Abstract
This paper examines the land use/land cover change dynamics in the Purepecha Region of the Michoacan State, Central Mexico. This region is representative of the Mexican Highlands in both its socioeconomic and ecological aspects.The vegetation consists primarily of pine-oak forests and pine forests. There are large areas used for agriculture and permanent crops –particularly avocado orchards-. The region is undergoing a complex pattern of land use/land cover change, including a rapid process of forest degradation and deforestation as well as the abandonment of agricultural areas leading to forest regrowth. We use remote sensing techniques to determine the regional land use/land cover change transition matrix for the period 1986-2000, and discuss the land use/land cover change dynamics. We then apply the GEOMOD model (Hall et al. 1995) to build long-term scenarios in the region. With this tool we identify the most important drivers for the deforestation process and build vulnerability maps on potential deforestation sites within the region in 2025.
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Guerrero, G., Masera, O., Mas, JF. (2008). Land use / Land cover change dynamics in the Mexican highlands: current situation and long term scenarios. In: Paegelow, M., Olmedo, M.T.C. (eds) Modelling Environmental Dynamics. Environmental Science and Engineering. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-68498-5_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-68498-5_2
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