The Habitats Directive of the European Union is a key legislative instrument in Europe, supporting conservation rare, threatened or endemic species. It aims at ensuring that species listed Annexes show favourable status, i.e., they are able to maintain viable populations and their natural range sufficient not decreasing currently, nor will future. However, climate change may hamper achieving (o...

Changes in forested landscapes may have important consequences for ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation. In northern Spain, major changes in land use occurred during the second half of the 20th century, but their impacts on forests have not been quantified. We evaluated the dynamics of landscape and forest distribution patterns between 1957 and 2003 in Fragas do Eume Natural Park (n...

This article reviews critical linkages between land-use transition and human health in the Himalayan region by applying ecosystem approaches to human health (or EcoHealth). Land-use transition in the Himalayan and similar regions includes sedentarization, agricultural intensification, habitat modification, migration, change of livelihoods and lifestyles, biodiversity loss, and increasing flash ...

this study was aimed to identify and mange the most stressful risks threatening shadegan international wetland. shadegan international wetland which is located in the southwest of iran is in the montero list and now threatened by several risks. in this study, the most important threatening risks of the wetland were identified. in the characteristics step, the risks were analyzed based on the se...

Environmental change in terms of land use and climatic changes are posing a serious threat to species distributions and extinctions. Thus in order to predict and mitigate against the effects of environmental change both drivers should be accounted for. Two endemic plant species in the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, Crocus cyprius and Ophrys kotschyi, were used as a case study. We have coupled ...

the territory of serbia is vulnerable to various types of natural hazards and the risk is not equal across the entire territory; it varies depending on the type of hazard and the expected potential for damage. the first aim of this research was to determine the geographical distributions of the major types of natural hazards. seismic hazards, landslides, rock falls, floods, torrential floods...

Models are used in a variety of fields, including land change science, to better understand the dynamics of systems, to develop hypotheses that can be tested empirically, and to make predictions and/or evaluate scenarios for use in assessment activities. Modeling is an important component of each of the three foci outlined in the science plan of the Land-use and -cover change (LUCC) project (Tu...