Uta Schirpke

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• PhD PD
• Senior Researcher at Eurac Research

Forest fires are increasing in frequency and intensity worldwide due to the anthropogenic climate change, threatening people's lives and causing huge economic and environmental damages. Recent forest fire events suggest that forest fires are also an urgent issue in the European Alps, but studies assessing the forest fire hazard under future climate...

Despite growing evidence that climate-related environmental changes impact cultural ecosystem services (CES), a profound and nuanced understanding of such changes remains limited. This study aims to identify and characterize how climate-related changes affect human-nature interactions and related non-material benefits. Through a systematic literatu...

Climate change is considered a major driver for environmental changes and impacts on human well-being. Understanding the relationships between climatic changes and ecosystem services (ES) is therefore crucial to develop effective adaption and mitigation measures. However, studies that comprehensively assess climate change impacts on ES, providing a...

Rapid technological development opens up new opportunities for assessing ecosystem services (ES), which may help to overcome current knowledge gaps and limitations in data availability. At the same time, emerging technologies, such as mobile devices, social media platforms, and artificial intelligence, give rise to a series of challenges and limita...

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) are increasingly addressed in research, but conceptual and methodological issues still limit their integration into management and decision-making. While most studies have focused on mapping and quantifying CES, less attention has been paid to the final benefits derived from CES. This study systematically reviewed...

In May 1999, about 30 people from Austria, Germany and Switzerland met in Basel (Switzerland) to found the German Chapter of the International Association for Landscape Ecology (IALE-D) to bring together Germanspeaking researchers, planners and other people interested in landscape ecology. Now, twenty-five years later, we take this milestone as an...

The ESPON InTerAlp project provides a systematic exploration of the specific spatial dynamics, challenges and opportunities associated with Alpine interface territories. The analysis addresses a number of key questions, including the definition and delineation of Alpine interface territories, the identification of common challenges and opportunitie...

Alpine interface territories link mountainous and inner-Alpine areas with pre-Alpine lowlands and, thus, are a very specific territorial type: Highly dynamic flows and interdependencies as well as controversial stakeholder interests meet in a rather limited spatial framework. Organising sustainable spatial development in this geographical context i...

The ESPON InTerAlp project is part of a larger effort to improve the understanding and support territorial governance and spatial development across the Alpine region. The Alpine region is home to several major European cities (among others: Munich, Milan, and Vienna), and is traversed by key transport corridors that connect Northern Europe with th...

The extension of mountain ranges across national borders requires transboundary cooperation to effectively protect the environment and to strengthen sustainable development of mountain regions. Despite various efforts in promoting research and collaboration initiatives across borders and disciplines, only two international treaties have been establ...

Abstract Human activities have shaped cultural landscapes in the European Alps over centuries. During the last decade, massive land-use changes, in particular the abandonment of mountain grassland, are responsible for ongoing landscape changes and related shifts in the supply of ecosystem services (ESs) with huge consequences for the local populati...

Wetlands possess intangible values that are usually overlooked in decision-making processes. Based on questionnaire surveys, this work aims to quantify both the non-use and cultural values provided by the different wetlands of the Po Delta Park (Northern Italy), selected as ideal case study, using willingness to pay (WTP) for wetland conservation a...

Zusammenfassung Die Technische Zusammenfassung des APCC-Sonderberichts ″Landnutzung und Klimawandel in Österreich″ umfasst die Kernbotschaften der Kapitel 1–9. In ihr sind die Hauptaussagen zu den sozioökonomischen und klimatischen Treibern der Landnutzungsänderungen, zu den Auswirkungen von Landnutzung und -bewirtschaftung auf den Klimawandel, zu...

Zusammenfassung Dieses Kapitel beschäftigt sich mit den klimatischen, ökologischen und sozioökonomischen treibenden Kräften, welche die Landnutzung in Österreich in der Vergangenheit und der Gegenwart maßgeblich bestimmt haben und die zukünftigen Entwicklungen beeinflussen werden. Es behandelt die in der Vergangenheit beobachteten und in der Zukunf...

The landscape ecology community witnessed a landmark event in July 2023 as the 11th International Association for Landscape Ecology (IALE) World Congress unfolded on the African continent for the first time. This editorial commemorates this historic occasion, tracing the journey from the inception of IALE Africa initiatives in 2002 to the culminati...

