AccScience Publishing / EER / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/eer.4996
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Integrating actual land cover data and landscape zone map to assess terrestrial ecosystems in Armenia

Elena Bukvareva1* ,  Armen Grigoryan1 ,  Maxim Dubinin2 ,  Eduard Kazakov2
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1 Biodiversity Conservation Center (BCC), Jrvezh, Kotayk region, Armenia
2 NextGIS OÜ, Tallinn, Harju County, Estonia
EER, 4996 https://doi.org/10.36922/eer.4996
Submitted: 29 September 2024 | Revised: 13 February 2025 | Accepted: 25 February 2025 | Published: 11 March 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Ecosystem mapping and accounting are essential for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services maintenance. In this study, we tested a simple geographic information system approach by overlaying Armenia’s landscape zones with land cover data from the Environmental Systems Research Institute and the European Space Agency. This analysis resulted in maps of 20 combinations of woody and non-woody land cover classes across 10 landscape zones, which we term landscape-land cover classes (LLCCs) and use as proxies for natural ecosystems. The LLCC-based method employed in this study accounts for the landscape and geographic specificity of terrestrial ecosystems, providing data on the extent of LLCCs within ecosystem accounting areas (EAAs), identifying rare LLCCs, and tracking changes in their extent following updates to land cover data. We found this approach applicable for assessing the extent and changes of LLCCs whose area exceeds the margin of error in land cover identification. In addition, it provides a useful framework for developing a prototype of ecosystem accounting in EAAs lacking regularly updated ecosystem maps.

Graphical abstract
Keywords
Ecosystem mapping
Ecosystem extent accounting
Rare ecosystems
Funding
Funding allocation from the Federal Environment Agency (UBA), Germany. The principal organization is the Leibniz IOER, Dresden, Germany, with a service contract effective from June 1, 2024, according to Section 631 and the following sections of the German Civil Code.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare they have no competing interests.
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