Definition of the productivity regions

Abstract

Eucalyptus productivity is strongly related with climate and soil types of the area where it is planted. To accurately assess the potential productivity of that species in Portugal, plantations were monitored at different management units compartments (MUC) at several locations all over Portugal. Certain indices of productivity of the Eucalyptus at each MUC were recorded, as well as the type of climate and soil characteristics of the region. Both climate and soil, factors that affects Eucalyptus grow, were classified in in ten classes 1, 2, . . . , 10 of expected growing productivity for the Euca- lyptus. Thus, every MUC belongs to a unique pair (c, s), with 1 c 10 and 1 s 10 indicating the type of climate and the type of soil of the region where MUC is located, respectively, and it is expected that to have high (low) productivity indices when c and s are both close to 10 (1).
The aim of this work is to identify regions that have similar productivity levels based on the classifications of soil and climate types and to check if the available data provided by RAIZ show that those factors affect the productivity indices.
During the 5-days ESGI this team worked on the datasets provided by RAIZ, presented an update for the existing MAI productivity chart and developed new clusters for the Density, Yeld and Consumption productivity indices. The definition of some quality measures for the clusters, allowed to compare the different approaches and also point out some fragilities on the datasets. Indeed, a review of classification regarding climate and/or soil characteristics is suggested, as well as the need of a bigger sample for the Density, Yeld and Consumption productivity indices in order to get more reliable outputs.