Geoecological classification of lands by categories of value for the habitat of Artiodactyla: experience with the application of GIS technologies

Abstract

Introduction. The inventory and classification of lands according to the categories of habitat value of various species is an important stage in the arrangement of the territory and the planning and carrying out of further research and environmental protection measures. The land quality assessment is in line with the 15th Sustainable Development Goal, which aims to conserve, restore and sustainably use terrestrial ecosystems, manage forests and conserve biodiversity. There is currently no approved methodology for assessing the suitability of protected areas for habitation of species. Quality of living conditions is the basis for assessing the optimal number of hunting species in forestry and hunting enterprises. This methodology was adapted for the use of GIS (QGIS) as the main tool that provides processing of significant data sets, simplifies and speeds up the routine part of the study and allows you to visualize the results for further analysis. The aim of this article is to develop an approach to classifying lands by categories of value for habitation of Аrtiodactyla using GIS.

Materials and methods. The approbation and step-by-step description of the developed approach is presented in the article on the example of assessing the territory of the Slobozhanskyi National Nature Park (Parkhomivka Environmental research department) for the habitat of the European roe deer (Capreolus capreolus Linnaeus, 1758) as a model species of Аrtiodactyla. To classify the lands of the Slobozhanskyi National Nature Park (SNNP), the descriptions of the Park forestry subcompartments and compartments were used as the main source of data. These materials contain information about all forestry subcompartments: their areas, characteristics of forest stands, undergrowth, and additional information.The value of each forest subcompartmentswas determined in accordance with the “Procedure for the Arrangement of Hunting Lands” depending on protective and forage properties. Types of natural complexes have different values for different animals – their own quality class (bonitet).

Presentation of the main material. The basis was the vector layer of forestry subcompartments of the SNNP. For each subcompartment of the Parkhomivka Environmental research department the class of bonitet was determined based on the characteristics of the forest stands. All data was entered into the corresponding column of the attribute table. In the QGIS software package, the vector layer of subcompartments bonitet was converted into a raster using the “Rasterization” tool. To calculate the average quality class for compartments based on smallest units (subcompartments), the “Zonal Statistics” tool was used. This made it possible to take into consideration the different shapes and sizes of forest plots.

Conclusion. The conducted study illustrates the possibilities of applying landscape-geographic methods and relevant criteria for assessing the potential of landscapes of the SNNP in accordance with the geoecological needs for game species of mammals, in our case for European roe deer. The algorithm presented in the article for assessing the value of lands for the habitat of Аrtiodactyla based on forest management materials can be applied to various territories, including protected areas of Ukraine. It is essentially a geoecological assessment of lands that are inhabited or potentially inhabited by a certain species through an assessment of the suitability of conditions.