Centro de Investigación para el Territorio y el Hábitat Sostenible

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Universidad Indoamérica

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Green synthesized silver nanoparticles act as algal growth inhibitors
(Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2026-09-07)
Candreva, Angela
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Shoukat, Tayyaba
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Lauritano, Chiara
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Ruffolo, Silvestro Antonio
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Russa, Mauro Francesco La
Nanoparticles are increasingly being employed in a variety of industrial and environmental applications. In this study, we aimed to develop a sustainable method for synthesizing silver nanoparticles and to evaluate their potential as algal growth inhibitors. A seedless protocol was established using ascorbic acid and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) to obtain spherical silver nanoparticles, thereby avoiding the use of strong reducing agents. The nanoparticles were characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and IR spectroscopy. Since microalgae and other marine organisms often grow on the surfaces of boats, ships, and other human-made devices in aquatic environments, antifouling products are necessary to prevent unwanted fouling. The algal growth inhibition capacity of the synthesized silver nanoparticles was assessed using two marine diatoms Cylindrotheca Closterium and Skeletonema marinoi. The results revealed a marked inhibitory effect on algal proliferation in treated samples compared to controls. Overall, this study demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed synthetic method and paves the way for the use of these silver nanoparticles as a tool for controlling microalgal growth. © The Author(s) 2026.
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A transition in the theoretical and methodological paradigms for the rehabilitation of hardened pyroclastic formations in tropical Andean landscapes
(Wiley, 2026-06-09)
Bonilla Bedoya, Santiago
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Zalakeviciute, Rasa
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Mejía‐Coronel, Danilo
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Silva, Gilson F.
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Molina, Juan R.
Introduction Global ecological restoration commitments face political, economic, and technical challenges that limit their implementation and long‐term success. Among the technical constraints, the lack of effective management and monitoring plans highlights the need for tools that support efficient and accurate spatial management of restoration landscapes. Objectives This study provides theoretical and methodological contributions to digital soil mapping (DSM) for the classification and local prediction of suitable microsites for vegetation establishment, with the aim of improving restoration efficiency in hardened pyroclastic formations ( cangahua ) of the Tropical Andes. Methods Unmanned aerial vehicles equipped with multispectral cameras were used to collect environmental data in a mountainous peri‐urban landscape dominated by cangahua . In a ravine sub‐landscape, 350 soil samples were collected at a depth of 0.15 m. Soil organic carbon (SOC) was analyzed and predictively modeled using two machine‐learning algorithms: Random Forest (RF) and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). Results SOC exhibited substantial spatial variability, with minimum, mean, and maximum values of 0.69%, 2.48 ± 0.71%, and 4.33%, respectively. In DSM predictions of SOC, the CNN model showed better performance ( r 2 = 34.81%) than the RF model (out‐of‐bag error‐based coefficient of determination, r 2 OOB = 24%). The most influential variables in the CNN model were the red, near‐infrared, and blue spectral bands. Conclusions DSM proved effective for identifying spatial patterns of SOC and suitable restoration microsites in cangahua landscapes. At local scales, this approach provides valuable information on landscape structure, micro‐topography, and ecological and historical memory, improving understanding of how these factors interact to influence soil properties.
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Strengthening the Adoption of Copernicus Services in Latin America: Capacity Building Experiences in Ecuador and Bolivia
(2025)
Santos, Fabián
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Luisa Di Lucchio
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Manuel Múgica Barrera
The Copernicus program, an initiative by the European Union, offers open-access Earth observation data and high-level products through its services. However, these services are less well known in Latin America, underscoring the need to strengthen capacity-building efforts. In this context, this research examines the design and implementation of training workshops in Ecuador and panel discussions in Bolivia, focusing on the role of Copernicus Services in addressing regional challenges related to Environmental, Food Security, Climate Change, Security, and Risk Management through geospatial technologies. By tailoring training sessions in Ecuador to enhance stakeholders’ capabilities and conducting panel discussions in Bolivia to promote these services among public entities, this research highlights the successes and challenges of these initiatives. We emphasize the importance of flexible event design, alignment with local contexts, and the integration of interactive methodologies to enhance stakeholder engagement and learning outcomes. Additionally, differences and similarities between the event formats are discussed in terms of purposes and objectives, audience engagement, content delivery, attendance, and post-event outcomes. Finally, we outline the convergences and divergences in strategic priorities for future Copernicus Services training initiatives in both countries.
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Impacts of soil erosion and climate change on the built heritage of the Pambamarca Fortress Complex in northern Ecuador
(2023)
Santos F.
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Calle N.
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Bonilla S.
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Sarmiento F
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Herrnegger M.
