Article

Mapping outdoor recreationists' perceived social values for ecosystem services at Hinchinbrook Island National Park, Australia

November 2012
Applied Geography 35(s 1–2):164–173

DOI:10.1016/j.apgeog.2012.06.008

Authors:

Carena J. Van Riper

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Gerard T Kyle

Texas A&M University

Stephen G Sutton

James Cook University

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Spatial social value distributions for multiple user groups in a coastal national park

Article

May 2022
OCEAN COAST MANAGE

Managing public lands to maximize societal benefits requires spatially explicit understanding of societal valuation, and public participation geographic information systems (PPGIS) are increasingly used in coastal settings to accomplish this task. Social Values for Ecosystem Services (SolVES), a PPGIS tool that systematizes the mapping and modeling of social values and cultural ecosystem services, is promising for use in coastal settings but has seen relatively limited applications relative to other PPGIS approaches; it has also, to our knowledge, not yet been applied in a barrier island setting. In this study, we surveyed two visitor groups and residents living near Cape Lookout National Seashore (North Carolina, USA) to understand their social values in the context of the park's management needs. We developed social-value models to evaluate differences between three user groups (fall visitors, summer visitors, and residents) and to evaluate how respondents' experiences, attitudes, and recreational activities influence the locations they value and their most strongly held value types, which included aesthetic, recreation, biodiversity, future, therapeutic, and historic values. We found that accessibility, user types and the seasonality of major recreational activities, and the linear configuration of the barrier island system at Cape Lookout are important influences on the social values held by visitors and residents. The modeling results provide information relevant to management at Cape Lookout and can inform the design of future PPGIS studies in coastal and marine settings.

Assessing the Social Value of Ecosystem Services for Resilient Riparian Greenway Planning and Management in an Urban Community

Article

Full-text available

May 2020
Int J Environ Res Publ Health

Ecosystem services depend on the interrelation between people and the environment, and people are increasingly recognizing the social value of ecosystem services. Based on humans needs related to the values of ecosystem services, riparian greenways, properly planned and managed for resiliency, could provide great opportunities for social ecological change and transformation toward sustainability. We focus on the ecosystem service values of such greenways based on resilience in urban communities. The purpose of this study is to assess the social value of ecosystem services for resilient riparian greenway planning and management based on a survey of residents living near the Yangjaecheon riparian greenway in Gwacheon, South Korea. First, cluster analysis was performed with data from 485 completed surveys to identify different groups of respondents. Importance-performance analysis (IPA) was then applied to develop planning and management guidance for the riparian greenway based on group characteristics. Two distinct groups were identified: the Strong Social Value of Ecosystem Services group and the Neutral Social Value of Ecosystem Services group. Different distributions were found between the two groups based on gender and residency period, and significant differences were also found for age and familiarity with the riparian greenway. The results show what each group perceived to be important and how well the riparian greenway met their expectations regarding ecosystem services. These results indicate the perceived value of ecosystem services on the basis of the group characteristics, helping establish the direction for resilient riparian greenway planning and management approaches.

Assessing Ecosystem Services across Scales – from methodological linkages to implementation

