Europes ecological backbone.pdf

Introduction and background
required the definition of not only mountain areas
identified by their topographic characteristics, but
also subarctic areas that are climatically equivalent.
Consequently, an index based on average monthly
minimum and maximum temperature data was
used to identify mountain-like climates (European
Commission, 2004b).
Sixteen combinations of criteria were produced to
test different thresholds for altitude, climate, and
topography. Their advantages and disadvantages
were discussed with representatives of the European
Commission and European organisations concerned
with mountain issues, as well as national experts
in the study team. The principal advance over the
method used by Kapos et al. (2000) was the addition
of a class of mountains below 300m. This identifies
areas with strong local contrasts in relief, such as the
Scottish and Norwegian fjords and Mediterranean
coastal mountain areas. The best approach to
including such landscapes was to calculate the
standard deviation of elevations between each
point of the DEM and the eight cardinal points
surrounding it. If this is greater than 50 m, the
landscape is sufficiently rough to be considered as
'mountain' despite the low altitude. For altitudes
above 300 m, the following criteria were used:
• between 300 m and 1 000 m, areas which either
meet the previously mentioned criterion or
where altitudes encountered within a radius of
7 km vary by 300 meters or more are considered
mountainous.
• between 1 000 m and 1 500 m, all areas which
meet any of the previously mentioned criteria
are considered mountainous. In addition to this,
areas where the maximum slope between each
point (to which value is assigned to) and the
8 cardinal points surrounding it is 5 ° or more
are also considered mountainous.
• between 1 500 m and 2 500 m, in addition to all
previous criteria, areas where the maximum
slope between each point (to which value
is assigned to) and the 8 cardinal points
surrounding it is 2 ° or more are also considered
mountainous.
• above 2 500 m, all areas are considered
mountain.
1.3.5 The delineation of European mountain areas
for the present study
For the present study, a very similar delineation
was used, excluding the climatic criteria for areas
north of 62 °N. Two further adjustments were
made. First, isolated mountainous areas of less than
10 km 2 were not considered so as to create more
continuous areas and considering that topographic
constraints play a greater role when they extend
over a certain area. Second, non‐mountainous areas
of less than 10 km 2 within mountain massifs were
included. In the interests of a common approach
across a topographically-complex continent it is
recognised that this methodology leads to two
counter-intuitive results. First, large high, but very
low relief areas such as glaciated high plateaux and
ice caps in the Nordic countries (predominantly
Norway and Iceland) are not classed as mountains.
However, given the aims of this study the exclusion
of these areas is acceptable because these areas are
uninhabited and, in the case of ice caps, have no
human land uses and very limited biodiversity.
Second, portions of steep river valleys in lowland
areas are included, particularly in Sweden (due to
postglacial uplift) and along the Danube (due to
significant erosion). However, these linear features
are easily identified and, in the next stage of
analysis, easily excluded.
The distribution of mountain areas across the
countries of Europe is shown in Table 1.2.
A further European level mountain data set was
created for analysis, dividing the mountain area
into massifs (or groups of massifs), as shown in
Map 1.3. In all cases, the boundaries of massifs
were drawn along the boundaries of NUTS 3
areas. Two of these massifs — the Alps and the
Carpathians — are effectively those identified in
relation to their respective conventions (cf. Maps 1.1
and 1.2). Similarly, the boundaries of the Pyrenees
are generally agreed, for instance by the Working
Community for the Pyrenees. The designation of
the other massifs recognised the purpose of the
subsequent analyses, and particularly the objective of
addressing the outcomes of policy implementation.
1.3.6 Biogeographic delineation of European
mountains
In addition to the delineations of mountains relative
to agricultural productivity, the application of
regional conventions, and topographic criteria,
the European territory has been divided into nine
biogeographic regions (Roekaerts, 2002) to quantify
and report on various aspects of biodiversity with
regard to the application of both the Habitats
Directive and the Emerald network under the Bern
Convention, particularly on numbers and trends in
species, habitats, and protected areas. One of these is
the Alpine biogeographic region, which covers 8.6 %
of European territory (Sundseth, 2009). As shown
in Map 1.4, this overlaps to a significant extent with
the Carpathians, Alps and Nordic mountains, and
30 Europe's ecological backbone: recognising the true value of our mountains