European topic centre - university of malaga
Meet our team members
Ana Isabel Marín
Environmental Scientist and GIS specialist
Ana Isabel Marín
Environmental Scientist and GIS specialist
aimarin@uma.es
+34 951 952 997
Ana (PhD) is an environmental researcher and GIS specialist at the European Topic Centre of University of Málaga. She holds a European-mention PhD in Environmental Science, an MSc in regional planning and a BSc in Environmental Sciences. Her academic career is focused on Environmental assessment and protection issues. She developed her PhD, under an European framework, on groundwater protection, more precisely on water supply protection areas in karst according to WFD within the team of Centre of hydrogeology of University of Malaga.
From March 2012, she is working in the ETC-UMA being involved in different EEA tasks related to the Pan-European ecosystem assessment to support the Biodiversity Strategy 2020, the development of a Land use thematic assessment methodology, task related with wetland / water (ECRINS, Copernicus HRLs, water accounts, … ), changes in Landscape, etc. Furthermore, she has been involved in other ETC-UMA projects such as Geoland2 or MS. MONINA.
At the same time, she is member of the Hydrogeology research team of UMA (RNM-308), participating in researches and papers related to the groundwater protection. Additionally, she shares her time with training lessons on water protection and GIS in Master on Water Resources and Environment (RHYMA), being another link between University of Málaga and ETC-UMA.
RESOURCES
Proceedings
Martorell-Guerrero, G.; Marín, A. I.; Sánchez-Espinosa, A.; Schröder, C.
Herramientas de apoyo a la gestión de los humedales de Andalucía basadas en Google Earth Engine. Proceedings
2023.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Climate Change, Conservation and management, Environmental conservation, Geotechnology, Groundwater, Pressures, Wetlands
@proceedings{nokey,
title = {Herramientas de apoyo a la gestión de los humedales de Andalucía basadas en Google Earth Engine.},
author = {G. Martorell-Guerrero and A. I. Marín and A. Sánchez-Espinosa and C. Schröder},
url = {https://riuma.uma.es/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10630/28052/Martorell_et_al_2023_SIAGA.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-11-13},
urldate = {2023-11-13},
booktitle = {Simposio del Agua en Andalucía 2023},
abstract = {Los humedales son ecosistemas claves a nivel global para la provisión de servicios ecosistémicos tan importantes como la regulación climática o el mantenimiento de la biodiversidad. Sin embargo, en las últimas décadas la situación de degradación y desaparición de estos hábitats es alarmante a pesar de ser centro de múltiples políticas internacionales de protección que, a la luz de los resultados que están teniendo, no han tenido la efectividad esperada en su implementación real. Por tanto, es necesario tomar medidas urgentes dirigidas a revertir esta situación y que su implementación sea evaluada de forma objetiva, sistemática y recurrente. Este trabajo presenta una herramienta web llamada GreenEye Hub para el seguimiento de los humedales del Inventario de Humedales de Andalucía basada en imágenes de satélite del Sentinel-2, técnicas de teledetección y en tecnologías de procesamiento de datos masivos mediante Google Earth Engine. La herramienta, con un diseño orientado a la gestión de estos ecosistemas, presenta una consola de visualización que permite realizar el seguimiento de los principales indicadores de agua y vegetación y el análisis de tendencias de estos. Es, por tanto, un sistema de apoyo a la gestión y a la toma de decisiones. Este estudio proporciona información de cómo es factible en la actualidad desarrollar un sistema de seguimiento de humedales a escala regional a partir de datos gratuitos accesibles y cómo esta herramienta constituye un proceso de transferencia del conocimiento desde la ciencia a la gestión.},
keywords = {Climate Change, Conservation and management, Environmental conservation, Geotechnology, Groundwater, Pressures, Wetlands},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {proceedings}
}
Merkohasanaj, M.; Sánchez-Espinosa, A.; Abdul-Malak, D.; Schroder, C.; Truckenbrodt, J.; Marín, A. I.
Simposio del Agua en Andalucía (SIAGA), Huelva, 24 a 27 de octubre, 2018.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Ecosystem services, Geotechnology, Groundwater, SWOS, Wetlands
@proceedings{Merkohasanaj2018,
title = {Utility assessment in using optical and radar data to monitor surface water dynamic in wetland ecosystems, Fuente de Piedra, Spain (UMA)},
author = {M. Merkohasanaj and A. Sánchez-Espinosa and D. Abdul-Malak and C. Schroder and J. Truckenbrodt and A. I. Marín},
url = {/wp-content/uploads/Merkohasanajetal2018.pdf},
year = {2018},
date = {2018-10-24},
publisher = {Simposio del Agua en Andalucía (SIAGA), Huelva, 24 a 27 de octubre},
series = {SIAGA 2018},
abstract = {To enable a better conservation in wetland ecosystems is important to monitor continuous changes and pressures on them. In this context, satellite remote sensing has become one of the most suitable tools since it ensures good availability, high frequency and large coverage of imagery that is analyzed and validated in a harmonized way.