Thesis

Dec 2020

Sven-Erik Rabe

Human activities and technical innovation have led to an unprecedented level of economic prosperity in society. However, they are also increasingly affecting the functioning of ecosystems: biodiversity is declining, and natural resources, such as soil and groundwater, are overused. These activities impact areas beyond those directly used by the benefiting society. The global degradation of ecosystems means that they are no longer or are only partially able to provide the services that society depends on. Moreover, restoring damaged ecosystems is costly and often impossible, partly because of their complexity. Ecosystems and the goods and services they provide—ecosystem services (ES)—are essential for human well-being as well as economic and social development. However, their importance is not sufficiently considered in planning. These services and goods are regarded as public goods that are freely available and do not require careful management or protection. The concept of ES aims to show the links between ecosystems and society and the contribution of ecosystems to human well-being. The value of these services (and thus the importance of functioning ecosystems) is insufficiently integrated into political decision-making processes, spatial planning considerations, and (local) management of natural resources. The characteristics and spatial distribution of ES need to be assessed to enable such an integration in the future. The same is true for the use of services and the intensity of demand. To this end, the existing assessment approaches must be further developed and expanded into a comprehensive, systematic assessment. By adequately assessing ES, they can also be integrated into regulatory impact assessments, environmental assessments, and planning to be considered in trade-off procedures. The concept of ES offers the opportunity to enrich such instruments with an array of arguments for the sustainable management of ecosystems. Thus, considering various ES and other aspects relevant to planning, synergies and conflicting objectives can be identified, and interests can be comprehensively balanced. The mapping and assessment of ES with the aim of integrating them into decision-making processes demand adequate methods to provide the required information in an appropriate manner. Many of the existing approaches meet these requirements to a limited extent only: they are not suitable for specific purposes, or their results are not directly usable for decision makers due to several reasons, including their complexity. The available methods and approaches are often tailored to defined objectives and thus cannot be transferred to other issues. The overall objective of this thesis is to improve the basis for the integration of the ES concept into spatial planning and decision-making. To this end, it is first of all necessary to gain knowledge about the suitability of methods for the respective purpose of use. In addition, methodological improvements must be achieved, particularly the linking of methods. Finally, it is necessary to develop concepts for the cross-scale application of methods for mapping and assessing ES. This leads to the following research questions. 1. Are the approaches and methods used in current ES assessments appropriate for their respective objectives? 2. How can qualitative and quantitative ES assessment methods be linked to improve ES assessments? 3. How can an ES assessment be designed and operationalized to be applicable across scales? These research questions were addressed through three articles that were submitted to and/or published in widely recognized scientific journals. The first publication shows how ES assessments are methodologically implemented and the extent to which the different approaches are appropriate for their respective purposes. In particular, it examines at what level of complexity, at what spatial scale, and for which objective assessments are applied and which ES are assessed. The results show that, in most assessments, the approaches used are consistent with the objectives pursued. This leads to the conclusion that there is an awareness that each objective imposes specific requirements on the respective application of the methods. It also shows that skills and resources are generally available for the respective implementations. There are therefore good preconditions for further embedding the ES concept and for encouraging the hitherto weak integration of this concept into policies and planning practice. Furthermore, this publication shows that different methods can be used within an assessment, but that these methods are not linked to each other to cover different aspects of an ES. The second publication demonstrates the linking of a model-based assessment approach with the user preferences of the public. The recreational suitability of the riverine zone in the canton of Zurich is assessed as an example. A comparison of the results of an expert model with the preferences of the potential users shows a clear correlation of the findings from both approaches, which are methodologically different. This opens up the possibility of developing expert-based models with a proportionate use of resources and refining them with social empirical methods. Finally, the third publication presents an approach to the development of a national ES assessment using indicators that can be applied at different scales and transferred to other countries. It is based on existing indicators and datasets and is compatible with international typologies of ES and their respective indicators. Suitable indicators for ES mapping are defined on the basis of an examination of the importance of various ES for Germany and an analysis of existing monitoring systems. The publication further shows how both the supply and demand for ES can be mapped with different indicators and datasets and how these indicators can be adapted for use at different scales. The following aspects are identified as key prerequisites for the implementation of such an assessment approach in spatial and landscape planning decision-making processes: (I) explicit consideration of synergies and trade-offs between ES in combination with consistent scalability for comparison at different planning levels, (II) spatially explicit information at the implementation level, and (III) consideration of supply, demand, and potential. In summary, this thesis makes important methodological contributions to the further development, combination, and application of different approaches to mapping and assessing ES. This thesis shows that, in many cases, especially for clearly defined issues, methodological approaches are already being used in a goal-oriented and appropriate manner, even though this is usually not done to develop comprehensive assessments of ES. Furthermore, it shows that approaches to assess ES can be combined with added value, as is particularly apparent in the case of cultural ES (CES). This thesis also shows that a comprehensive, cross-scale, cross-sectoral assessment is required to integrate ES appropriately into decision-making processes and that such an approach—built on existing datasets—is feasible and appropriate. However, the analyses also clarify that further efforts are needed to successfully integrate ES into planning and management decisions and thus ensure the long-term well-being of society. In this context, holistic approaches such as landscape approaches, can benefit from the concept of ES. These approaches aim to provide conceptual support in addressing challenges arising from competing land use interests and different objectives of various actors. The integration of the ES concept can support these approaches in the development of landscapes and socio-ecological systems.

On the comparative use of social media data and survey data in prioritizing ecosystem services for cost-effective governance

Article

Jun 2022

The ecosystem services (ES) provided by urban parks are critically important for urban sustainability, but their performance evaluation needs to be further enhanced for cost-effective park governance. Importance-performance analysis (IPA) can prioritize ES performance, but most ongoing IPA studies are based on surveys with limited scalability. The recent upsurge of social media data (SMD) offers new data sources and research opportunities in varied realms. However, there is a prominent research gap on SMD's capacity in ES prioritization compared to surveys considering data advantages and limitations. Based on Pearl River Park and Yunxi Ecological Park in Guangzhou, China, this study explores the similarities and differences in satisfaction and importance characteristics, and IPA results of perceived ES based on both SMD and survey data. This study found that SMD can fully prioritize ES relevant to public welfare but only partially to personal welfare. There are consistent IPA results for all ES relevant to public welfare through both data sources. IPA results of the ES relevant to personal welfare demonstrate varied conclusions through the two data sources: some (aesthetic service, physical and mental recovery, and religion) are similar, but the rest are different (recreational service, social interaction, and education). The consistency is mainly because some ES have similar experiences to most users, while the difference is affected primarily by different user groups. SMD directly reflects users' feedback to varied ES. While survey data can cover more extensive user groups, detailed classification is necessary for analysis. By distinguishing different IPA results for different ES from two data sources, this study offers methodological insights for ES assessment and other related urban studies. It also has methodological and practical significance for the realization of urban social-environmental justice and human well-being.

