Abstract This research offers a combined topographic and ecological analysis of the ACHACH Forest, investigating the role of altitude, slope, and aspect in defining vegetation patterns and forest structure. High-resolution analysis was conducted to identify the main terrain attributes and the relationships between these attributes and the main vegetation types. The analysis indicates that the forest covers an area of 200-800 m altitude, which falls within the thermo-Mediterranean bioclimatic belt. The slope analysis indicates that the landscape consists of 80% gently sloping (<20%) terrain, which makes the landscape more ecologically stable and accessible for forest management purposes. The results of the analysis of the aspect show a dominance of the north-sloping component (22%), followed by northwest-sloping (15%) and west-sloping (13%) on the ACHACH Forest landscape, which affects the microclimate, especially solar radiation and the availability of water. The spatial arrangement of the principal tree species, such as *Tetraclinis articulata*, *Pinus halepensis*, *Quercus rotundifolia*, *Quercus suber*, and *Eucalyptus* spp., shows a strong correlation with these topographic variables, reflecting a strong coupling between terrain and vegetation in the forest ecosystem. The results of this study emphasize the importance of terrain in determining vegetation spatial patterns and processes in Mediterranean forests. The results of this research contribute to the development of a scientific and spatially explicit knowledge base in vegetation-terrain relationships in Mediterranean forests, making it possible for forests in Mediterranean and semi-arid climatic regions to benefit from these findings.
ENNASSIRI et al. (Tue,) studied this question.