Looking Closer at the Patterns of Land Cover in the City of Porto, Portugal, between 1947 and 2019—A Contribution for the Integration of Ecological Data in Spatial Planning

Filipa Guilherme (), Eva García Moreno, José Alberto Gonçalves, Miguel A. Carretero and Paulo Farinha-Marques
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Filipa Guilherme: Department of Geosciences, Environment and Spatial Plannings, Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre s/n, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal
Eva García Moreno: CIBIO Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, InBIO Associate Laboratory, BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, Campus Agrário de Vairão, Rua Padre Armando Quintas 7, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal
José Alberto Gonçalves: Department of Geosciences, Environment and Spatial Plannings, Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre s/n, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal
Miguel A. Carretero: CIBIO Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, InBIO Associate Laboratory, BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, Campus Agrário de Vairão, Rua Padre Armando Quintas 7, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal
Paulo Farinha-Marques: Department of Geosciences, Environment and Spatial Plannings, Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre s/n, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 10, 1-21

Abstract: As more people reside in cities and metropolitan areas, urban vegetation assumes an increasingly important role as one the main providers of ecosystem services in close proximity to human agglomerations. To improve the conditions for citizens and to optimise the sustainability of urban areas, the fields of landscape and urban ecology need to address the urgent priority to integrate ecological data in spatial planning, design, and management programs. With the objective to produce “actionable knowledge” for urban planning in the city of Porto (Portugal), we analyse the evolution of land cover since the mid-20th century at a fine spatial scale. Porto has followed the global trends of urbanisation, marked by a general increase in built-up and impervious surfaces that conquered the previously rural surrounding areas. This caused a severe decline in vegetation cover (especially herbaceous), as well as an increase in fragmentation and isolation of the remaining vegetation patches. These outcomes provide a detailed analysis of the city spatial dynamics, generating valuable information that can be relevant for future interventions regarding urban landscape change at a local scale, the most relevant for planning.

Keywords: landscape change; urban dynamics; spatial metrics; urban habitats; UrHBA (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
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