Understanding Human–Nature Connections Through Landscape Socialization

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2020
Int J Environ Res Publ Health

Li-Pei Peng

Understanding the landscape socialization underpinning the human–nature relationship is essential because it can contribute to assisting us to reconnect with nature. Reconnecting to nature is increasingly recognized as positively contributing to health and well-being. This study aimed to understand people’s connections with nature through landscape socialization under different land use policies. The study assumed that social values, as perceived by residents, facilitates their landscape socialization. Using a questionnaire measuring sense of community and the Social Values for Ecosystem Services application as analytical tools, the study assessed how residents with varying educational attainment, sense of community, and grounded occupation differ in identifying with conservation- and recreation-oriented policy interventions. The results demonstrated the role of landscape socialization in how people connect with nature, and the landscape socialization as a result of long-term policy interventions may exert substantial effects on residents’ social values across various spatial scales. The results deepen the general understanding of system leverage points for creating inner connections to nature which can aid sustainability transformation.

Analysis of cultural ecosystem services of rock climbing settings in Mexico City: the case of Los Dinamos Recreational Park

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2021

The evaluation of cultural ecosystem services based on the exploration of social values (SV) is a powerful tool to describe visitors' perceptions of a natural landscape. A natural setting in the southwest of Mexico City lacks effective management due to insufficient understanding of visitors' behavior and their interactions with natural resources. We profiled two visitor groups, rock climbers and non-rock climbers, assessed the SV they ascribed to a popular natural recreational park, and explored associations between SV and particular landscape features. Data collection was based on field observations, questionnaires, and a photograph-based approach. Cross tabulations, chi-square tests, and basic map algebra were used to process data. Results showed statistical differences between the two visitor groups concerning park use, but not in the perception of SV. The main SV people ascribe to the park are natural, recreational, and productive values, although results differ depending on the location of the park. Landscape features such as forest cover, remoteness, elevation, and rock formations are strongly interlinked to specific SV. This study can contribute towards an understanding of differentiated park use and perceptions of cultural ecosystem services by visitor groups. This can be integrated into management plans for recreational parks in Mexico.

Evaluation of Social Values for Ecosystem Services in Urban Riverfront Space Based on the SolVES Model: A Case Study of the Fenghe River, Xi’an, China

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2021
Int J Environ Res Publ Health

Urban riverfront space has diversified ecosystem services, but due to excessive changes in the geographical environment, such as drastic changes in land use, people gain social value at a great ecological cost. Obtaining benefits from the ecosystem in this way is not sustainable. Therefore, this paper uses the SolVES model to evaluate the social value of ecosystem services on the east bank of the Fenghe River, while also studying the contribution of different environmental variables to social value. The main results are as follows. (1) Environmental variables affect the spatial distribution characteristics of social value. The distance to water (DTW) means the social value was distributed in strips, and the distance to road (DTR) concentrated the social value along the road. The landscape type (LT) means the social value was concentrated in the landscape space. (2) When DTW, DTR, and LT were collectively used as environmental variables, the distribution characteristics of various social values were similar to when LT was used as the only environmental variable. (3) The results of MaxEnt show that LT made a greater contribution to the aesthetic, recreation, therapeutic, and historic values, and was the largest contribution factor to the aesthetic, therapeutic, and historic values, with contribution rates of 47.6, 50.5, and 80.0%, respectively. DTW is the factor that contributed the most to recreation, with a contribution rate of 43.1%. Improving social value based on the influence and contribution of environmental variables can reduce the damage to the ecological environment caused by changes in geographic factors. This is sustainable for both the ecosystem and the services it provides to mankind.

Social Value Assessment and Spatial Expression of National Park Ecosystems Based on Residents’ Perceptions

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2022

Social values of ecosystem services originate from human perceptions of ecosystem services and are defined as non-market values perceived by ecosystem stakeholders. Although it is widely recognized that the information of social value can provide assistance to stakeholders and decision makers in environmental management, this issue has received far less attention. This article uses the Public Participation Geographic Information System (PPGIS) method to analyze the assessment of social values of national park ecosystem services by residents with different environmental values and their relationship with surrounding natural resource conditions. According to the preference of the interviewed residents, it was found that the four most important types of social value are biodiversity value, aesthetic value, economic value, and recreation and wellness value. In terms of spatial distribution, the hot spots of social values show a pattern of “two cores and multiple centers”. The “two cores” are the Gutianshan National Nature Reserve and Qianjiangyuan National Forest Park, which are located at the north and south ends of the national park; the “multiple centers” include Kukeng, Xikeng, Xiachuan, Gaotiankeng villages in Changhong Township and Longkeng Village in the Hetian Township. By analyzing the relationship between the four social value types with higher preference and the resource environment (land use and elevation), the article found that social values are closely related to scenic spots, river water surface, reservoir water surface, forested land, tea plantations, and villages, and that they are mostly distributed in the range of 400 m to 600 m above sea level. The distribution of social values in the ecocentric subgroup is larger, covering almost the entire national park area. The transition of the value index is smoother, while the distribution of social values in the anthropocentric subgroup is relatively concentrated in one area.

