Welcome
What is a Landscape Dynamics Model (LDM)?
A Landscape Dynamic Model (LDM) is a spatially-explicit model that represents the system and several processes operating at the landscape level with the aim to make predictions regarding the potential landscape configurations arising from the interaction of such processes.
What is MEDFIRE?
The MEDFIRE is a landscape fire succession model designed to study the interaction of ecological processes at landscape level in the Mediterranean region. The MEDFIRE model currently mimics changes in landscape composition derived from the interplay between two main processes: vegetation dynamics and fire dynamics. The main purpose of the model is to update the Land Cover Type map of a specific study area according to the fire regime and the climate.
What is MEDFATE?
Development of MEDFATE arised from the need to make vegetation processes more realistic. Like the MEDFIRE model, MEDFATE has been designed to simulate different fire regime drivers allowing the investigation of their effects on landscape composition at short- and medium-term time scales in a Mediterranean context. Unlike the MEDFIRE model, however, in MEDFATE the vegetation processes are dealt with on a species-individualistic basis (i.e., simulating the life-stages of plant cohorts, their competition for light and their responses to perturbations). Thus, the MEDFATE model allows studying the dynamics of plant communities as an emergent property of species-level dynamics.
What is MEDLUCC?
The MEDLUCC model is a spatially explicit dynamic land-use/-cover changes (LUCC) model designed to mimic any land use change process. The model allocates potential actions of land-use and land-cover change spatially. The number of cells susceptible of change response to a tax demand is set each time step. The number of LUCC patches and distribution of patch size are emergent properties of the model. MEDLUCC can feed MEDFIRE model to constraint vegetation changes.
What is MedSpread?
The MedSpread model is a spatially explicit raster-based model designed to mimic fire spread of a given set of fires. The model simulates fire spreading from an ignition until the target area is reached. It can be applied to mimic the spread and burning of an observed real-life fire perimeter from its known ignition point. MedSpread can be also used to simulate fire scars from estimated ignitions points. The purpose of this model is to examine the spatial interactions between vegetation (i.e. fuel load and forest composition), topography, and wind forces when determining fire spread.
What is SELES?
The Spatially Explicit Landscape Event Simulator (SELES) plataform (http://www.seles.info) is a tool provided of a high-level programming language for constructing and running spatially explicit spatio-temporal landscape models that integrate natural and anthropogenic processes over long time-frames and large spatial areas.
We have used SELES to implement all the models of the project.
LDM are designed to represent at least one landscape pattern-process relationship, but in fact models include several spatial interactions and many ecosystem processes (e.g. vegetation growth, urbanization, natural and anthropogenic perturbations...).
Landscape models are typically used to simulate different land management scenarios and to assess the potential impact of global change scenarios.
Who is developing the MED-LDM models?
The development of the MEDFIRE, MEDFATE, MEDLUCC and MedSpread models are being conducted at the Biodiversity and Landscape Ecology Laboratory of the Centre Tecnològic Forestal de Catalunya, thanks to the endorsement of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education.