Landscape appearance is controlled by a range of different environmental and human-induced factors, although there is still a lack of knowledge about the significance of individual factors. Our goal was to identify the factors that were significant for landscape change in the European Alps and to rank them according to their importance. Therefore,...

Environmental and socioeconomic developments induce land-use changes with potentially negative impacts on human well-being. To counteract undesired developments, a profound understanding of the complex relationships between drivers, land use, and ecosystem services is needed. Yet, national studies examining extended time periods are still rare. Bas...

Photo-based surveys are widely applied to elicit landscape preferences and to assess cultural ecosystem services. Variations in weather and light conditions can potentially alter people’s preferences, as sunny landscapes are more positively perceived than those under inclement weather conditions. To assure comparability across pictures, studies usu...

Small alpine lakes are highly sensitive to global warming and human influence, which can affect the ecological integrity of these freshwaters. However, the response of lakes is variable and knowledge about potential impacts on related ecosystem services is insufficient. The project CLAIMES (Climate response of alpine lakes: Resistance variability a...

Mountain lakes provide a variety of ecosystem services (ES) such as water, habitat, recreation and aesthetic values. However, global change pressures increasingly affect lake ecosystems, necessitating suitable indicators to monitor changes in ES so that targeted protection measures can be developed. Limnological data in ES assessments are mostly li...

Appealing landscapes contribute to human well-being, but landscape changes require the attention of management and planning. Although aesthetic landscape values are increasingly addressed in the context of cultural ecosystem services, their assessment is particularly challenging due to the subjectivity of landscape preferences. To map aesthetic lan...

Mountainscapes provide a variety of ecosystem services to local people as well as lowland populations, including water provision, forage production, climate regulation, habitat for biodiversity, outdoor recreation, aesthetic experiences, spiritual values, and cultural identity. However, mountain regions are highly susceptible to anthropogenic press...

It has been 15 years by now that the International Association for Landscape Ecology – Chapter Germany (IALE-D) launched the e-journal Landscape Online. At the time of its first publication in 2007, to the best of our knowledge, it was one of the first open access peer-reviewed scientific e-journals in the field of Landscape Ecology. Over the last...

In view of the increasing demand for ecosystem services (ESs) and rising pressures from global change on mountain lakes, sustainable management strategies are increasingly needed. However, integrative assessments of ESs provided by small mountain lakes are lacking. This study adopted an integrative ES valuation perspective, applying multi-criteria...

Profound knowledge about landscape preferences is of high importance to support decision-making, in particular, in the context of emerging socio-economic developments to foster a sustainable spatial development and the maintenance of attractive landscapes. Eye-tracking experiments are increasingly used to examine how respondents observe landscapes,...

Human interactions with freshwater blue spaces promote various benefits to well-being, which can be framed by the cultural ecosystem services (CES) concept. However, small natural mountain lakes remain scarcely explored in this regard, although a comprehensive understanding of their CES is needed to promote sustainable use. To support landscape man...

The role of local biodiversity to cultural ecosystem services (CES) has been increasingly recognized. Yet, it is still unclear how local species can represent multiple CES in the same area for different people. We comprehensively evaluated the role of local biodiversity to the provision of multiple CES in the Pantanal, the largest continuous wetlan...

The increasing interest in the concept of ecosystem services (ES) for decision-making requires a profound understanding of ecological processes, social values and spatial patterns to mitigate the effects of global change on human well-being. Although great progress has been made in the assessment and valuation of ES, scientists are still facing cha...

Significance Statement Mountain regions provide various goods and services to people such as fresh water, timber, climate regulation, and recreation. This chapter illustrates the spatial distribution of eight key ecosystem services across the European Alps and adjacent lowland areas and analyses linkages with sustainability. The results indicate im...

Mountain lakes are increasingly affected by global change pressures. While there is growing evidence of impacts on ecosystem functioning, few studies considered changes in ecosystem services (ES). This study aimed (1) to examine the exposure of small and natural mountain lakes in the European Alps to global change pressures and (2) to estimate pote...