A combined approach based on ecosystem services and environmental justice: the case study of Circeo National Park, Italy

Thesis

Jul 2020

Stefania Benetti

Starting from its born, the Ecosystem Services (ES) approaches become important for linking human and nature, and for supporting different decision-making and management contexts, in particular conservation strategies, landscape and urban planning, and compensative policies. However, the ES literature has been criticized for adopting a homogenous approach to communities and failing to consider social diversity, power structures influencing access to benefits, and participation in the management of ES. Still, despite the growing body of literature on ES, considerations of Environmental Justice (EJ) tend to fall short in ES assessments and therefore in planning and policy. EJ scholarship has traditionally parsed out a framework of justice based on a trilogy of concerns: the distributional justice, that can provide a framework to focus on the spatial and temporal distribution of costs, benefits and risks of ES; the recognitional justice, referring the recognition of people’s varying values associated with ES; and the procedural justice, that considers the participation in the procedures through which decisions are made about ES. The main goal of the present thesis is to explore in which extent an ES approach with an EJ lens can support the environmental governance. The research was developed in three main parts: a literature reviews, a systematic review, and an empirical application in Circeo National Park (Italy). Although the two fields seem focus on two distinct aspects of the environment – the original idea of EJ revolved around the negative health impacts of environmental degradation and pollution, while ES highlights benefits of ecosystems beyond health –, the two literature reviews showed different meetings points. First, the literature review integrated the aspects of EJ in ES, exploring their interconnections and considering EJ as an analytical approach to thinking about ES issues. Second, the systematic literature review investigated how the different approaches of ES and justice were used for real-world application, how they evolved over time, and which trends has followed in order to identify possible gaps. The systematic review explored the number and type (conceptual, review, or empirical) of publications, the geographical distribution and scale of case studies analysed, the ES and justice dimensions investigated, and the governance contexts explored. Lastly, the analysis of the case study was useful to apply the ES and EJ combined approach with the purpose of understanding how and why the ES conservation policies in Circeo National Park generated different benefits and costs among different groups within society and were related to diverse kind of injustices. The addition of an EJ lens in combination with the ES approach revealed local perceptions critical to ES trade-offs and identified different stakeholders’ objectives. The thesis highlighted that EJ can uncover existing and potential social conflicts between management and use, especially when conservation policies are applied without due consideration of the interests and needs of local communities. Moreover, EJ provides a well-developed lens to focus on fair treatment of all with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies.

A social-media-based improvement index for urban renewal

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2022
ECOL INDIC

Urban renewal to fulfill the updated needs of urban residents is an inevitable product of urbanization at certain stages. And how to effectively prioritize varied attributes to be renewed across scales is a challenging process for urban governance worldwide. This study aimed to fill the existing gaps by merging the prioritization capacity of importance-performance analysis (IPA) and the scalability potential of social media data. The study pioneered establishing a social-media-based improvement index (SMII) for urban renewal. Based on the framework of importance-performance analysis, SMII takes the most overkilled point (the lowest importance but the highest performance) as the origin and calculates the area between other points and the origin. SMII always has the highest value in the quadrant with high importance but low performance. We demonstrate the usage of SMII taking the landscape services of urban park systems as an example. We used SMII to understand the users' evaluation of parks' services across scales and then clarified the priority sequence for future renewal. Among selected parks, we identified three parks that need immediate renewal. Among all the services, we found that recreational activities and social interactions are in highest priority for renewal in Beijing's park systems. The findings suggest that the history and culture services of the Old Summer Place Park need to be improved first for a wide variety of reasons. The findings also reveal multiple temporal changes of varied services. Our study concludes that SMII can clarify problem prioritization and cost-effective guide decision-making for urban park renewal with high scalability both temporally and spatially. Meanwhile, SMII can extend its applications to analyzing various issues in the urban environment on multiple scales for the effective allocation of resources during urban renewal.

Application of Ecosystem Service Bundles and Tour Experience in Land Use Management: A Case Study of Xiaohuangshan Mountain (China)

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2021

With the deterioration of human-terrestrial relations and the intensification of global warming, development in all countries is facing difficulties. Whether in highly urbanized countries or in rapidly urbanizing developing countries such as China, the research on ecosystem services (ES) and land use management has attracted increasing attention. The general management of land use unilaterally pursues economic benefits and neglects ecological benefits, which aggravates the disparity between ecological development and the economic benefits of land resources. How to strike up a balance between ecologic protection and economic development remains a difficult problem during urbanization. It may be a better choice to formulate regional development strategies by combining natural conditions with humanistic and social tendencies. Identifying regional cultural ecosystem services (CES) and other important ES while performing zoning planning for regional land use can be a viable approach in land use management. Here, our study quantitatively evaluates the tourism experience of Xiaohuangshan Mountain (XHSM) and various ES, including recreation, biodiversity, history, aesthetics, soil conservation, surface water regulation, and soil nutrition. All ES were classified into four bundles for XHSM. Different ES bundles generated are suitable for different land use management methods and development forms according to their outstanding ES. The results show that quantifying and mapping regional ES bundles can provide the necessary information to support a win-win solution and provide decision support for land and spatial planning in areas with different social and ecological characteristics.

