Plenary Lecture

Sustainable Landscape Management to Decrease Erosion Risk and Extend the Lifetime of Dams

Professor Thomas Panagopoulos
Centro de Investigação sobre Espaço e Organizações (CIEO)
Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia
Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139, Faro
PORTUGAL
E-mail: tpanago@ualg.pt

Abstract: European landscapes are changing due to the increased construction of renewable energy projects. One of them is the Alqueva dam in South Portugal that created the biggest artificial lake of Europe. In this research it was analyzed recent landscape changes at the Alqueva dam watershed. Soil erosion is one of the most pressing environmental problems facing the reservoir watersheds of any place in the world. Soil erosion risk assessment is urgently needed in order to conserve water resources and prevent the accelerated siltation at the watershed of the Alqueva dam reservoir. In order to achieve more and better management of rangelands around the second largest reservoir of Europe, it is essential to evaluate how the soil properties can be affected in regard to the introduced land use changes. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) is the most widely used method to calculate erosion. A dynamic model is constructed in Stella environment based on RUSLE factor interconnections. The Study model is developed from empirical data of an experimental area of Parque do Alqueva that recently affected by a development to a luxury tourism resort with golf course. The study area was previously used as an agroforestry type landscape managed as the traditional low tree density montados of south Portugal. Geo-statistical techniques were used to assess the relation of the spatial variability of soil erosion to soil properties. Graphical interpretation of soil properties was performed using ordinary kriging. The maps obtained by kriging showed which are the areas that soil erodibility will be mostly affected due to the land use changes. The modelling results show that erosion can have a significant impact on the ability to hold water. In the best case scenario, soil erosion process over a course of 100 years decreases the reservoir capacity by less than 1%, while in the worst case 25% of initial capacity is lost. The model will be used in different landscape change scenarios to mitigate the risk of erosion. Those scenarios reflected the problems associated with maintaining the reservoir capacity, prolong the lifetime of the dam and preserve the sustainability in landscapes.

Brief Biography of the Speaker: Professor Thomas Panagopoulos received the B.Sc. in Forestry from Aristotle University, the M.Sc. in Renewable Natural Resources from the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute, the Ph.D. from Faculty of Geosciences Aristotle University. The area of his PhD is landscape reclamation. He has published more than 120 papers in Journals and Conferences.
He has been Landscape Architecture Department Head at the University of Algarve and is vice-president of the Research Centre of Spatial and Organizational Dynamics (CIEO). He has been Director of the Landscape Architecture Master Degree at the University of Algarve, in the Doctoral Program “Innovation and Land Management” and Executive Board member of UNISCAPE (the European Network of Universities for the implementation of the European Landscape Convention). He has received over 5.4 million in external funding. He has 206 publications of which 33 are refereed journal articles and 26 are refereed book chapters. He organized 15 International conferences related to Landscape Architecture, Information and Technology, Urban Development, Climate change, Environment and Sustainability. He is at the editorial board of various national and international scientific journals.

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