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A Classification Procedure for Mapping Topo-climatic Conditions for Strategic Vegetation Planning

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Abstract

Environmental classification addresses issues involving the representation and analysis of continuous and variable ecological data. This study creates a methodology to define topo-climatic landscapes (TCL) in the north-west of Catalonia, which is situated in the north-east of the Iberian Peninsula. TCL provide data regarding the ecological behavior of a landscape in terms of its topography, physiognomy, and climate, which are the main drivers of an ecosystem. The variables selected are derived from a variety of different sources, such as remote sensing and climatic atlases. The methodology employed combines unsupervised iterative cluster classification with supervised fuzzy classification. Twenty eight TCL, which can be differentiated in terms of their vegetation physiognomy and vegetation altitudinal range type, were selected for the study area. Furthermore, a hierarchy among the TCL is established which permits the merging of clusters and allows for changes in thematic resolution. By using the topo-climatic landscape map, managers can identify patches with similar environmental conditions and at the same time assess the uncertainty involved in classification.

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Abbreviations

TCL:

Topo-climatic Landscapes

MCA:

Multiple correspondence analysis

HMC:

Habitat Map of Catalonia

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the GIS and Remote Sensing Methods and Applications Research Group of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (2009 SGR 1511), and especially to Gerard Moré for his advice on GIS cluster analysis. We would also like to thank the Applied Geography Group of the Autonomous University of Barcelona for developing this methodology in the High Pyrenees Natural Park (2005-2006PNATAPI).

We would like to express our gratitude to the Catalan Water Agency and to the Department of the Environment and Housing of the Generalitat (Autonomous Government) of Catalonia for their investment policy and the availability of Remote Sensing data, which has made it possible to conduct this study under optimal conditions. Comments from the anonymous reviewers greatly improved the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Animal Biology, Plant Biology and Ecology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Cerdanyola del Valles, Barcelona, Spain

    Josep Maria Serra & Miquel Ninyerola

  2. Department of Geography, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Cerdanyola del Valles, Barcelona, Spain

    Jordi Cristobal

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  1. Josep Maria Serra
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Correspondence to Josep Maria Serra.

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Serra, J.M., Cristobal, J. & Ninyerola, M. A Classification Procedure for Mapping Topo-climatic Conditions for Strategic Vegetation Planning. Environ Model Assess 16, 77–89 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10666-010-9232-4

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