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The analysis of environmentally sensitive areas can be done on the basis of different parameters

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The analysis of environmentally sensitive areas can be done on the basis of different parameters such as?. The selection of the layers is an open process, though only meaningful layers produce meaningful results. Basso et al. (2000) in their study used an integrated, multi-level, approach to study the different environmental degradation stages and the existing interactions amongst the individual components of the landscape of the Agri basin in the Basilicata Region in Southern Italy. They considered an ‘Environmental Sensitive Area’ as a specific and delimited entity in which environmental and socio-economical factors are not balanced or are not sustainable for that particular environment. Among the different parameters they analysed were …show more content…

MEditerranean Desertification And Land USe (MEDALUS) project is one of the largest project of the European Comission established to analyse the global and regional climate changes. The MEDALUS model (Kosmas et al.1999) identifies regions that are environmentally sensitive area (ESAs). In this model, different types of ESAs to desertification can be analysed in terms of various parameters such as landforms, soil, geology, vegetation, climate, and human actions. Each of these parameters is grouped into various uniform classes and a weighting factor is assigned to each class. Then four layers are evaluated: soil quality, climate quality, vegetation quality, and management quality. As outlined by Kosmas et al. (1999) and Brandt et al. (2003), the method should be reasonably simple, robust and widely applicable; the selection of parameters to assess environmental quality must be made attending to their availability, economy and ability to update and the system should be adaptable to the development and refinement of the existing information content and the possible addition of new information. The principal innovation which was brought in to the study by Kirkby et al. (1998) in their study of MEDALUS was long term interactions with the vegetation and soil, with implications for the way in which the surface flow and infiltration are described and distributed area wise. The model contains four inter-related sub-models for the atmosphere, vegetation, soil and

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