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M. Ortega et al. 2010. Monitoring vulnerability of the Spanish forest landscapes: the SISPARES approach
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Monitoring vulnerability of the Spanish forest landscapes: the
SISPARES approach
Marta Ortega 1* , Valentín Gomez 1 , Jose Manuel García del Barrio 2 & Ramon Elena-
Rosselló 1
1 University School of Forest Technical Engineers, Polytechnic University of Madrid,
Spain
2 National Institute of Research and Agrarian and Food Technology, Madrid, Spain
Abstract
SISPARES is a system devoted to study the ecological evolution of the Spanish Rural
Landscapes including their characterisation, classification, and recent past and future changes. It
is based on a sampling network of 215 permanent 4x4 km plots surveyed by using aerial
photographs of three dates: 1956, 1984 and 1998. Currently, a new survey is going on. The
network design was based on an environmental stratification of Spain well linked to the
European Environmental Stratification.
Forest Landscape Vulnerability (FLV) is defined as the risk of human disturbance, especially
forest fires. We assessed FLV using an index based on Forest Landscape Fragility (FLF)
weighted by Road Accessibility. FLF is defined as the risk of landscape disturbance caused by a
high degree of interspersion and juxtaposition between patches of forest and non forest land
uses: The non forest land uses, such urban, crop and managed grassland, are considered as
potential sources of human disturbances, for the forest land use patches, including woodland,
“matorral”, “dehesa”, tree plantation and riparian woodland.
From 1956 till 1998, a significant increase of FLV has been observed in SISPARES landscape
plots. This increase is related to the increment of forest fires in Spain during the last 40 years.
Keywords: Landscape, monitoring, vulnerability, SISPARES system, Spain
1. Introduction
Landscape vulnerability is defined as the risk of severe disturbances and could be consider as a
character of landscape patterns (composition and configuration). In recent years, landscape
character assessment in Europe has become central to sustainable development and the
management of land. It is recognised as an important tool for policy stakeholders, which
provides them with quantitative and qualitative evidence to reach a dynamic management,
adjustable to new demands of regional identity (Washer 2005). But only, Denmark (Nordic
Council of Ministers 1987), Austria (Wrbka et al. 1999) and Spain (Elena-Rosselló et al. 2005)
have developed national approaches for delimitation and mapping local spatial units on the basis
of a range of landscape features (geophysical, cultural and historic, perception and aesthetics
and natural value) as a basis for vulnerability assessment. However, in many other countries all
over the world, local approaches exist and some of them have been specifically designed to
evaluate landscape vulnerability to forest fire (e.g. Preston et al. 2009, Sorrensen 2009). They
are important tools for preventing the risk of forest fire.
* Corresponding author.
Email address: marta.ortega.quero@upm.es
Forest Landscapes and Global Change-New Frontiers in Management, Conservation and Restoration. Proceedings of the IUFRO Landscape Ecology
Working Group International Conference, September 21-27, 2010, Bragança, Portugal. J.C. Azevedo, M. Feliciano, J. Castro & M.A. Pinto (eds.)
2010, Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Bragança, Portugal.