Assessing forest species biogeophysical suitability by spatial multicriteria analysis: a study case for the Centro region of Portugal.

article

Quinta-Nova, L. C.
Roque, N.
Navalho, Isabel
Alegria, Cristina
Albuquerque, M.T.D.

ROQUES, N. {et al.] (2017) - Assessing forest species biogeophysical suitability by spatial multicriteria analysis: a study case for the Centro region of Portugal. In International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies in Agriculture, Food & Environment, 8, Chania, Greece, September 2017..

Assessing forest species biogeophysical suitability by spatial multicriteria analysis: a study case for the Centro region of Portugal.

Suitability
Forest management
GIS
AHP

2017-07-19T13:47:18Z
2017-07-19T13:47:18Z
2017

It is generally agreed that the choice of the most suitable uses based in soil and climatic factors, complemented with socio-economic criteria, promotes sustainable use of rural land. There are, however, different methodologies for defining soil suitability to agroforestal systems or natural and seminatural ecosystems, including agricultural uses, forest plantations, agroforestry areas and priority areas for conservation. Many of these methods rely on decision support systems based on multicriteria spatial analysis. In this study it was intended to determine the different levels of suitability for the most representative forest species in the central region of Portugal. For that purpose a set of climatic, soil and topographic variables based in a geographic information system, soil and biogeographic mapping were used. A stochastic approach was undertaken in order to estimate several bioclimatic indices and the associated spatial uncertainty. Results were duly discussed and addressed in this framework. In the end, forest species suitability evaluation was performed using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), methodology that allows the exploitation of natural fitness of the territory, contributing to a reflection on the adequacy of current and future occupations face the carrying capacity of the environment. The use of this methodology will be important as a supporting tool to public administration agents that work in forestry planning and management.
info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion

openAccess
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

eng