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Environmental sensitivity assessment and land degradation in southeastern Serbia: application of modified MEDALUS model

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Abstract

This paper aims to improve the methodology and results accuracy of MEDALUS model for assessing land degradation sensitivity through the application of different data detail levels and by introducing the application of Ellenberg indices in metrics related to vegetation drought sensitivity assessment. For that purpose, the MEDALUS model was applied at 2 levels of detail. Level I (municipality level) implied the use of available large-scale databases and level II (watershed) contains more detailed information about vegetation used in the calculation of the VQI and MQI factors (Fig. S6). The comparison was made using data based on CORINE Land Cover (2012) and forest inventory data, complemented with object-based classification. Results showed that data based on forest inventory data with the application of Ellenberg’s indices and object-based classification have one class more, critical (C1 and C2) and that the percentage distribution of classes is different in both quantitative (area size of class sensitivity) and qualitative (aggregation and dispersion of sensitivity classes). The use of data from Forest Management Plans and the application of Ellenberg’s indices affect the quality of the results and find its application in the model, especially if these results are used for monitoring and land area management on fine scales. Remote sensed data images (Sentinel-2B) were introduced into the methodology as a very important environmental monitoring tool and model results validation.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

Part of the results was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia (grant no. 451-03-9/2021-14/ 200169). The authors are grateful for the soil and precipitation data by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia (grant no. 451-03-68/2022-14/200007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Forestry, Department of Ecological Engineering for Soil and Water Resources Protection, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia

    Stefan Miletić, Jelena Beloica, Predrag Miljković, Sara Lukić & Snežana Belanović-Simić

  2. Institute for Biological Research “Siniša Stanković”, Department of Ecology, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia

    Veljko Perović & Dragan Čakmak

  3. Faculty of Forestry, Department of Forestry, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia

    Snežana Obradović

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  1. Stefan Miletić
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Contributions

Stefan Miletić: conceptualization, methodology, data curation, software, writing—original draft, investigation, formal analysis, resources, visualization; Jelena Beloica: conceptualization, methodology, validation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, visualization, supervision; Veljko Perović: conceptualization, methodology, data curation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, formal analysis, resources, supervision; Predrag Miljković: data curation, software, validation, resources, visualization; Sara Lukić: writing—review and editing, supervision; Snežana Obradović: data curation, writing—review and editing, resources; Dragan Čakmak: data curation, investigation; Snežana Belanović-Simić: writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Stefan Miletić.

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Miletić, S., Beloica, J., Perović, V. et al. Environmental sensitivity assessment and land degradation in southeastern Serbia: application of modified MEDALUS model. Environ Monit Assess 195, 1241 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-11761-1

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