Evaluating Post-Fire Forest Resilience Using GIS and Multi-Criteria Analysis: An Example from Cape Sounion National Park,Greece |
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Authors: | Margarita Arianoutsou Sotirios Koukoulas Dimitrios Kazanis |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Ecology and Systematics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis, Ilisia, 15784 Athens, Greece;(2) Department of Geography, University of the Aegean, 81100 Mytilene, Greece;(3) Botanical Museum, Department of Ecology and Systematics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis, Ilisia, 15784 Athens, Greece |
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Abstract: | Forest fires are one of the major causes of ecological disturbance in the mediterranean climate ecosystems of the world. Despite
the fact that a lot of resources have been invested in fire prevention and suppression, the number of fires occurring in the
Mediterranean Basin in the recent decades has continued to markedly increase. The understanding of the relationship between
landscape and fire lies, among others, in the identification of the system’s post-fire resilience. In our study, ecological
and landscape data are integrated with decision-support techniques in a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) framework to
evaluate the risk of losing post-fire resilience in Pinus halepensis forests, using Cape Sounion National Park, Central Greece, as a pilot case. The multi-criteria decision support approach
has been used to synthesize both bio-indicators (woody cover, pine density, legume cover and relative species richness and
annual colonizers) and geo-indicators (fire history, parent material, and slope inclination) in order to rank the landscape
components. Judgments related to the significance of each factor were incorporated within the weights coefficients and then
integrated into the multicriteria rule to map the risk index. Sensitivity analysis was very critical for assessing the contribution
of each factor and the sensitivity to subjective weight judgments to the final output. The results of this study include a
final ranking map of the risk of losing resilience, which is very useful in identifying the “risk hotspots”, where post-fire
management measures should be applied in priority. |
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