In the European Mediterranean, large rangeland areas are affected from transitional processes that often cause conflicts between past and present land uses or economic and ecological priorities. The increasing vulnerabililty of these ecosystems manifests in the depletion of range resources or in the accumulation of combustible biomass with a corresponding risk of wildfires.

Funded by the European Union, GeoRange has been set up by experts in range ecology and management, ecosystem conservation and restoration, remote sensing and spatial information systems. With the direct involvement of responsible land managers, it aims at the definition of optimised management strategies for multi-functional rangelands.

Major milestones towards this goal are:

• Formalisation of a concept for multi-functional range condition assessment
• Field data collection for conceptual research and model calibration
• Creation of site-specific GIS databases including extended satellite based datasets
• Satellite-based retrospective analysis of range development
• Assessment of the present range condition and range management histories
• Formulation of strategies for sustainable management of the test sites
• Monitoring of results and strategy revision

An extended project description can be found here.