The Pambamarca fortress complex in northern Ecuador is a cultural and built heritage with 18 prehispanic fortresses known as Pucaras. They are mostly located on the ridge of the Pambamarca volcano, which is severely affected by erosion. In this research, we implemented a multiscale methodology to identify sheet, rill and gully erosion in the context of climate change for the prehistoric sites. In a first phase, we coupled the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) and four CMIP6 climate models to evaluate and prioritize which Pucaras are prone to sheet and rill erosion, after comparing historical and future climate scenarios. Then, we conducted field visits to collect geophotos and soil samples for validation purposes, as well as drone flight campaigns to derive high resolution digital elevation models and identify gully erosion with the stream power index. Our erosion maps achieved an overall accuracy of 0.75 when compared with geophotos and correlated positively with soil samples sand fraction. The Pucaras evaluated with the historical climate scenario obtained erosion rates ranging between 0 and 20 ton*ha-1*yr-1. These rates also varied from -15.7% to 39.1% for four future climate change models that reported extreme conditions. In addition, after identifying and overflying six Pucaras that showed the highest erosion rates in the future climate models, we mapped their gully-prone areas that represented between 0.9% and 3.2% of their analyzed areas. The proposed methodology allowed us to observe how the design of the Pucaras and their concentric terraces have managed to reduce gully erosion, but also to notice the pressures they suffer due to their susceptibility to erosion, anthropic pressures and climate change. To address this, we suggest management strategies to guide the protection of this cultural and built heritage landscapes. © 2023 Santos et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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Sentinel satellite data monitoring of air pollutants with interpolation methods in Guayaquil, Ecuador
(2023)
Mejía C. D.
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Alvarez H.
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Zalakeviciute R.
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Macancela D.
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Sanchez C.
In Ecuador, there is a limitation on air quality monitoring due to the cost of monitoring networks. Although air quality monitoring stations are instruments for air measurement, they do not cover an entire city due to their scope. Satellite remote sensing is now an effective tool to study atmospheric pollutants and has been applied to continuously assess a region and overcome the limitations of fixed stations. Despite the application of satellite data for air quality monitoring, there are some limitations, such as measurement frequency, cloud cover and wide spatial resolution, which do not allow the assessment of air pollution in cities. Therefore, downscaling, applying interpolation methods, is essential for continuous air quality monitoring at smaller scales. For this research, Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) data from the Sentinel-5 satellite percussor was used in the city of Guayaquil for January–December 2020, which is considered before, during and after the COVID-19 quarantine. This mid-size port city does not have a permanent monitoring network, which prevents us from knowing the air quality. Due to the limitation of pixel size, this study used satellite data to apply interpolation techniques and reduce pixels to assess air quality. Two categories of interpolation were selected: deterministic and stochastic. The empirical Bayesian kriging (EBK) interpolation obtained a R2 of 0.9546, which was superior to the other methods applied. Therefore, the EBK method had the best accuracy for tropospheric NO2 concentration. Finally, the method used in this research can help monitor air quality in cities lacking continuous monitoring networks, as the reduction of the pixel size gives us a better pattern of pollutants. © 2023 The Authors
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Vulnerability assessment of natural heritage in the North-Eastern Ecuadorian Amazon using land use cover and nature protection status
(2024)
J. Durango-Cordero
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M. Saqalli
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Bonilla Bedoya, Santiago
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A. Elger
This study evaluates the vulnerability of natural heritage in the Northeast Ecuadorian Amazon (NEA), from the perspective of intrinsic vulnerability. Therefore, two proxy indicators of vulnerability were established: (i) the ecological integrity vulnerability index (EIVI), indicating the potential loss of ecological integrity, assessed by protection status (2018); (ii) the biological diversity vulnerability index (BVI), deriving the potential loss of biological diversity, using land cover/land use (2014). Biodiversity values were derived with land cover-related biodiversity data, and (iii) and compared with spatial congruence/correlation between (i) and (ii). The EIVI was directly derived using protection status, which defines vulnerability levels by ranking them according to corresponding levels of anthropic development allowance. A robust relationship between land use classes and species richness was found for both endemic vascular plants in neotropical regions and multi-taxa in tropical forests worldwide, validating the BVI. Furthermore, the moderate spatial correlation between protection status and land cover (r = 0.52) may be partially explained by 3,060 km2 of unprotected primary forest. Overall, 42 % of the NEA have a high degree of congruence between potential biodiversity and protection status. In conclusion, this study provides insights into nature conservation efforts in areas with sparse biodiversity data using readily available geographic information.
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Urban soil management in the strategies for adaptation to climate change of cities in the Tropical Andes
(2022)
Bonilla Bedoya, Santiago
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Ángel Herrera, M.
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Vaca, A.
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Salazar, L.
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Zalakeviciute, R.
