Abstract
This paper explores the relationship in three sedimentary systems of the Canary Islands (Spain) between four major land change processes (resource extraction, urbanization, tourism and nature protection) and six main environmental consequences (impacts on aeolian sedimentary dynamics, changes in sand landforms, disappearance of sand landforms and entire systems, changes in vegetation, impacts on the socioeconomic system, and changes in land use patterns). The results show that all the environmental consequences have impacted all three study sites, except in one of them (La Graciosa island) in producing disappearance of sand landforms and entire systems. It should be noted that the environmental consequences described concerns different scales (from entire systems to landforms). All the impacts are described and analyzed separately, and the results are discussed in detail and in relation to the presence of these environmental consequences in other parts of the world.
Highlights
Human activity has resulted, at a global level, in the alteration of most ecosystems and landscapes (Vitousek et al, 1997), especially impacting on their structures and processes (Wenbin et al, 2018)
Aerial photographs and orthophotos (Table 1), some of them obtained via the Web Map Service (WMS) of the IDECanarias (The Canary Islands SDI), were used to digitize, measure and analyze some of the land-use/cover changes (LUCC) patterns and processes revealed in the results
The results are presented in the following subsections: causes-consequences matrix, Impacts on Aeolian sedimentary dynamics, Changes in sand landforms, Disappearance of sand landforms and entire systems, Changes in vegetation, Impacts on the socioeconomic system, and Changes in land use patterns
Summary
At a global level, in the alteration of most ecosystems and landscapes (Vitousek et al, 1997), especially impacting on their structures and processes (Wenbin et al, 2018). Studies into both the natural and anthropic causes and consequences of ecosystem change are crucial to enable a better understanding of landscape dynamics. In this respect, studies on land-use/cover changes (LUCC) can contribute to establishing the main observable changes over different spatiotemporal scales (Kothari and Arnall, 2019; Müller et al, 2014). The important step in the study of ecosystem changes is to conduct more in-depth analyses of the causes, including economic, politic and cultural questions which often remain invisible when using solely cartographic sources (e.g. Santana-Cordero et al, 2017). Lambin et al (2001) considered this point when reviewing the underlying causes of LUCC
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