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B. Terrones et al. 2010. Detecting vulnerable spots for ecological connectivity caused by minor road network
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Figure 3: Cost distance map for Alicante’s Province, in a relative scale from 0 to 100.
The cost distance values for the Alicante Province surface are showed in Table 1. The 20% of
the area of Alicante’s Province was classified with a very high level of connection and only the
9% of area was disconnected.
Table 1: Cost values in a categorical relative scale (from 0 to 100) of the Alicante’s Province.
Category Cost values Total Area (Km 2 ) %
Very high connectivity 0 – 1 1211.23 20.84
High connectivity 1 – 5 1975.92 33.99
Medium connectivity 5 – 10 1335.85 22.98
Low connectivity 10 – 20 765.31 13.17
No connectivity 20 – 100 524.28 9.02
Based on the cost distance map, we selected the areas with the lowest values in travel cost
between the Natura 2000 areas, and then we proposed the main corridors between protected
areas. We detected also the intersections between these corridors and the road network. Then,
we used the cartography of transversal structures along the roads (tunnels and bridges) as
connection spots, and searched for the conflictive areas for connectivity.
A good example of the application of this work, it can be observed in the North area of the
Province, in the Maigmó i Serres de la Foia de Castalla SCI in a fragmented landscape (Figure
4). This Protected Area is surrounding by other natural areas, which are core areas for the target
species. CV-80 and A-31 are two highways that limited connections by North and West. In
these highways there are several transversal structures that could be adapted for improving
connectivity. In the East area there are two minor roads (CV-802 and CV- 803) that are limiting
connectivity, but the cost values are lower than in the other areas.
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.