Disparity in Perceptions of Social Values for Ecosystem Services of Urban Green Space: A Case Study in the East Lake Scenic Area, Wuhan

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2020

Urban green space can bring various ecosystem benefits to diverse social groups. Among those ecosystem benefits, intangible social values are often neglected but highly relevant to human welfare. Existing research on the social values of urban green space often focusses on the perspective of urban inhabitants rather than tourists, even though tourists are also major beneficiaries. By combining different data sources into a comprehensive source about green-space social values, we investigated the disparity between inhabitants' and tourists' perceptions about space-associated social values, and further explored the underlying environmental conditions in the East Lake scenic area, Wuhan. For this, we collected 347 questionnaires through an on-site survey and 11,908 photos uploaded by 2165 social media users (Sina Blog), and we used SolVES (Social Value for Ecosystem Services) to uncover the spatial patterns of social values and the relationships between social value indicators and natural surroundings. Social-value hotspots occurred near water and trails. Perceptions differed, however, between inhabitants and tourists. Inhabitants perceived a larger scale of social values and could benefit more from recreation and economic values. Tourists, on the other hand, showed greater appreciation for aesthetic and cultural values. Environmental features were associated with social values to differing extent; distance to water and land use/cover exerted significantly influence. These findings should be taken into consideration to improve urban spatial planning and to optimize green infrastructures for human welfare.

A Review of Changes in Mountain Land Use and Ecosystem Services: From Theory to Practice

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2020

Global changes impact the human-environment relationship, and, in particular, they affect the provision of ecosystem services. Mountain ecosystems provide a wide range of such services, but they are highly sensitive and vulnerable to change due to various human pressures and natural processes. We conducted a literature survey that focused on two main issues. The first was the identification of quantitative methods aimed at assessing the impact of land use changes in mountain regions and the related ecosystem services. The second was the analysis of the extent to which the outcomes of these assessments are useful and transferable to stakeholders. We selected papers through a keyword-driven search of the ISI Web of Knowledge and other international databases. The keywords used for the search were mountain land use change and ecosystem service. Quantitative approaches to ecosystem service assessment rely on suitable indicators, therefore land use/land cover can be used as an appropriate proxy. Landscape metrics are a powerful analytical tool; their use can increase the accuracy of assessments and facilitate the mitigation of specific phenomena, such as fragmentation or the reduction of core habitat areas. Mapping is essential: it is the basis for spatial analyzes and eases the interactions between stakeholders. Land use/land cover change is a temporal process, so both past and future approaches are meaningful. It is necessary to enhance information transfer from theory to practice. Increasing stakeholder awareness can lead to suitable management solutions, and, reciprocally, stakeholder feedback can help improve current assessment methodologies and contribute to developing new tools that are suitable for specific problems.

Social Value Evaluation of Ecosystem Services in Global Geoparks Based on SolVES Model

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2022
MATH PROBL ENG

Yiting Zhu

With the increasing demand for diverse ecosystem services, the assessment of ecosystem services has become a hot research topic. Taking Koktokay Global Geopark as the study area, the SoIVES model was used to quantitatively evaluate the various cultural services of the ecosystem in this area from the perspective of social attributes and spatial heterogeneity and to generate corresponding value index (VI) maps. The results show that aesthetic value index is the largest, while entertainment value index is the smallest. With the increase of distance from roads and water bodies, aesthetic value and entertainment value tend to decrease gradually. The value of popular science education still fluctuates slightly in locations far away from roads and water bodies. The value index of health care value fluctuates within a certain distance from the road and gradually decreases as the distance from the water body increases. The application of the SolVES model in a wide range of areas has achieved good results and provided a scientific basis for ecological construction and park planning.

Mapeo de servicios ecosistémicos y sus amenazas: una investigación participativa en la cuenca alta del Arroyo Yaguarí (Rivera, Uruguay) ECOSYSTEM SERVICES MAPPING AND THEIR THREATS: PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH IN THE UPPER BASIN OF ARROYO YAGUARÍ (RIVERA, URUGUAY)

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2020

Mapeo de servicios ecosistémicos y sus amenazas: una investigación participativa en la cuenca alta del Arroyo Yaguarí (Rivera, Uruguay) Resumen La intensificación agraria a nivel mundial y, particularmente, en Uruguay, ha generado impactos en los ecosistemas, afectando su capacidad de brindar servicios ecosistémicos (SE). Las consecuencias de este proceso recaen en toda la sociedad, dado que el bienestar humano está íntimamente vinculado a la provisión de SE. La participación de las comunidades locales resulta fundamental en la identificación de los SE y de las amenazas que los comprometen. El objetivo general de este trabajo es presentar una estrategia de investigación participativa para la identificación y valoración social de SE y sus amenazas en la cuenca alta del Arroyo Yaguarí (Rivera, Uruguay). La estrategia metodológica integró entrevistas, encuestas y talleres con la población local. Se generó un Sistema de Información Geográfica con la información recabada que permitió su análisis espacial. Los principales resultados evidencian que el área de estudio presenta ecosistemas con alta valoración social que se encuentran comprometidos por los actuales usos del suelo, determinando zonas categorizadas como prioritarias para la gestión. Este estudio aporta elementos para la elaboración de una estrategia participativa de planificación y ordenamiento sustentable del territorio a escala local. Palabras clave: Servicios ecosistémicos, Diagnóstico ambiental participativo, Ordenamiento sustentable del territorio, Mapeo participativo, Usos del suelo Abstract Agricultural worldwide intensification, and, particularly in Uruguay, has impacted on ecosystems affecting their ability to provide ecosystem services. The consequences of this process fall on the whole society, since human well-being is strongly linked to their provision. The participation of local communities is essential for the identification of ecosystem services and the threats that compromise them. The aim of this paper is to present an ecosystem service identification and valoration participatory research strategy and their threats in the Yaguarí stream upper basin (Rivera, Uruguay). The methodological strategy was integrated by interviews, surveys and workshops with local population. A Geographic Information System was generated from the information collected, which allowed its spatial analysis. The main results prove that the studied area presents ecosystems of high social values that are threatened by current land uses, helping to determine priority areas for management. This research contributes elements to the elaboration of participatory strategies of sustainable territorial planning at a local level.

