Effects of Land Use-Land Cover Thematic Resolution on Environmental Evaluations

Land use/land cover (LULC) maps are a key input in environmental evaluations for the sustainable planning and management of socio-ecological systems. While the impact of map spatial resolution on environmental assessments has been evaluated by several studies, the effect of thematic resolution (the level of detail of LU/LC typologies) is discordant and still poorly investigated. In this paper, four scenarios of thematic resolutions, corresponding to the four levels of the CORINE classification scheme, have been compared in a real case study of landscape connectivity assessment, a major aspect for the biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service provision. The PANDORA model has been employed to investigate the effects of LULC thematic resolution on Bio-Energy Landscape Connectivity (BELC) at the scale of the whole system, landscape units, and single land cover patches, also in terms of ecosystem services. The results show different types of impacts on landscape connectivity due to the changed spatial pattern of the LULC classes across the four thematic resolution scenarios. Moreover, the main priority areas for conservation objectives and future sustainable urban expansion have been identified. Finally, several indications are given for supporting practitioners and researchers faced with thematic resolution issues in environmental assessment and land use planning.