Land cover and land use change in the Central Spanish-Portuguese border region

Abstract

Socio-economic activities are the main causes of change in land cover and land use that determine the structure, function and dynamics of landscapes. Our main objective was to evaluate the repercussions and consequences of recent socio-demographic changes on the land cover and land use in the Raya Central Ibérica. We used data from the European Project CORINE and conducted multivariate analysis, information analysis and generalized linear models (GLM). GLM demonstrated its utility for identifying relations between independent variables and land cover/land use changes. The results of different analyses show that the changes have been insignificant in general terms, however, some municipalities have been marked by important variations in land cover and land uses such as irrigated land, agroforestry areas or sclerophyllous vegetation.