Diagnosis of complex coastal ecological systems: Environmental GIS analysis of a highly stressed Mediterranean lagoon through spatiotemporal indicators

摘要

This article explores the need for implementing spatiotemporal criteria in environmental planning of special protected areas, applying the analysis of reaction patterns in the case study of the Mar Menor, a Mediterranean coastal lagoon in South-Eastern Spain. To perform this, the Mar Menor environmental patterns suffering traditionally from intense coastal urbanization, and in recent years from important eutrophication problems, will be analyzed from an integrated approach and retrospectively assessed through territorial indicators. The evaluation will provide a clear example of a protected area regulated by multiple European Natura 2000 figures of protection that nevertheless is suffering from a strong and varied anthropic process over time. The results will show that paradoxically this process sometimes has little territorial linkage origin with the area concerned. This aspect will be addressed by using GIS indicators, to present the real correlation between coastal urbanization and agricultural land transformation with Mar Menor evolution over time (in which it is pointed out that the weight of the latter is much greater than the former) and how far it is necessary to establish an area of influence of the environmental impacts by proposing a new scope of application for the resolution of the current situation of eutrophication in its waters.