Anthropogenic activities affect ecological conditions of mountain lakes worldwide. However, the impacts on human wellbeing in terms of ecosystem services provided by lake ecosystems remain unclear. This study identified potential impacts of anthropogenic pressures on seven key ecosystem services of small mountain lakes. The Driver-Pressure-State-Im...

Mountain lakes are affected by anthropogenic use and global change, which necessitates management strategies to ensure their conservation and provision of ecosystem services (ES). However, research on ES of mountain lakes is scarce and related stakeholder perspectives remain unexplored. This study identifies key ES of mountain lakes and explores ho...

Although the importance of lakes for providing cultural ecosystem services (CES) is widely recognized, the integration of associated values and benefits in decision making is still underdeveloped. Therefore, this study aimed at collecting and analyzing people’s perceptions related to various CES of mountain lakes using an online questionnaire. We t...

Mountain farming sustains human well-being by providing various ecosystem services (ES). In the last decades, socio-economic developments have led to worldwide changes in land-use/cover (LULC), but the related effects on ES have not been fully explored. This study aimed at assessing the impacts of the transformation of agricultural land on ES in th...

Natural and artificial lakes provide multiple cultural ecosystem services (CES), but they are largely underrep-resented in CES assessments, which mostly focus on individual large lakes. Social media data may offer an opportunity to analyse CES of lakes at regional scales. This study therefore aims at exploring the use of photos uploaded to the phot...

Lakes provide many opportunities for outdoor recreation and tourism, but growing visitor numbers and global changes increase negative effects on recreational values and environmental impacts requiring targeted management strategies. Since there is a lack of information about visitors and their preferences related to natural mountain lakes, this stu...

The growing pressure on society due to global change requires better integration of ecosystem services (ES) into decision-making. Despite a growing number of ES assessments, Europe-wide information on recent changes of multiple ES is still rare. This study aimed at analysing changes in ES values between 2000 and 2018 across Europe based on land use...

Mountain lakes are highly sensitive to global change, requiring sustainable management strategies that support crucial ecosystem services (ES). However, small mountain lakes are rarely in the focus of ES assessments, and indicators are potentially lacking. Therefore, this study aimed at comprehensively assessing key ES of 15 study lakes located in...

Mountain regions provide crucial ecosystem services (ES) to their inhabitants and to the surrounding lowland populations. However, multiple anthropogenic drivers, such as land-use change, climate change, over-exploitation, and population growth severely affect mountain socio-ecological systems, with huge effects on ES provision. This Special Issue...

The high visual quality of lakes bolsters aesthetic and recreational experiences, but little is known about the specific visual preferences related to mountain lakes. This study therefore aimed at assessing people’s preferences on visual characteristics of mountain lakes using an online questionnaire. Adopting a qualitative approach, we first ident...

Understanding the consequences of land-use changes on aesthetic values associated with mountain landscapes is important for decision-making and landscape planning. While most research on aesthetic landscape values has been carried out at small scales and disregarding landscape changes, this study aims at analysing changes in aesthetic landscape val...

Increasing anthropogenic pressures such as pollution, climate change or invasive species can have multiple impacts on ecosystems and the services (ES) they provide. To address the potential effects on ES provision, we propose a geospatial framework to identify and analyze the cumulative effects on terrestrial and freshwater ES. The framework includ...

Global warming affects ecosystems world wide. There is an even pronounced effect in temperature increase in the European Alps and its surroundings compared to the global average1), which directly affects mountain lake ecosystems. Impacts on the lake surface temperature, the ice-cover duration and mixing of the lakes are found. The changing environm...

- Ecosystems of natural mountain lakes are threatened by global change - Ecological disturbance can alter provision of Ecosystem Services (ES) - ES are indicators for mountain regions’ social-ecological systems - Mountain lakes’ ES and societal perspectives are under-explored

Mountain landscapes provide a variety of cultural ecosystem services (CES), but recent developments such as land-use and climate changes, population growth or urbanization seem to lead more frequently to conflicts among users or restrict the use of natural resources. An enhanced understanding of such conflicts and limitations may improve decision-m...

Increasing global pressure on natural resources requires that decision makers and land managers adopt sustainable solutions to ensure the long-term provision of essential ecosystem services (ES). Analysing the effects of land-use changes on ES can contribute to an improved understanding of the interactions between socio-economic development, landsc...

