
  • Spatial planning tools for preventing the land cover and use changes within and around the natural protected areas at different spatial scales;
  • Natural hazards and bio-, geo-, and eco-diversity: human influence on their relationship;
  • Local development challenges in natural protected areas.

Prof. Dr. Alexandru-Ionuţ Petrişor
Dr. Adrian Ursu
Dr. Ilinca-Valentina Stoica
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • biodiversity
  • eco-diversity
  • geo-diversity
  • land cover and use changes
  • planning
  • natural protected areas
  • local development

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 7482 KiB  
Article
Using Diachronic Cartography and GIS to Map Forest Landscape Changes in the Putna-Vrancea Natural Park, Romania
by George-Adrian Istrate, Vasilică Istrate, Adrian Ursu, Pavel Ichim and Iuliana-Gabriela Breabăn
Land 2023, 12(9), 1774; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12091774 - 13 Sep 2023
Viewed by 709
Abstract
The Putna-Vrancea Natural Park (PVNP) is one of the wildest mountain areas in Romania and is home to internationally important species of flora and fauna. Although the park’s area is covered by forests, the last two centuries have seen several major transformations. The [...] Read more.
The Putna-Vrancea Natural Park (PVNP) is one of the wildest mountain areas in Romania and is home to internationally important species of flora and fauna. Although the park’s area is covered by forests, the last two centuries have seen several major transformations. The aim of this article is to present a historical approach to the development of habitat areas within the PVNP, with an attempt to show both the situation before and after the establishment of its protection regime. The changes in the forest area were identified using available cartographic material from 1789, 1895, 1957, 1975, 2005, and 2018. The analysis of forest distribution according to different classes of natural factors (altitude, slope, soil type, and lithology) highlighted the early 20th century when forest cover decreased at low altitudes and slopes. However, anthropogenic factors were responsible for almost all changes. The specific socio-economic system of the Vrancea Mountains, according to which the forest was and still is owned by the inhabitants of several villages, led to periods of deforestation: burning to increase the area of pastures and the unsustainable exploitation of wood by some companies that had been granted this right by the owners. In the 1960s and 1970s, the mountain pastures were reforested, and in the last 20 years, the mountain pastures have been transformed into forests. Although the use of old maps for this type of analysis has certain limitations, the results obtained provide insight into the causes of the transformation of forest landscapes in some areas of the PVNP. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Conservation of Bio- and Geo-Diversity and Landscape Changes II)
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22 pages, 4266 KiB  
Article
Open Habitats under Threat in Mountainous, Mediterranean Landscapes: Land Abandonment Consequences in the Vegetation Cover of the Thessalian Part of Mt Agrafa (Central Greece)
by Konstantinos Chontos and Ioannis Tsiripidis
Land 2023, 12(4), 846; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12040846 - 07 Apr 2023
Viewed by 2613
Abstract
Land abandonment is one of the main drivers of land use/land cover (LULC) change across Europe, which has already led to a significant loss of open habitats, threatening species hosted in them. We investigated LULC changes for a period of 70 years in [...] Read more.
Land abandonment is one of the main drivers of land use/land cover (LULC) change across Europe, which has already led to a significant loss of open habitats, threatening species hosted in them. We investigated LULC changes for a period of 70 years in a mountainous area of central Greece (Mt Agrafa) by mapping its land cover for the years 1945, 1996 and 2015, calculating transition matrices of land cover classes and performing intensity analysis at different levels. Subareas of the study area, with different population trends, were compared in regard to their LULC change trends. Possible drivers of LULC changes were explored by means of Random Forest modeling, and landscape metrics were calculated to assess their trends. Our results showed great changes in LULC class cover, significant shrinkage of open habitats, accelerated rates of change in the recent period and no differences in LULC change patterns in relation to different population trends. Variables expressing favorability of ecological conditions for forest establishment or probability of farmland abandonment were found as more important drivers of the spatiotemporal distribution of LULC classes, while landscape metrics revealed certain trends. Our main conclusion is that land abandonment and the subsequent vegetation succession are going through a semifinal stage, before their completeness and the almost absolute dominance of the forest, and repopulation of the countryside cannot unconditionally ensure any halting effect on the land abandonment process. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Conservation of Bio- and Geo-Diversity and Landscape Changes II)
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22 pages, 7930 KiB  
Article
Examining the Spatial Effect of “Smartness” on the Relationship between Agriculture and Regional Development: The Case of Greece
by Evagelia Koutridi, Dimitrios Tsiotas and Olga Christopoulou
Land 2023, 12(3), 541; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12030541 - 23 Feb 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1075
Abstract
Digital transformation in farming via smart farming technologies (SFTs) is highly considered to stimulate sustainability in the food market and agriculture, as well as to promote viability in the agricultural sector and the prosperity of rural areas. In Greece, a great number of [...] Read more.
