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Anthropogenic pressure: quantifying and clustering human structures in "sandstone" protected areas

Publication at Faculty of Science, Central Library of Charles University |
2021

Abstract

Within the project on monitoring of landscape changes in large-scale protected areas in Czechia we also monitor anthropogenic structures - roads, built-up and recreational areas. In this article we focused on anthropogenic structures in the five protected areas, which are protected and also highly visited by tourists especially for rock formations, particularly sandstone.

Based on this similarity we would like to evaluate and compare the anthropogenic pressure in these areas. We used 500x500 m grid to visualize and analyse all the results, which contain relative distribution of anthropogenic structures and their standardization resulting in indices refer to anthropogenic pressure.

In addition, 1) we performed cluster analysis to find out different types of anthropogenic influence present within the study areas and 2) indices of anthropogenic pressure were analysed with habitat suitability for key species of the protected areas, 3) finally, we compared selected protected landscape area according to results and indices within the areas. České Švýcarsko as National Park (NP) is at the lowest level of anthropogenic influence by permanent structures, however Broumovsko, Český ráj and Labské pískovce are facing significantly higher anthropogenic pressure influencing suitable habitats as well.