Integrating actual land cover data and landscape zone map to assess terrestrial ecosystems in Armenia

Ecosystem mapping and accounting are essential for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services maintenance. In this study, we tested a simple geographic information system approach by overlaying Armenia’s landscape zones with land cover data from the Environmental Systems Research Institute and the European Space Agency. This analysis resulted in maps of 20 combinations of woody and non-woody land cover classes across 10 landscape zones, which we term landscape-land cover classes (LLCCs) and use as proxies for natural ecosystems. The LLCC-based method employed in this study accounts for the landscape and geographic specificity of terrestrial ecosystems, providing data on the extent of LLCCs within ecosystem accounting areas (EAAs), identifying rare LLCCs, and tracking changes in their extent following updates to land cover data. We found this approach applicable for assessing the extent and changes of LLCCs whose area exceeds the margin of error in land cover identification. In addition, it provides a useful framework for developing a prototype of ecosystem accounting in EAAs lacking regularly updated ecosystem maps.