The UPV develops software that improves the resilience of Mediterranean forests to climate change

VALENCIA, 21 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Research staff from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) have developed software that improves the resilience of Mediterranean forests to climate change.

The effects of climate change on semi-arid Mediterranean forests are a reality, so it is necessary to carry out actions, with the greatest possible certainty, to reduce their impact. Having quality information is essential to articulate adaptation strategies that promote the principles of sustainable forest management.

In this context, the 'Life resilient forests' project, coordinated by the Politècnica, has developed a new support system (SSD) for the C.A.F.E. (Carbon, Water, Fire, Eco-resilience), to promote an eco-hydrological approach to forest management at the river basin scale.

"Climate change will increase the number and intensity of droughts in many parts of Europe, it will affect the availability of water resources and increase the risk of forest fires. Therefore, it is necessary to articulate adaptation measures and a good example is this project that quantifies, through the development of software, what type of forest management can be attractive, both for the administration and for forest owners", indicates María González Sanchis, a professor at the UPV and coordinator of the project, in a statement.

In this sense, the doctor González Sanchis affirms that during the development of the project, financed by the LIFE program and which ends on March 31, many groups involved have shown interest in knowing the potential of the Decision Support System, since they are concerned about the impact that climate change is having on their ecosystems, "with the proliferation of fires on forest masses that have rarely suffered these extreme phenomena so repeatedly," says the UPV researcher.

For this reason, he considers that this software can be a solution to adapt our forests to global change. "This tool determines the optimal forestry activities to manage multiple goods and services such as biomass production, carbon sequestration, fire risk, water supply, climate resilience or biodiversity, which are quantified simultaneously in time and space", adds the project coordinator.

In Spain, the tool has already been implemented in the municipality of Serra (Valencia) to quantify the goods and services derived from forest management. In addition, it has been applied in Collserola (Catalonia) and Berriatúa (Vizkaya) to quantify the additionality in the provision of water derived from forest management, both of natural masses and of forest plantations.

For its part, in Portugal it has been applied in the reforestation of an area affected by a large forest fire and which has currently been occupied by shrub vegetation. And currently being applied in Zambia by the hand of the FAO, which intends to design a forest management of the territory that maximizes the provision of water. "C.A.F.E. quantified the goods and provision of afforestation services, optimizing the tree density and selecting, among the possibilities, the best place to develop it," adds Dr. González Sanchis.

This Wednesday, March 22, the project celebrates the final conference "Resilient Mediterranean forests: improvement of ecosystem services and sustainable management" at the UPV, which will bring together scientific personnel, forestry engineers, authorities and representatives of civil society, and whose opening will be made by Eduardo Rojas, president of the Program for the Recognition of Forest Certification (PEFC).

Its objective is to value the fact that forests are essential to conserve biodiversity, since they improve "our well-being, the health of the planet and are of great importance in the fight against climate change," says María González Sanchis.

For this reason, the forest management recommendations carried out by 7 European projects by the European Commission will be presented at the "European Green Week 2022.

"Forest management policies must be adapted to the particularities of each region, that is, to its social and climatic reality. Forests are not homogeneous ecosystems. It does not make sense that the same objectives are applied, nor is the provision valued in the same way of goods and services from a Mediterranean forest than a Scandinavian one. We must value the fact that forest management for fire prevention is one of our ecosystem services", explains María González Sanchis.

In addition, some results obtained with the C.A.F.E. will also be shown, and that have been presented to companies, institutions or the scientific community involved in forest management such as FAO, the "Spanish network of adaptive forestry to climate change", at the "IX International Conference on Forest Fire" or "CREAF", among others.