Landscape fragility in the Laguna Dañicalqui sub-Andean wetland, Ñuble region, Chile
Territorial analysis of an unprotected ecosystem
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22320/rte.vi53.7767Keywords:
Landscape fragility, Sub-Andean wetland, Multicriteria evaluation, Native Forest, Rural wetlands, Ñuble regionAbstract
The sub-Andean wetlands of central Chile lack legal protection because they are excluded from Chilean Law No. 21,202 of 2020 on Urban Wetlands. This study assessed the landscape fragility of 15,864.51 hectares in the vicinity of Laguna Dañicalqui (37° 00' 52" S, 71° 37’ 38" W, 1,200 m a.s.l., Ñuble Region) using a multi-criteria assessment with seven biophysical factors weighted by Hierarchical Analytic Process, followed by factor coincidence analysis with contingency matrices, χ² tests, and Cramér’s V.
81% of the territory exhibits moderate (63.3%) or high (17.8%) fragility. The 2,816 hectares of high fragility are concentrated exclusively in native Nothofagus forest. Vegetation attributes are the primary determinants—density (Cramér’s V = 0.586), seasonality (0.525), and height (0.523)—followed by landscape uniqueness (0.519) and geomorphological factors (0.366–0.395). The convergence of rugged mountainous terrain with north-facing slopes explains 57.8% of the high fragility; its overlap with areas of unique landscape singularity and vegetation vulnerability delineates 660 hectares of maximum criticality. Eighty-three percent of the areas without native vegetation cover consist of forest plantations, indicating that the model’s low fragility score masks a profound ecosystem transformation.
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