Landscape Approaches and GIS for Biodiversity Management - Landscape Modelling: Geographical Space, Transformation and Future Scenarios - page 161

Fig. 13.1 Map of the case study area, Dadia National Park, located in NE Greece
and oak ( Quercus frainetto, Quercus cerris, Quercus pubescens ) forest, but it also
includes a variety of other habitats such as pastures, agricultural fields, torrents and
stony hills (Catsadorakis & Källander, 2010). Dadia NP is an essential refuge for
breeding populations of a unique assemblage of raptors (Poirazidis et al., 1996,
2010a). It contains the only remaining Black Vulture ( Aegypius monachus ) breed-
ing colony in the Balkan Peninsula (Poirazidis, Goutner, Skartsi, & Stamou, 2004;
Skartsi, Elorriga, Vasilakis, & Poirazidis, 2008), and a high diversity of passerines
(Kati & Sekercioglu, 2006), amphibians and reptiles (Kati, Fofopoulos, Ioannidis,
Poirazidis, & Lebrun, 2007), butterflies (Grill & Cleary, 2003), grasshoppers (Kati,
Dufrêne, Legakis, Grill, & Lebrun, 2004b), and vascular plants (Kati, Lebrun,
Devillers, & Papaioannou, 2000; Korakis et al., 2006).
Satellite images (IKONOS, July 2001, pixel size 1m) of the study area were
digitised to produce a vector map including 14 different habitat types related to the
dominant forest tree species and six classes of the percentage of mixed forest. Out
of this initial habitat base map, further maps differing in the number of land-cover
categories were produced for the case studies.
13.3 Case Study 1 - Modelling Nesting Habitat as a
Conservation Tool for the Eurasian Black Vulture
This study 1 formulated habitat models in order to predict the potential nesting habi-
tat of Black Vulture in Dadia NP, a priority breeding species for the area as well as
over the rest of the Balkan Peninsula (Skartsi et al., 2008). The aims of this study