Index-based Decomposition and Econometric Analysis of Driving Forces of Biodiversity Change

Driving forces, economic transformation, suburbanisation, migration and recent construction of linear infrastructures have inevitably contributed to unfavourable land use trends around Europe. Arable land area has been continuously declining and has been replaced by artificial and built-up areas or other transformed areas (transport infrastructure). The construction of transport structures leads to fragmentation of the landscape and threatens the existence of many species. On the other hand, land use trends are more favourable in remote areas, which are not so economically attractive. The overall objective of our study is to provide an integrated assessment of land-use patterns that have been induced in Europe since 1990. We develop an integrative approach that enables us to investigate the impacts of driving forces on the state of ecosystems and biodiversity. The biodiversity change is measured by the Mean Species Abundance index, which comes from the family of approaches based on ecosystem intactness. Integrated assessment of biodiversity and land use changes based on Corine Land Cover data (CLC 1990, 2000, 2006) combines several methodological approaches including GIS, decomposition and econometric analysis. Regionally differentiated MSA indicator, according to NUTS 3 regions, was analysed using an index-based decomposition (additive and multiplicative methods linked to Divisia and Laspeyres index) and log-linear and weighted least squares regressions in order to assess the effects of driving forces such as change in economic scale and its regional structure. See above See above