This study covers the validation process of Surface Water Dynamic (SWD) products of Fuente de Piedra, south Spain, developed in the framework of SWOS Horizon 2020 project, and assesses its applicability to provide accurate open water surface estimations and take a step further in enhancing water dynamics monitoring in wetland ecosystems.
Firstly, two different SWD temporal frequency (TF) datasets were generated for Fuente de Piedra: one using optical satellite data (Landsat time series), covering the period between January 2007 and September 2015, and the other using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data (Sentinel 1 time series), from November 2014 to March 2017. The open surface water extent area (SWE) was extracted for both cases and then validated with corresponded TF in-situ environmental data as precipitation, temperature and piezometric level.
Findings underscore that piezometric level is the first environmental variable highly correlated with the SWE and the variable with the strongest predictive capacity for SWD. Both optical and radar data provide high positive correlation with SWD, R= 0.932 for Landsat and R=0.936 for SAR products. The main conclusion of the study underlines the high accuracy of using remote sensing data in monitoring hydrological dynamics in this wetland ecosystem and provides evidence to use this approach for wetland monitoring at different scales.},
keywords = {Ecosystem services, Geotechnology, Groundwater, SWOS, Wetlands},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {proceedings}
}
This study covers the validation process of Surface Water Dynamic (SWD) products of Fuente de Piedra, south Spain, developed in the framework of SWOS Horizon 2020 project, and assesses its applicability to provide accurate open water surface estimations and take a step further in enhancing water dynamics monitoring in wetland ecosystems.
Firstly, two different SWD temporal frequency (TF) datasets were generated for Fuente de Piedra: one using optical satellite data (Landsat time series), covering the period between January 2007 and September 2015, and the other using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data (Sentinel 1 time series), from November 2014 to March 2017. The open surface water extent area (SWE) was extracted for both cases and then validated with corresponded TF in-situ environmental data as precipitation, temperature and piezometric level.
Findings underscore that piezometric level is the first environmental variable highly correlated with the SWE and the variable with the strongest predictive capacity for SWD. Both optical and radar data provide high positive correlation with SWD, R= 0.932 for Landsat and R=0.936 for SAR products. The main conclusion of the study underlines the high accuracy of using remote sensing data in monitoring hydrological dynamics in this wetland ecosystem and provides evidence to use this approach for wetland monitoring at different scales.
Ruíz-Martínez, R.; Marín, A. I.; Abdul-Malak, D.
Validación y propuesta para la mejora de la capa de alta resolución de humedales del proyecto Copérnico Proceedings
2016.
Links | BibTeX | Tags: Geotechnology, Wetlands
@proceedings{Ruíz-Martínez2016,
title = {Validación y propuesta para la mejora de la capa de alta resolución de humedales del proyecto Copérnico},
author = {R. Ruíz-Martínez and A. I. Marín and D. Abdul-Malak},
url = {https://www.etc.uma.es/wp-content/uploads/Congreso_TIG_2016.pdf},
year = {2016},
date = {2016-07-01},
keywords = {Geotechnology, Wetlands},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {proceedings}
}
Technical Reports
Abdul-Malak, D.; Marín, A. I.; Trombetti, M.; San-Román, S.
