22/06/2015 - 10:37
EPIC WebGIS Portugal, LEAF Research Unit

The http://epic-webgis-portugal.isa.utl.pt/ WebGIS disclosed in this video is one of the Project products PTDC / AUR-URB / 102578/2008 - "National Ecological Network - a proposal for delimitation and regulation," funded by the Science and Technology Foundation (FCT), in order to delimit the National Ecological Network (EEN), provided for in Decree-Law No. 380/99 of 22 September, as amended by Decree-Law No. 316/2007 of 19 September and Decree-Law n.º46 / 2009 of 20 February. This Research Project, was developed between March 2010 and September 2013, the former Research Center of Landscape Architecture Studies "Prof. Caldeira Cabral ", today LEAF (Linking Landscape, Environment, Agriculture and Food), based in the Instituto Superior de Agronomia. The proposed ecological structure for Portugal Continental brings together all the areas necessary for the conservation of resources and natural cycles, considered structuring and indispensable to sustainable development.

The free availability to all users, as long as they're identified, of uniformed mapping for the whole country, georeferenced and in digital format, will contribute to a better quality of Landscape Plans and a better foundation of development strategies. European policies in this respect follow this trend and in 2013, the European Commission adopted the "Green Infrastructures Strategy" with the intention of, between 2014 and 2020, to be included in the main policies of the Member States. Whereas the concept of "Green Infrastructure" is equivalent to the ecological structure developed in this project, the latter may contribute to the great Portuguese component European Green Infrastructure in preparation. This WebGIS will be complemented with maps produced in another project PTDC / AUR-URB / 119340/2010 - "Planning Potential ecological basis landscape. Application to Portugal "- funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology, already in preparation.