Mountain environments provide habitats for many wild animal species and are of great importance to recreational activities. In the European Alps, winter recreation activities such as ski mountaineering are becoming increasingly popular, which may lead more often to disturbance of Alpine wildlife. Assessment of ski mountaineering activities and rela...

There is extensive evidence today linking exposure to natural environments to favorable changes in mental and even physical health. There is also a growing body of work indicating that there are specific geometric properties of natural scenes that mediate these effects, and that these properties can also be found in artificial structures like build...

The Ecosystem Services Valuation Database (ESVD) is a follow-up to the “The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity” (TEEB) database which contained over 1,300 data points from 267 case studies on monetary values of ecosystem services across all biomes. The TEEB database had not been updated since 2010 and naturally many gaps exist across biomes,...

Multifunctional landscapes optimise the benefits for stakeholders by providing multiple demanded ecosystem services (ESs) within the same area. Although previous studies have indicated human-induced trajectories of landscape pattern and ESs supply in the European Alps, relationships between these aspects and the implications for landscape multifunc...

The application of ecosystem services (ES) models that rely on primary biophysical data is considered as most promising to generate accurate maps for decision making. However, to effectively apply these modelling approaches for ES mapping, representative functional spatial units with distinct socio-ecological characteristics are needed, which allow...

Ecological footprint analyses demonstrate that the world’s more than 7.5 billion people consume multiple planets’ worth of resources. To incite and evaluate societal changes for the sustainable use of the environment and its natural resources, the ecosystem service (ES) concept was developed more than 20 years ago. To ensure the sustainable provisi...

Efforts in preserving natural and seminatural ecosystems and associated ecosystem services are affected by scarce financial resources. Payments for ecosystem services (PES) are increasingly recognised for creating additional funding, as in protected areas, and outdoor recreation is one important ecosystem service that is promising for successfully...

Policy-makers and practitioners are increasingly interested in information about ecosystem services (ES), but the creation of indicators that are comprehensive and yet interpretable for stakeholders remains a challenge. In this study, we make use of the extensive body of research on ES and available data to quantify the value of land-use types from...

The Alps are a biodiversity hotspot in Europe and are home to many endemic species. Some of these species have a symbolic meaning for people and are an integral part of the Alpine culture. The characteristics and relevance of these symbolic uses are rarely explored from an ecosystem service perspective. As the perception of symbols is prone to indi...

Hypotheses The growing demand for outdoor recreation is expected to lead to • higher visitation rates of alpine lakes • higher pressure on ecosystems • increasing conflicts with other types of use.

Mountain environments are highly appreciated for recreational activities. The growing demand for outdoor recreation, however, leads more frequently to conflicts. These conflicts may arise between different types of activities, but also between different users, such as between recreationists and farmers, landowners, hunters, forestry, nature conser...

Ecosystem services (ES) depend on coupled ecological and socioeconomic processes. We propose participatory modelling as a tool for sharing and co-creating knowledge about processes supporting (or eroding) local ES. The proposal consists of an open library of introductory ES dynamic models to be tailored for each case study. Such a library is illust...

The demand for cultural ecosystem services (CES) is increasing, and aesthetic values contribute substantially to attract visitors to mountain regions, enhancing the socio-economic well-being. While most studies focused on the assessment of aesthetic values under current conditions, this study aimed to evaluate the historic development of aesthetic...

Future goods and services of mountain grassland depend on their resilience facing land‐use changes and accelerating climate change. However, it remains unclear how they will be affected in the face of a combination of further landuse/ cover changes and accelerating climate change. This study addresses therefore two research questions related to exp...

The spatial relationships of ecosystem services are complex and poorly understood due to spatial mismatches between areas of provision and the areas that benefit. In this study, we assess the spatial flows of six key ecosystem services from and to mountain regions at the regional and global level. We identify major directions of spatial flow and il...

Ecosystem services (ESs) are increasingly included into decision-making to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Although both concepts consider the interactions between humans and the environment, spatial relationships between ESs and sustainability have been rarely addressed. Therefore, this study aims at analyzing spatial congruencies an...