Carbon pools and sequestration potential of wetlands in the European Union Technical Report
2021, ISBN: 978-3-200-07433-0.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Climate Change, Ecosystem services, Environmental conservation, Land and soil, Soil functions, Wetlands
@techreport{Abdul-Malak2021,
title = {Carbon pools and sequestration potential of wetlands in the European Union},
author = {D. Abdul-Malak and A. I. Marín and M. Trombetti and S. San-Román},
editor = {European Topic Centre on Urban, Land and Soil Systems},
url = {https://www.eionet.europa.eu/etcs/etc-uls/products/etc-uls-reports/etc-uls-report-10-2021-carbon-pools-and-sequestration-potential-of-wetlands-in-the-european-union},
isbn = {978-3-200-07433-0},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-09-01},
urldate = {2021-09-01},
abstract = {Wetland ecosystems as defined by the Ramsar convention host a wide variety of wetland habitats across terrestrial, coastal and marine environments. When in good condition, wetland habitats provide many societal benefits and values, among others, they play a crucial role in the carbon cycle because of their capacities to limit the availability of oxygen to soil microbes and decomposition of organic matter. Policies and practices do not sufficiently consider these interconnections and interdependencies in Europe yet due to the fragmented consideration of this ecosystem in their schemes. The findings of this report argue that healthy European wetland habitats have an enormous capacity to contribute to carbon neutrality objectives in Europe. Across the wide array of European ecosystems they belong to, wetland habitats have a role in contributing to the carbon cycle. The most meaningful European wetland habitats to contribute to carbon storage include well-functioning salt marshes, healthy mires, bogs and fens as well as riparian, fluvial and swamp forests. Furthermore, when healthy, terrestrial wetlands namely mires, bogs and fens (where peatlands underly), followed by riparian, fluvial and swamp forests as well as inland marshes ensure a high carbon sequestration potential. If kept in a good condition or restored, the EU wetland related carbon stock capacity of their overall area in Europe (EU 27 and the UK) is estimated to be between 12 - 31 Gt CO2-eq, corresponding to an overall value ranging between 3 and 8 years of EU GHG emissions1. Whereas the Carbon sequestration potential of healthy EU Wetlands per year is calculated to range between 24 and 144 Mt CO2 eq yr-1 (24,352 and 14,3719 kt CO2 eq yr-1), being a quantity that contributes to “neutralising” between 1 and 4 % of the total GHG emissions registered in the EU27 and the UK (according to 2018 reference year for reported emission). These findings should trigger wetland conservation and restoration to become a high priority for the EU to support reaching climate neutrality by 2050. Climate reporting systems require Parties to report on anthropogenic emissions and removals of greenhouse gases which includes reporting heavily modified peatland habitats only partially and dominantly as a net carbon emitter. Using ecosystem-based approaches to managing reported peatland habitats and re-establishing their ecosystem functioning do transform many of them from climate ‘heaters’ (carbon net sources) into climate ‘coolers’ (carbon net sinks).},
keywords = {Climate Change, Ecosystem services, Environmental conservation, Land and soil, Soil functions, Wetlands},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {techreport}
}
Maes, J.; Teller, A.; Erhard, M.; Condé, S.; Vallecillo, S.; Barredo, J. I.; Paracchini, M. L.; Abdul-Malak, D.; Trombetti, M.; Vigiak, O.; Zulian, G.; Addamo, A. M.; Grizzetti, B.; Somma, F.; Hagyo, A.; Vogt, P.; Polce, C.; Jones, A.; Marin, A. I.; Ivits, E.; Mauri, A.; Rega, C.; Czúcz, B.; Ceccherini, G.; Pisoni, E.; Ceglar, A.; de Palma, P.; Cerrani, I.; Meroni, M.; Caudullo, G.; Lugato, E.; Vogt, J. V.; Spinoni, J.; Cammalleri, C.; Bastrup-Birk, A.; Miguel, J. San; San-Román, S.; Kristensen, P.; Christiansen, T.; Zal, N.; de Roo, A.; Cardoso, A. C.; Pistocchi, A.; del Barrio Alvarellos, I.; Tsiamis, K.; Gervasini, E.; Deriu, I.; la Notte, A.; Viñas, R. Abad; Vizzarri, M.; Camia, A.; Robert, N.; Kakoulaki, G.; Bendito, E. Garcia; Panagos, P.; Ballabio, C.; Scarpa, S.; Montanarella, L.; Orgiazzi, A.; Ugalde, O. Fernandez; Santos-Martín, F.
Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services: An EU ecosystem assessment Technical Report
Publications Office of the European Union 2020, ISBN: 978-92-76-17833-0.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Biodiversity, Conservation and management, Ecosystem, Ecosystem services, Forest, Wetlands
@techreport{Maes2020,
title = {Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services: An EU ecosystem assessment},
author = {J. Maes and A. Teller and M. Erhard and S. Condé and S. Vallecillo and J.I. Barredo and M.L. Paracchini and D. Abdul-Malak and M. Trombetti and O. Vigiak and G. Zulian and A.M. Addamo and B. Grizzetti and F. Somma and A. Hagyo and P. Vogt and C. Polce and A. Jones and A. I. Marin and E. Ivits and A. Mauri and C. Rega and B. Czúcz and G. Ceccherini and E. Pisoni and A. Ceglar and P. de Palma and I. Cerrani and M. Meroni and G. Caudullo and E. Lugato and J.V. Vogt and J. Spinoni and C. Cammalleri and A. Bastrup-Birk and J. San Miguel and S. San-Román and P. Kristensen and T. Christiansen and N. Zal and A. de Roo and A.C. Cardoso and A. Pistocchi and I. del Barrio Alvarellos and K. Tsiamis and E. Gervasini and I. Deriu and A. la Notte and R. Abad Viñas and M. Vizzarri and A. Camia and N. Robert and G. Kakoulaki and E. Garcia Bendito and P. Panagos and C. Ballabio and S. Scarpa and L. Montanarella and A. Orgiazzi and O. Fernandez Ugalde and F. Santos-Martín},
