EU-Funded LIFE Projects Influence in Land Use/Land Cover Changes in Insular Ecosystems: The Case-Study of São Miguel Island (Azores)

Small oceanic islands, like São Miguel Island (Azores), show high vulnerability to climate change impacts, biological invasions, and land-use/land-cover changes that threaten their biodiversity and affect their ecosystem functions and services. Organized and long-term nature conservation actions and projects such as those funded by the EU LIFE Programme have been fundamental to mitigating biodiversity loss in the eastern part of São Miguel Island since 2003. The use of remote sensing-based approaches may constitute a cost-effective way to support the management, monitoring, and control of these LIFE projects. In this work, a land-use/land-cover change detection approach focusing on the 2003-2022 LIFE Projects intervention areas was applied by using the RAO’s Q diversity index, which holds significant potential for monitoring the proliferation of invasive plant species and alterations in land use patterns. Using the ASTER, Landsat 8, and Sentinel-2 images from the Google Earth Engine on Google Colab and Python as the programming language, the average distribution of RAO’s Q diversity index values in the intervention areas was analyzed. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index was calculated for the different years within the LIFE projects. The Classic Rao was calculated, giving the ability of this methodology to identify and evaluate diversity, making it possible to determine areas in which changes occurred in the project areas and the period in which these areas underwent interventions. By evaluating the effectiveness of conservation initiatives on small oceanic islands and archipelagos, we can gain insights into the ecological responses and long-term sustainability of these projects. This knowledge can inform future conservation strategies, contribute to the broader field of island conservation, and enhance our understanding of the unique dynamics and challenges associated with protecting biodiversity in insular environments.