RT Journal Article
T1 The contribution of Earth observation technologies to the reporting obligations of the Habitats Directive and Natura 2000 network in a protected wetland
A1 Regos Sanz, Adrián
A1 Domínguez Conde, Jesús
K1 Environmental monitoring
K1 Habitat mapping
K1 Wetland conservation
K1 Remote sensing
K1 Supervised classification
K1 Landsat satellite imagery
K1 Water-related indices
K1 Conservation European directives
K1 Ensemble classification approach
K1 Protected areas
AB Background. Wetlands are highly productive systems that supply a host of ecosystemservices and benefits. Nonetheless, wetlands have been drained and filled to providesites for building houses and roads and for establishing farmland, with an estimatedworldwide loss of 64 71% of wetland systems since 1900. In Europe, the Natura 2000network is the cornerstone of current conservation strategies. Every six years, MemberStates must report on implementation of the European Habitats Directive. The presentstudy aims to illustrate how Earth observation (EO) technologies can contribute to thereporting obligations of the Habitats Directive and Natura 2000 network in relation towetland ecosystems.Methods. We analysed the habitat changes that occurred in a protected wetland (inNW Spain), 13 years after its designation as Natura 2000 site (i.e., between 2003 and2016). For this purpose, we analysed optical multispectral bands and water-related andvegetation indices derived from data acquired by Landsat 7 TM, ETMC and Landsat8 OLI sensors. To quantify the uncertainty arising from the algorithm used in theclassification procedure and its impact on the change analysis, we compared the habitatchange estimates obtained using 10 different classification algorithms and two ensembleclassification approaches (majority and weighted vote).Results. The habitat maps derived from the ensemble approaches showed an overallaccuracy of 94% for the 2003 data (Kappa index of 0.93) and of 95% for the 2016 data(Kappa index of 0.94). The change analysis revealed important temporal dynamicsbetween 2003 and 2016 for the habitat classes identified in the study area. However,these changes depended on the classification algorithm used. The habitat maps obtainedfrom the two ensemble classification approaches showed a reduction in habitat classesdominated by salt marshes and meadows (24.6 26.5%), natural and semi-naturalgrasslands (25.9 26.5%) or sand dunes (20.7 20.9%) and an increase in forest (31 34%) and reed bed (60.7 67.2%) in the study area.Discussion. This study illustrates how EO based approaches might be particularlyuseful to help (1) managers to reach decisions in relation to conservation, (2)Member States to comply with the requirements of the European Habitats Directive(92/43/EEC), and (3) the European Commission to monitor the conservation statusof the natural habitat types of community interest listed in Annex I of the Directive
PB PeerJ Inc.
SN 2167-8359
YR 2018
FD 2018-03
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/20029
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/20029
LA eng
NO Regos and Domínguez (2018), The contribution of Earth observation technologies to the reporting obligations of the Habitats Directive and Natura 2000 network in a protected wetland. PeerJ 6:e4540; DOI 10.7717/peerj.4540
NO Adrián Regos was funded by the Xunta de Galicia (post-doctoral fellowship ED481B2016/084-0). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Xunta de Galicia: ED481B2016/084-0
DS Minerva
RD 28 abr 2026