Reducing the Vulnerability of Societies to Water Related Risks at the Basin Scale (Proceedings of the third International Symposium on Integrated Water Resources Management, Bochum, Germany, September 2006). IAHS Publ. 317, 2007, 60–65.

Landscape dynamics, forest fragmentation and their relation to socio-economic history and biophysical attributes in the Colombian highlands

JOSE ARTURO RESTREPO ^1,2

arturo.restrepo@gmail.com, restrepo@gcmd.nasa.gov

1 UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, PO Box 3015, 2601 DA Delft, The Netherlands

2 Facultad de Estudios Ambientales y Rurales, Universidad Javeriana, Tr. 4 Nr 43-00 Bogotá, Colombia

Abstract The concepts of landscape ecology are analysed through scale, structure, function and change. These are useful when approached from a holistic perspective and offer an analytical tool for integrated watershed management using a geographic information system. This study seeks to understand, from a landscape ecology perspective, the severe water shortages in two sub-basin areas characterized by rugged mountainous terrain, extensive cloud cover, and dense vegetation. The landscape changes were analysed through interactions among temporal (1940–1993) and spatial patterns of land-cover, agrosystems, a half century of human history and biophysical attributes. The analysis illustrates how deforestation, religion, biophysical attributes, fragmentation, and their relation with socioeconomic history also influence the ecosystems of the northern Andes.

Key words Colombia; deforestation rate; focal ecosystems; GIS modelling; invasive species; landscape ecology; religion; socio-economic history; spatio-temporal analysis; water shortages