Green infrastructure, ecosystem services and road network in Spain.

According to EU Strategy, the green infrastructure (GI) is “a strategically planned network of natural and semi-natural areas with other environmental features designed and managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services (ES)”. Thus, GI is rooted in policies aimed at conserving biodiversity through the promotion of connectivity between populations. However, it is much more than a conservation instrument as it seeks to promote those ecosystem functions that are ultimately responsible for the services they provide us with. Roads and other linear infrastructures are one of the most prominent elements of the landscape and therefore will have a remarkable interaction with green infrastructure. Firstly, roads can disrupt flows and movements through landscape connecting elements between the core areas of the GI, preventing it from being ecologically coherent if appropriate structural measures against fragmentation are not taken. Secondly, roads induce changes in the supply of ES in the surrounding area at a local level and the spatial structures of the road network condition the land uses that ultimately define the supply of ES. In this research, I examine the relationship between the elements of GI, ES and road networks on the mainland of Spain. GI elements are those that will be included in the future Spanish Strategy (to be published in 2018): protected areas, critical areas for birds and mammals, river and coastal public domains, agricultural areas of high natural value, etc. ES were obtained from the Spanish National Ecosystem Assessment. GI elements have on average lower road densities. However, some essential landscape connectors show high road densities, especially river valleys and their riparian forest associated. The areas with a predominance of provision services show higher densities than those related to the supply of regulation and cultural services.

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Colino-Rabanal V. Green infrastructure ecosystem services and road network in Spain. Infrastructure & Ecology Network Europe, 2018.

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Retrieved: 31 Oct 2025 00:59:03

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Resource type Text
Date of creation 2025-05-23
Date of last revision 2025-05-23
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Metadata identifier 93de450a-9302-5a83-b08b-ac5299f6fc0f
Metadata language Spanish
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ISO 19115 topic category biota
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Name of the dataset creator Colino-Rabanal, V.
Name of the dataset editor Infrastructure & Ecology Network Europe
Other identifier ISBN: 978-91-639-8714-4
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