Applications of Geographic Information Systems for the Assessment of Environmental Impacts in Coastal Natural Areas

Abstract

The increase in tourism activity, combined with the image-driven culture fostered by social media, has led to a more diverse profile of visitors accessing natural areas in tourist destinations. This trend places growing pressure on ecosystems and presents new challenges for site managers, who often operate with limited resources to assess impacts and implement mitigation measures. To provide effective and efficient management solutions, the GEOTIGMA research group is developing methodologies for visitor management, habitat condition monitoring, invasive species tracking, and ecosystem functioning analysis in coastal natural areas of the Canary Islands and Cape Verde. These approaches leverage geographic information technologies to offer site managers practical tools for monitoring and mitigating visitor impacts on ecosystems that—especially on islands—host rich but fragile biodiversity and geodiversity. In our recent work, we have analyzed how tourism infrastructure affects sediment transport in mobile dune systems and applied methods to identify factors driving the spread of exotic plant species linked to visitor movement. We are currently applying deep learning tools to automatically map trail networks. Preserving these ecosystems is essential not only for maintaining ecosystem services, but also for sustaining the attractiveness of these areas, which supports the economy of the Macaronesian islands.