Spatiotemporal ecological quality responses to urban expansion in the UNESCO Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia

UNESCO World Heritage sites establish core and buffer zones to regulate territorial pressures, yet evidence on their ecological performance under urban expansion remains limited. This study evaluates the spatiotemporal response of ecological quality to urban expansion in Colombia’s Coffee Cultural Landscape (CCLC) in 2014, 2019 and 2024, by comparing the Core Zone (CZ) and Buffer Zone (BZ). Ecological quality was estimated using the Remote Sensing Ecological Index (RSEI). Land use and land cover (LULC) maps were generated using Random Forest. Spatial organization was assessed through Moran’s I and LISA. As a conceptual and analytical contribution, this study integrates these methods into a framework that decomposes urban pressure into built-up areas, impervious surfaces, LULC, and Production, Living and Ecological Space (PLES). Results show divergent trajectories: mean RSEI increased from 0.5898 to 0.6122 in the CZ and decreased from 0.5596 to 0.4043 in the BZ. The framework supports ecological monitoring in cultural landscapes under urban pressure.