The unique characteristics of a city amplify the impacts of climate change; therefore, urban planning in the 21st century is challenged to apply mitigation and adaptation strategies that ensure the collective well-being. Despite advances in monitoring urban environmental change, research on the application of adaptation-oriented criteria remains a challenge in urban planning in the Global South. This study proposes to include urban land management as a criterion and timely strategy for climate change adaptation in the cities of the Tropical Andes. Here, we estimate the distribution of the soil organic carbon stock (OCS) of the city of Quito (2,815 m.a.s.l.; population 2,011,388; 197.09 km2) in the following three methodological moments: i) field/laboratory: city-wide sampling design established to collect 300 soil samples (0–15 cm) and obtain data on organic carbon (OC) concentrations in addition to 30 samples for bulk density (BD); ii) predictors: geographic, spectral and anthropogenic dimensions established from 17 co-variables; and iii) spatial modeling: simple multiple regression (SMRM) and random forest (RFM) models of organic carbon concentrations and density as well as OCS stock estimation. We found that the spatial modeling techniques were complementary; however, SMRM showed a relatively higher fit both (OC: r2 = 20%, BD: r2 = 16%) when compared to RFM (OC: r2 = 8% and BD: r2 = 5%). Thus, soil carbon stock (0–0.15 m) was estimated with a spatial variation that fluctuated between 9.89 and 21.48 kg/m2; whereas, RFM showed fluctuations between 10.38 and 17.67 kg/m2. We found that spatial predictors (topography, relative humidity, precipitation, temperature) and anthropogenic predictors (population density, roads, vehicle traffic, land cover) positively influence the model, while spatial predictors have little influence and show multicollinearity with relative humidity. Our research suggests that urban land management in the 21st century provides key information for adaptation and mitigation strategies aimed at coping with global and local climate variations in the cities of the Tropical Andes. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.
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Patterns of timber harvesting and its relationship with sustainable forest management in the western Amazon, Ecuador case
(2017)
Bonilla Bedoya, Santiago
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Estrella-Bastidas A.
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Ordoñez M.
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Sánchez A.
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Herrera M.A.
The Amazon rainforest lies within the most diverse forest ecosystem in the world. However, a large part of the tropical rainforest is being degraded because of timber harvesting without any sustainability criteria and owing to a limited understanding of the effects of forest exploitation. The Ecuadorian Amazon (EA) is part of the Andes Amazon (AA), an area covered by five countries (Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia). This research identified the patterns of legal timber harvesting in the EA and determined current trends with respect to mostly harvested forest species. Two harvesting programs aimed at small farmers prevail in the EA: first, naturally regenerated trees felling program, and simplified timber harvesting programs in native forests. Considering the surface and volume of logging, significant differences were detected between logging procedures and ecosystems in the region. Two hundred and thirty-two genera are registered for harvest and, 51.93% of the total harvesting volume comes from eight genera and ten species. This research shows that in fallows of fragmented forest ecosystems, small farmers are harvesting fast-growing pioneer species. Maintaining a sustainable production in timber harvesting depends, by and large, on the harvesting and felling programs established on small farms. © 2017 Taylor & Francis.
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Calculating minimum safety distance against wildfires at the wildland-urban interface in Chile and Spain
(2022)
Castillo Soto, M.E.
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Molina Martínez, J.R.
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Bonilla Bedoya, Santiago
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Moreno García, R.A.
Wildfires in the urban-forest interface constitute a civil protection emergency, causing considerable personal injury and damage to properties. The potential impacts of wildfires on buildings can be minimized by reducing the surrounding fuel and the use of structural materials with low flammability. However, the costs associated with implementing these actions and the responsibility for maintenance usually present conflicts with the property owners. This study aimed to identify minimum safety distances in wildland-urban interfaces within priority areas. The priority areas were identified based on the integration of fire risk and fuel hazard. Radiant heat is a variable in the behavior of fire that directly influences the definition of safety distances. In this research the radiant heat transfer was calculated based on the potential fire behavior for each study area. A comparative study of the horizontal heat transfer method and the radiant heat flux model was carried out. The horizontal heat transfer method indicated the highest vegetation-free distances, ranging from 23 m to 32 m. Some safety distances were validated using experimental fires and wildfires. The findings from the experimental fires and wildfires emphasize the need for a progressive fuel load reduction to mitigate radiant heat transfer. This may include both the removal of surface fuel and removal of trees to mitigate against crown fires. Our findings provide relevant information for decision-making on the effectiveness and efficiency of safety distances at the wildland-urban interface. © 2022 The Author(s)
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Urban–Rural Gradients Predict Educational Gaps: Evidence from a Machine Learning Approach Involving Academic Performance and Impervious Surfaces in Ecuador
(2021)
Santos-García F.
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Valdivieso K.D.
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Rienow A.
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Gairín J.
Academic performance (AP) is explained by a multitude of factors, principally by those related to socioeconomic, cultural, and educational environments. However, AP is less understood from a spatial perspective. The aim of this study was to investigate a methodology using a machine learning approach to determine which answers from a questionnaire-based survey were relevant for explaining the high AP of secondary school students across urban–rural gradients in Ecuador. We used high school locations to construct individual datasets and stratify them according to the AP scores. Using the Boruta algorithm and backward elimination, we identified the best predictors, classified them using random forest, and mapped the AP classification probabilities. We summarized these results as frequent answers observed for each natural region in Ecuador and used their probability outputs to formulate hypotheses with respect to the urban–rural gradient derived from annual maps of impervious surfaces. Our approach resulted in a cartographic analysis of AP probabilities with overall accuracies around 0.83–0.84% and Kappa values of 0.65–0.67%. High AP was primarily related to answers regarding the academic environment and cognitive skills. These identified answers varied depending on the region, which allowed for different interpretations of the driving factors of AP in Ecuador. A rural-to-urban transition ranging 8–17 years was found to be the timespan correlated with achievement of high AP. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
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