A diachronic analysis of a changing landscape on the Duero river borderlands of Spain and Portugal combining remote sensing and ethnographic approaches

The Arribes del Duero region spans the border of both Spain and Portugal along the Duero River. On both sides of the border, the region boasts unique human‐influenced ecosystems. The borderland landscape is dotted with numerous villages that have a history of maintaining and managing an agrosilvopastoral use of the land. Unfortunately, the region in recent decades has suffered from massive outmigration, resulting in significant rural abandonment. Consequently, the oncemaintained landscape is evolving into a more homogenous vegetative one, resulting in a greater propensity for wildfires. This study utilizes an interdisciplinary, integrated approach of “bottom up” ethnography and “top down” remote sensing data from Landsat imagery, to characterize and document the diachronic vegetative changes on the landscape, as they are perceived by stakeholders and satellite spectral analysis. In both countries, stakeholders perceived the current changes and threats facing the landscape. Remote sensing analysis revealed an increase in forest cover throughout the region, and more advanced, drastic change on the Spanish side of the study area marked by wildfire and a rapidly declining population. Understanding the evolution and history of this rural landscape can provide more effective management and its sustainability.This research was supported by a doctoral research fellowship from the Universidad Pública de Navarra with the Institute for Advanced Social Science Research (I‐COMMUNITAS). This research was partly funded by the Spanish Research Agency, Ministry for Science and Innovation through projects PID2019‐104297GB‐I00 and PID2019‐107386RB‐I00 / AEI / 10.13039/501100011033, and by the Department of Economic Development of the Government of Navarre through project 0011‐1365‐2021‐000072