Linking Land and Sea Through an Ecological-Economic Model of Coral Reef Recreation

Article

Nov 2020
ECOL ECON

Coastal zones are popular recreational areas that substantially contribute to social welfare. Managers can use information about specific environmental features that people value, and how these might change under different management scenarios, to spatially target actions to areas of high current or potential value. We explored how snorkelers' experience would be affected by separate and combined land and marine management actions in West Maui, Hawaiʻi, using a Bayesian belief network (BBN) and a spatially explicit ecosystem services model. The BBN simulates the attractiveness of a site for recreation by combining snorkeler preferences for coastal features with expert opinions on ecological dynamics, snorkeler behavior, and management actions. A choice experiment with snorkelers elucidated their preferences for sites with better ecological and water-quality conditions. Linking the economic elicitation to the spatially explicit BBN to evaluate land-sea management scenarios provides specific guidance on where and how to act in West Maui to maximize ecosystem service returns. Improving coastal water quality through sediment runoff and cesspool effluent reductions (land management), and enhancing coral reef ecosystem conditions (marine management) positively affected overall snorkeling attractiveness across the study area, but with differential results at specific sites. The highest improvements were attained through joint land-sea management, driven by strong efforts to increase fish abundance and reduce sediment; however, the effects of management at individual beaches varied.

Comparison between Demand and Supply of Some Ecosystem Services in National Parks: A Spatial Analysis Conducted Using Italian Case Studies

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2021

In recent decades, modeling approaches of ecosystem services (ES) have been used extensively at the international level, providing useful tools during the decision-making process by integrating both physical and economic information, thus improving its management. The relationship between supply and demand may impact social welfare: for example, a deficit in ES could negatively influence demand (either potential or effective). For this reason, the relational study between supply and demand is necessary for the sustainable management of natural resources; particularly since the demand for some ES must be fulfilled not only on a local scale but also globally (as in the case of regulatory ES). This paper proposes an ES analysis framework that links the flow of services (supply) generated by the interaction between natural, human and social capital with consumption (demand) connected to potential beneficiaries. Specifically, we analyze three ES: Forage production, regulation of local climate (PM10), and carbon sequestration in three national parks (Aspromonte National Park, Circeo National Park, and Appennino Tosco Emiliano National Park). The use of synthetic (biophysical) indicators, on a spatial basis, made it possible to quantify the supply and demand of specific catchments with the aim of accounting for the surplus/deficit through the calculation of the ES supply and demand ratio (ESDR). In fact, sustainable land management requires a balance between supply and demand in relation to the different needs of the stakeholders and local community. The relationship between supply and demand of ES can help identify resource use trade-offs, thus rendering the achievement of management and protection objectives more efficient. Lastly, through the use of monetary coefficients, it was possible to calculate the benefits of increasing the awareness of public decision-makers of ES’s value and the importance of implementing integrated strategies for environmental protection and enhancement.

