Page 99 - EER-2-2

Explora: Environment
and Resource Assessing ecosystems by land cover and landscapes

changes provides the following additional information province for conserving LLCCs has decreased, even though it
compared to the data on landscape changes. has remained unchanged with respect to landscapes and (ii)
(i) The area of woody LLCCs has decreased more the importance of the Tavush province for conserving LLCCs
significantly than that of N-W LLCCs within the has grown significantly more than it has for landscapes.
middle-mountain meadow steppe.
(ii) The total reduction in the area of mountain forest 4. Discussion
landscapes is driven by opposing changes in woody 4.1. Ecosystem mapping and accounting for
and N-W LLCCs, specifically, a decrease in woody ecosystem extent
LLCCs and an increase in N-W LLCCs.
(iii) The total area of the forest shelter belt has remained The European ecosystem map is developed using a
combination of land cover data (CORINE Land Cover
unchanged, although the wooded LLCCs within it [CLC], specific high-resolution layers, and data from
have decreased. OpenStreetMap) and the EUNIS habitat classification. 46-48
For the assessment of changes in provincial importance The present EUNIS hierarchical habitat classification
(Figure 9), the data on LLCCs provides the following contains four categories of natural terrestrial habitats at
additional information: (i) the importance of the Syunik Level 1, 49,50 while the latest version (3.1) of the European

A

B

Figure 8. Changes in the extent of natural landscapes and landscape-land cover classes from 2017 to 2023. Changes in the area of (A) landscapes and
(B) landscape-land cover classes.
Abbreviations: N-W: Non-woody; W: Woody.

A B

Figure 9. Changes in provincial importance for conserving natural landscapes and landscape-land cover classes in Armenia from 2017 to 2023. Changes
observed in the (A) landscapes and (B) landscape-land cover classes.

Volume 2 Issue 2 (2025) 9 doi: 10.36922/eer.4996