url = {http://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC120383},
doi = {10.2760/757183},
isbn = {978-92-76-17833-0},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-10-01},
urldate = {2020-10-01},
institution = {Publications Office of the European Union},
abstract = {This report presents an ecosystem assessment covering the total land area of the EU as well as the EU marine regions. The assessment is carried out by Joint Research Centre, European Environment Agency, DG Environment, and the European Topic Centres on Biological Diversity and on Urban, Land and Soil Systems. This report constitutes a knowledge base which can support the evaluation of the 2020 biodiversity targets. It also provides a data foundation for future assessments and policy developments, in particular with respect to the ecosystem restoration agenda for the next decade (2020-2030). The report presents an analysis of the pressures and condition of terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems using a single, comparable methodology based on European data on trends of pressures and condition relative to the policy baseline 2010. The following main conclusions are drawn: - Pressures on ecosystems exhibit different trends. - Land take, atmospheric emissions of air pollutants and critical loads of nitrogen are decreasing but the absolute values of all these pressures remain too high. - Impacts from climate change on ecosystems are increasing. - Invasive alien species of union concern are observed in all ecosystems, but their impact is particularly high in urban ecosystems and grasslands. - Pressures from overfishing activities and marine pollution are still high. - In the long term, air and freshwater quality is improving. - In forests and agroecosystems, which represent over 80% of the EU territory, there are improvements in structural condition indicators (biomass, deadwood, area under organic farming) relative to the baseline year 2010 but some key bio-indicators such as tree-crown defoliation continue to increase. This indicates that ecosystem condition is not improving. - Species-related indicators show no progress or further declines, particularly in agroecosystems. The analysis of trends in ecosystem services concluded that the current potential of ecosystems to deliver timber, protection against floods, crop pollination, and nature-based recreation is equal to or lower than the baseline value for 2010. At the same time, the demand for these services has significantly increased. A lowered potential in combination with a higher demand risks to further decrease the condition of ecosystems and their contribution to human well-being. Despite the wide coverage of environmental legislation in the EU, there are still large gaps in the legal protection of ecosystems. On land, 76% of the area of terrestrial ecosystems, mainly forests, agroecosystems and urban ecosystems, are excluded from a legal designation under the Bird and Habitat Directives. Freshwater and marine ecosystems are subject to specific protection measures under the Water Framework and Marine Strategy Framework Directives. The condition of ecosystems that are under legal designation is unfavourable. More efforts are needed to bend the curve of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation and to put ecosystems on a path to recovery. The progress that is made in certain areas such as pollution reduction, increasing air and water quality, increasing share of organic farming, the expansion of forests, and the efforts to maintain marine fish stocks at sustainable levels show that a persistent implementation of policies can be effective. These successes should encourage us to act now and to put forward an ambitious plan for the restoration of Europe’s ecosystems.},
keywords = {Biodiversity, Conservation and management, Ecosystem, Ecosystem services, Forest, Wetlands},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {techreport}
}
Presentations
Sánchez-Espinosa, A.; Abdul-Malak, D.; Marín, A. I.
Mapping flood regulation capacity of coastal wetland ecosystems in the Mediterranean: Guadalhorce river mouth (Spain) Presentation
01.04.2016.
Links | BibTeX | Tags: Ecosystem services, Geotechnology, SWOS, Wetlands
@misc{Sánchez-Espinosa2016,
title = {Mapping flood regulation capacity of coastal wetland ecosystems in the Mediterranean: Guadalhorce river mouth (Spain)},
author = {A. Sánchez-Espinosa and D. Abdul-Malak and A. I. Marín},
url = {/wp-content/uploads/publications/SWOS_Flood_EcoSummit2016.pdf},
year = {2016},
date = {2016-04-01},
keywords = {Ecosystem services, Geotechnology, SWOS, Wetlands},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {presentation}
}
Masters Theses
Ruíz-Martínez, R.; Abdul-Malak, D.; Marín, A. I.
Aportación Europea al Inventariado y Monitoreo de Humedales Masters Thesis
Málaga University, 2015.
Links | BibTeX | Tags: Conservation and management, Geotechnology, Wetlands
@mastersthesis{Ruíz-Martínez2015,
title = {Aportación Europea al Inventariado y Monitoreo de Humedales},
author = {R. Ruíz-Martínez and D. Abdul-Malak and A. I. Marín},
url = {/wp-content/uploads/publications/TFM_Rebeca_Ruiz.pdf},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-12-01},
school = {Málaga University},
keywords = {Conservation and management, Geotechnology, Wetlands},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {mastersthesis}
}