Ecosystem services around the Mediterranean Basin

Thesis

Dec 2018

Ana Paula García-Nieto

Global change, through the impact of human activities on the processes that regulate the functioning of the Earth system, poses important challenges to society. The acceleration of human pressures during the last decades has had profound impacts on Mediterranean socio-ecological systems including the reduction of important contributions from nature to human well-being, referred to as ecosystem services (ES). For the coming decades, there is growing concern about how pressures of social-ecological systems, in particular urbanization, land management practices and nature conservation policies, will affect the supply of ES in the Mediterranean Basin and how the associated vulnerabilities could be reduced. Sustainable supply of ES is a key prerequisite to the achievement of many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but knowledge on how this could best be achieved is sparse, in the Mediterranean Basin but also elsewhere. This lack of knowledge is not confined to issues of scientific understanding, but also to the fact that research efforts are more limited in Northern African countries as compared to Europe. There is a particular need to elucidate trends, trade-offs and synergies between ES under the influence of pressures and management in the wider Mediterranean basin. The main goal of this thesis is to analyze how ES flows in the Mediterranean Basin area, and the tradeoffs between them, are affected by drivers of change. To this end, a multidisciplinary assessment perspective - from biophysical to socio-cultural factors, covering multiple spatial scales from the local to the Mediterranean Basin - has been used to analyze changes in ES supply and demand. The core results are presented on three independent studies. In the first one (chapter 2.1) I assess land cover and ES capacity supply trends in Mediterranean peri-urban areas due to urbanization using spatial open data sources. In the second sub-chapter (2.2), I present a literature review to identify the impact of conservative management practices on ES. In the third subchapter (2.3), I explore the impact of the role of stakeholders in environmental management decisions on their perception of ES patterns using collaborative mapping workshops. In the peri-urban zones around 12 Mediterranean cities I found a general decrease in the overall capacity to supply ES due to land cover changes (1990 – 2016) (chapter 2.1). In the European peri-urban areas, expansion of the urban surface has occurred at expense of agricultural land loss, whereas in North African experienced an increase of irrigated agricultural land. In chapter 2.2, a selection of alternative management options positively impacts the supply of regulating ES in Mediterranean agro-ecosystems. In contrast, crop yield was increased using management options such as no tillage and mulching, but decreased under mulching among others. Chapter 2.3 demonstrated that the spatial scale of influence of stakeholders on ES management affects the recognition of contributions from specific or wider landscape elements (e.g. protected areas) to ES supply. The revealed impacts of urbanization and commonly applied agricultural management systems negatively impact the supply of ES which may hinder the progress Mediterranean countries strive for within the frame of the SDGs. Better management of land use systems along the rural-urban gradient and the engagement of stakeholders could help to assure progress towards the SDGs. The chosen methods and data affect the results with regards to ES trends, synergies and trade-offs detected. In this thesis I recognize the need to apply integrated ES assessment to provide the estimation of trends, and the existence of shared knowledge within stakeholder groups that can provide the much needed link between theory and practice. This thesis evidence that the inclusion of diverse dimensions of the socialecological systems can improve the understanding of ES flows and changes therein.

Exploring gaps in mapping marine ecosystem services: A benchmark analysis

Article

Apr 2020
OCEAN COAST MANAGE

We assessed the gaps between current and "model mapping routines", which represent a benchmark for mapping marine ecosystem services (ESs). Model mapping routines comprised 17 selected variables and their best-rated alternatives depending on the mapping purpose, namely, marine spatial planning, environmental impact assessment, vulnerability and risk analysis, marine protected areas management, payments for ecosystem services , and natural resources management. We conducted a systematic search of articles (n ¼ 64) from which information on the 17 variables and their alternatives was retrieved. We assessed gaps using similarity matrices, according to the co-occurrence index. The largest gaps (as measured by average distances >0.5 between actual and best options) occurred in articles reporting natural resources management as purpose, whereas the smallest were related to marine protected areas management and payments for ecosystem services. The gaps were due to departures in different individual variables. For example, in the case of marine spatial planning the omission of tradeoffs, scenario analysis, multiple scales, and threshold analyses explained the gap, whereas in vulnerability and risk assessment the omission of thresholds, the lack of consistency of the indicators used, and the absence of a definition of ESs explained the gap. We trust that this study will help to recognize that ESs mapping studies should be guided by the purpose of a given intervention rather than by the technical capacities and disciplines of the researchers, if the ESs approach expects to reach a real impact into public policies.

Mapping Perceived Social Values to Support a Respondent-Defined Restoration Economy: Case Study in Southeastern Arizona, USA

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2020

ABSTRACT: Investment in conservation and ecological restoration depends on various socioeconomic factors and the social license for these activities. Our study demonstrates a method for targeting management of ecosystem services based on social values, identified by respondents through a collection of social survey data. We applied the Social Values for Ecosystem Services (SolVES) geographic information systems (GIS)- based tool in the Sonoita Creek watershed, Arizona, to map social values across the watershed. The survey focused on how respondents engage with the landscape, including through their ranking of 12 social values (eg, recreational, economic, or aesthetic value) and their placement of points on a map to identify their associations with the landscape. Additional information was elicited regarding how respondents engaged with water and various land uses, as well as their familiarity with restoration terminology. Results show how respondents perceive benefits from the natural environment. Specifically, maps of social values on the landscape show high social value along streamlines. Life-sustaining services, biological diversity, and aesthetics were the respondents’ highest rated social values. Land surrounding National Forest and private lands had lower values than conservation-based and state-owned areas, which we associate with landscape features. Results can inform watershed management by allowing managers to consider social values when prioritizing restoration or conservation investments. Keywords : SolVES, ecosystem services, social survey, PPGIS, restoration economy

Mapping Perceived Social Values to Support a Respondent-Defined Restoration Economy: Case Study in Southeastern Arizona, USA

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2020

Investment in conservation and ecological restoration depends on various socioeconomic factors and the social license for these activities. Our study demonstrates a method for targeting management of ecosystem services based on social values, identified by respondents through a collection of social survey data. We applied the Social Values for Ecosystem Services (SolVES) geographic information systems (GIS)-based tool in the Sonoita Creek watershed, Arizona, to map social values across the watershed. The survey focused on how respondents engage with the landscape, including through their ranking of 12 social values (eg, recreational, economic, or aesthetic value) and their placement of points on a map to identify their associations with the landscape. Additional information was elicited regarding how respondents engaged with water and various land uses, as well as their familiarity with restoration terminology. Results show how respondents perceive benefits from the natural environment. Specifically, maps of social values on the landscape show high social value along streamlines. Life-sustaining services, biological diversity, and aesthetics were the respondents’ highest rated social values. Land surrounding National Forest and private lands had lower values than conservation-based and state-owned areas, which we associate with landscape features. Results can inform watershed management by allowing managers to consider social values when prioritizing restoration or conservation investments.

