Canvi ambiental global al municipi de Viladrau

Global environmental change in the municipality of Viladrau The main aim of this study was to evaluate environmental change in the municipality of Viladrau. To this end, climate change was analysed through its effect on biodiversity, hydrology, vegetation cover and land use, and logging systems. Each of the points was dealt with from a different perspective. Vegetation cover and land use were analysed on the basis of the information drawn from S. Llobet’s map (1947), the DARP (1995), cadastral registers for Viladrau (1905, 1953 and 2002) and records kept by Viladrau Town Council on logging for the periods 19391943 and 1979-1983. The other variables studied to demonstrate the existence of global change confirmed the changes detected. The environmental changes observed in the municipality of Viladrau were as follows: a trend towards higher average annual temperatures; change in the altitudinal distribution of the land cover (Mediterraneanisation) with beech forests left isolated by expanding holm oak forests; reduction of animal biodiversity; disappearance of native species such as the southwestern water vole (Arvicola sapidus); appearance of non-native species, some of them bioinvasive, such as the Douglas fir; increase in the area covered by deciduous oak at the expense of holm oak, due to a cultural and economic change; and generally a sharp increase in coppice forest, less farmland and more pine. The interpretation of the results comes as a combination of all the factors for environmental change analysed in the study, as they cannot be analysed independently. It is the interaction of all of them that highlights the existence of environmental change. The switch from an economy based on the primary sector to one that is totally dependent on the tertiary sector can be considered as the catalyst of all these changes.