As Ecosystem Services (ES) are the products of complex socio–ecological systems, their mapping requires a deep understanding of the spatial relationships and pattern that underpin ES provision. Upscaling ES maps is often carried out to avoid mismatches between the scale of ES assessment and that of their level of management. However, so far only a...

A key challenge in the sustainable management of freshwater is related to non-stationary processes and transboundary requirements. The assessment of freshwater is often hampered due to small-scale analyses, lacking data and with the focus on only its provision. Based on the ecosystem service (ES) concept, this study aims at quantitatively comparing...

A comprehensive understanding of the relationships among ecosystem services (ES) is important for landscape management, decision-making and policy development, but interactions among multiple ES remain under-researched. In particular, earlier studies often did not clearly distinguish between supply, flow and demand. Furthermore, the underlying mech...

Enjoyable landscapes are important resources for recreational activities and the socio-economic development of tourism destinations. A profound understanding of landscape preferences can support landscape management and planning. Despite the increasing integration of the socio-cultural perspective in landscape preferences research, little is known...

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) are promising instruments to create additional funding for biodiversity conservation, but related socio-economic effects are rarely assessed. This study aimed at evaluating socio-economic benefits using a set of indicators related to 13 topics. Based on 50 cases in 21 Natura 2000 sites in Italy, our results rev...

Ecosystem services provide the foundation upon which human societies are built. To better understand these services in the European Alps, the project “AlpES - Alpine Ecosystem Services - mapping, maintenance, management” was started in December 2015. The project aims to collect, analyse and distribute information about the ecosystem services (ES) p...

Interactions between people and ecological systems, through leisure or tourism activities, form a complex socio-ecological spatial network. The analysis of the benefits people derive from their interactions with nature—also referred to as cultural ecosystem services (CES)—enables a better understanding of these socio-ecological systems. In the age...

File containing the manuscript supporting information. This file includes one table (Table A: Summary statistics of the case study sites) and 9 figures (Fig A: Screenshot of the interactive web application; Fig B: Positions of the geolocated Flickr photographs; Fig C: Influence of the parameters in the identification of the Flickr user’s place of r...

The concept of ecosystem services (ES) differentiates between supply, flow and demand. ES supply is usually defined as the capacity of ecosystems to provide an ES regardless of this being actually used, whereas ES flow refers to the actual level of use. Demand for ES represents the amount of a service required or desired by society. Hence, the quan...

Mapping and analyzing spatial pattern of outdoor recreation in the European Alps

Interactions between people and ecological systems, through leisure or tourism activities, form a complex socio-ecological spatial network. The analysis of the benefits people derive from their interactions with nature - also referred to as cultural ecosystem services (CES) - enables a better understanding of these socio-ecological systems. In the...

PurposeSymbolic plants and animals are recognised as a cultural ecosystem service (CES), which is still underrepresented in ecosystem services assessments. Thus, this study aims at identifying and mapping important symbolic species in the European Alps, which are of cultural significance to large parts of the Alpine population. Methods Symbolic spe...

Managing multiple ecosystem services (ES) in agricultural landscapes is a challenging task, especially in regions with complex topographical and agro-ecological conditions. These challenges require ES assessment approaches that go beyond the case study level and provide multi-temporal information at a transnational level. We used a spatiotemporal a...

Land use and spatial patterns which reflect social-ecological legacies control ecosystem service (ES) supply. Yet, temporal changes in ES bundles associated with land use change are little studied. We developed original metrics to quantify synchronous historical variations in spatial patterns of land use and ES supply capacity, and demonstrated the...

Protected areas are crucial for biodiversity conservation and the provision of ecosystem services (ES), but management efforts seem not to be sufficient. To increase management effectiveness, the ES framework offers new promising environmental governance instruments, however, the operational use is still poorly integrated in the management of prote...

Outdoor recreation contributes vitally to human well-being, but spatio-temporal mapping on large scales of this ecosystem service is rarely addressed in a comprehensive manner. In this study, we aim to map recreation supply, demand, and flow, combining different approaches and data sources, including spatially explicit indicators and crowd-sourced...

Land use and land cover patterns are shaped by the interplay of human and ecological processes. Thus, heterogeneous cultural landscapes have developed, delivering multiple ecosystem services. To guarantee human well-being, the development of land use types has to be evaluated. Scenario development and land use and land cover change models are well-...