The assessment of the ecosystem state, in terms of the functionality of the soil and of the soil/vegetation interactions is a relevant step of the procedures for monitoring the impact of human activities and climate changes on landscapes. The focus is here on the connectivity of the landscape with respect to the flux of different elements like water, sediment and fauna. The deliverable is organized into two parts: a) the first one introduces a new landscape, plants, landslides and erosion model, which exploits the Landscape Function Analysis framework to deal with the hydrogeological connectivity. As a result of the proposed methodology we provide an example of scenario analysis, applied to a BIO_SOS study site; b) the second one deals with the connectivity related to fauna fluxes. We introduce a new mathematical model, built on the metapopulation dynamics approach, to study predator-prey populations dynamics. The study has been motivated by the conservation issues related to the wolf-wild boar pair populating the Alta Murgia BIO_SOS study site.

Protected areas are continuously subjected to ecological change due to anthropic pressures. Analyses of changes in the extent and intensity of pressures over time are essential for adaptive management, yet such analyses are rarely conceptualized or performed in a well-defined, standardized way, with a frequent lack of clarity in development, definition and measurement. Over-time remote sensing data has great potential for mapping spatial pattern of pressures and their impacts. Some pressures can be mapped directly (e.g. land use dynamics, some invasive species), whereas for others the nature, intensity and spatial pattern of impacts can be used to infer on pressures. This paper develops a framework within which remote sensing datasets in combination with GIS and ecological modeling may be used to identify potential pressure growth through either direct detection or indirect monitoring of impacts on landscapes, land cover/habitat types, communities and species through multi-temporal remote sensing image series. The use of this framework is illustrated through categorization of pressure-derived impacts on protected areas in six countries - Greece, Italy, Portugal, Wales, The Netherlands, and India - located in diverse biogeographic, environmental and social-ecological contexts, and facing a different range of pressures. The framework is conceptually robust, geographically invariant, scalable and spatially-explicit, connecting to the growing data sets from remote sources, and we urge it to be tested over a wide range of pressures and social-ecological settings.