Digital transformation in farming via smart farming technologies (SFTs) is highly considered to stimulate sustainability in the food market and agriculture, as well as to promote viability in the agricultural sector and the prosperity of rural areas. In Greece, a great number of SFTs were financed through Action 4.1.1, by the EU’s Rural Development Program, supporting agricultural production and promoting sustainable regional development. Within this policy context, this paper aims to examine the transformation level that “smartness” induced in the relationship between agriculture and regional development in Greece. To do so, it builds a multilevel methodological framework thematically describing both “traditional” and smart agriculture in terms of spatial demand, transportation cost, knowledge intensity, and economies of scale, which are theoretically and empirically considered as major pillars related to regional development. The analysis is applied regional data (NUTS 3) in Greece, focusing on the detection of significant spatial and functional changes in the thematic model developed with respect to the proposed methodological framework. Findings provide insights into the effect that the SFTs can have on sustainable regional development, based on the reasoning of relevant background regional economic theories. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Conservation of Bio- and Geo-Diversity and Landscape Changes II)
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33 pages, 5236 KiB  
Article
Protection of Environmental and Natural Values of Urban Areas against Investment Pressure: A Case Study of Romania and Poland
by Paulina Legutko-Kobus, Maciej Nowak, Alexandru-Ionut Petrisor, Dan Bărbulescu, Cerasella Craciun and Atena-Ioana Gârjoabă
Land 2023, 12(1), 245; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12010245 - 12 Jan 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1664
Abstract
Although conservation and development are two facets of sustainability, they are often placed in contradictory positions. In this context, planning systems are able to respond to investment pressure, especially in countries with underdeveloped institutional solutions for this purpose, and are consequently characterized by [...] Read more.
Although conservation and development are two facets of sustainability, they are often placed in contradictory positions. In this context, planning systems are able to respond to investment pressure, especially in countries with underdeveloped institutional solutions for this purpose, and are consequently characterized by a shifting relationship between spatial planning and environmental protection. Although these issues have been relatively well conceptualized, the literature still lacks more in-depth analyses of selected case studies. In order to fill the gap, this study aimed to identify potential ways to protect the environment and natural values in urban areas from investment pressures in countries with less developed planning systems, based on a comparative Polish-Romanian perspective. The method consisted of comparing the national legal frameworks for environmental protection and spatial development and analyzing in detail two case studies from each country. The findings indicate that national protection is required in both countries to ensure the effective protection of natural areas situated within city administrative limits that provide important ecosystem services. Moreover, the results reveal the need for more research on similar areas using multi-scale interdisciplinary approaches and reviewing planning theory with respect to its efficiency in protecting nature. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Conservation of Bio- and Geo-Diversity and Landscape Changes II)
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24 pages, 1385 KiB  
Article
The Role of Spatial Plans Adopted at the Local Level in the Spatial Planning Systems of Central and Eastern European Countries
by Maciej Nowak, Alexandru-Ionut Petrisor, Andrei Mitrea, Krisztina Filepné Kovács, Gunta Lukstina, Evelin Jürgenson, Zuzana Ladzianska, Velislava Simeonova, Roman Lozynskyy, Vit Rezac, Viktoriya Pantyley, Birute Praneviciene, Liudmila Fakeyeva, Bartosz Mickiewicz and Małgorzata Blaszke
Land 2022, 11(9), 1599; https://doi.org/10.3390/land11091599 - 18 Sep 2022
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 3292
Abstract
The article deals with the issue of spatial plans at the local level. The aims of this paper are (1) extracting the characteristics of local spatial plans that can be compared more broadly (2) identifying, on this basis, the role of spatial plans [...] Read more.
The article deals with the issue of spatial plans at the local level. The aims of this paper are (1) extracting the characteristics of local spatial plans that can be compared more broadly (2) identifying, on this basis, the role of spatial plans at the local level in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). In achieving these aims, the authors have critically examined spatial plans and their performance, as well as the planning systems they belong to. Hence, they have investigated the types of local plans in each country, their legal features, and the layout of their content. This examination has revealed a host of problems in the workings of the CEE planning systems. The article highlights those spatial planning issues that could be the subject of more in-depth international comparisons. The study provides additional evidence that in countries where spatial plans are legislated, there are more (mutually differentiated) legal problems in their application. Such problems have been analyzed. Besides procedural problems, discrepancies between the contents of different types of plans (e.g., general plans and detailed plans) are very often a problem. The paper also proposes a novel method for detailed comparisons of selected aspects of spatial plans. It can be applied to a large number of countries and also to other aspects of spatial planning. Last but not least, the paper emphasizes the need for a detailed multi-stage consultation of each aspect to be compared. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Conservation of Bio- and Geo-Diversity and Landscape Changes II)
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