The practical solution is Adaptive Vegetation Management (AVM). By managing vegetation density and species composition it is possible to modulate not just the hydrological cycle but also increase vegetaiton resiience against climate change, wildfire and other disturbances. This management could be performed in several ways, from just thinning to planting or grazing. Its design must be carefully developed and always considering the local vegetation, meteorologic and socio-economic conditions. Furthermore, its desing must include a long-term follow up.

Using AVM we want to increase water availability, climatic resilience, decrease wildfire severity and intensity while combining it with forest productivity (biomass, wood, grazing, etc) and biodiversity.

Calderona Living Lab is located in the Natural Park “Serra Caledrona” (Valencia, E of Spain), a semi-arid area (annual precipitation between 350 and 600 mm and Aridity Index of 0.45) of low productivity. It shows the typical Mediterranean forest mainly represented by Pinus halepensis Mill. (Aleppo pine) forests and shrub-lands, although it is also possible to find a few forest gaps of Quercus ilex sbsp. ballota, Quercus suber and Pinus pinaster. It shows high biodiversity value, whose protection level reaches 15 different species of the Nature Directive and 9 habitats of the Habitats Directive. However, this biodiversity is currently threatened by both, climate change and the permanent loss of mosaic heterogeneity. Species such as Aquila fasciata (one of the protected species) for instance need a heterogeneous landscape to alternate between hunting and refugee. The vegetation is stressed and some species such as Quercus suber are apparently retreating. Thus, with weaker and drier vegetation, the risk of suffering from wildfires increases significantly. According to EFFIS, the meteorological wildfire risk during the fire season goes from high to very high, which could be even higher as this area shows a high lightning frequency during summertime. Furthermore, fire spread is facilitated by land use/cover types with high fuel load and by homogeneous terrain, which is one of the main consequences of agriculture land abandonment. La Hunde (Ayora, E of Spain) Living Lab is a public forest located in a semi-arid – sub-humid area (450 mm/yr) with low productivity, altough higher than Calderona. The vegetation is typical Mediterranean forest mainly represented by Pinus halepensis Mill. forests, both natural and afforestation, and shrub-lands, with Quercus ilex sbsp. ballota and Pinus pinaster. The area is characterized by water scarcity (blue/green water impairment) due to forest encroachment and densification and extreme wildfires risk because of climate change (drier fuel), and higher fuel load.

Both LL suffer from rural abandonment hand have problems with the generaitonal replacement, but in La Hunde this problem is more severe as it is further away from any city. Land tenancy is another important issue although different in both LL. In the case of Calderona, most of the land is private, wich together with the rural abandonment, increases the difficulty in applying any measure. In La Hunde, most of the land is public, and the regional government has enough tools to manage the land.