Sense of Place and Water Quality: Applying Sense of Place Metrics to Better Understand Community Impacts of Changes in Water Quality

Chapter

Full-text available

Mar 2020

Exploring gaps in mapping marine ecosystem services: A benchmark analysis

Article

Apr 2020
OCEAN COAST MANAGE

We conducted a systematic search of articles (n = 64) from which information on the 17 variables and their alternatives was retrieved. We assessed gaps using similarity matrices, according to the co-occurrence index. The largest gaps (as measured by average distances >0.5 between actual and best options) occurred in articles reporting natural resources management as purpose, whereas the smallest were related to marine protected areas management and payments for ecosystem services. The gaps were due to departures in different individual variables. For example, in the case of marine spatial planning the omission of tradeoffs, scenario analysis, multiple scales, and threshold analyses explained the gap, whereas in vulnerability and risk assessment the omission of thresholds, the lack of consistency of the indicators used, and the absence of a definition of ESs explained the gap. We trust that this study will help to recognize that ESs mapping studies should be guided by the purpose of a given intervention rather than by the technical capacities and disciplines of the researchers, if the ESs approach expects to reach a real impact into public policies.

Périmètre de légitimité de la notion de services écosystémiques

Book

Jan 2020

Xavier Arnauld de Sartre

Périmètre de légitimité de la notion de services écosystémiques

Do drivers of nature visitation vary spatially? The importance of context for understanding visitation of nature areas in Europe and North America

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2021
SCI TOTAL ENVIRON

Nature visitation is important, both culturally and economically. Given the contribution of nature recreation to multiple societal goals, comprehending determinants of nature visitation is essential to understand the drivers associated with the popularity of nature areas, for example, to inform land-use planning or site management strategies to maximise benefits. Understanding the factors related to nature, tourism and recreation can support the management of nature areas and thereby, also conservation efforts and biodiversity protection. This study applied a Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR) to quantify the spatially varying influence of different factors associated with nature visitation in Europe and North America. Results indicated that some explanatory variables were stationary for all sites (age 15 to 65, population density (within 25 km), GDP, area, built-up areas, plateaus, and mountains). In contrast, others exhibited significant spatial non-stationarity (locally variable): needle-leaf trees (conifers), trails, travel time, roads, and Red List birds and amphibians. Needle-leaf trees and travel time were found to be negatively significant in Europe. Roads were found to have a significant positive effect in North America. Trails and Red List bird species were found to have a positive effect in both North America and North Europe, with a greater effect in Europe. Red List amphibians was the only spatially variable predictor to have both a positive and negative impact, with selected sites in North America and northern Europe being positive, whereas Iceland and central and southern Europe were negative. The scale of the response-predictor relationship (bandwidth) of these locally variable predictors was smallest for Red List amphibians at 1033 km, with all other spatially variable predictors between 9,558 and 12,285 km. The study demonstrates the contribution that MGWR, a spatially explicit model, can make to support a deeper understanding of processes associated with nature visitation in different geographic contexts.

Examination of Urban Landscape Aesthetics through Mapping Using Geotagged Social Media Data from Flickr

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2021

Assessing the diversity and evenness of ecosystem services as perceived by residents using participatory mapping

Article

Jan 2022
APPL GEOGR

While the benefits of multifunctional landscapes has been underlined by previous studies, assessing human perceptions of these benefits can be enhanced by applying methodological approaches that examine the perceived distributions and interactions among ecosystem services. This study applied Shannon's diversity and Simpson's evenness metrics from landscape ecology to advance an approach for assessing general and place-specific patterns of perceived ecosystem services and the existence of ecosystem service bundles in North Khorasan, Iran. A typology of 12 different ecosystem services, within three categories of provisioning, cultural ecosystem services, and biodiversity was established. A total of 158 individuals from the study area mapped these services individually on a hard copy through interviews and filled a semi-structured questionnaire regarding their socio-economic characteristics. In addition to showing areas of value abundance and diversity, we showed areas where specific ecosystem services were evenly or unevenly distributed across the landscape. Grazing ecosystem service showed to have the most even distribution in the study area, followed by cultivation and aesthetics as next services with more spread-out areal distributions. We found strong correlations between different types of cultural ecosystem services including tourism, social and spiritual services, which formed bundles on the landscape. The results also revealed partial bundling of clean water service with cultural ecosystem services and other provisioning services such as grazing. We conclude that these perceptions can complement the information necessary to develop sustainable planning and management strategies in order to promote landscape multi-functionality.

Public perception of forest ecosystem services in Taiwan

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2021

Ecosystem service assessment has become an emerging lobbying tool in recent years, relatively, less studies use non-economic methods to explore the society’s demand for ecosystem services from the perspective of human values, attitudes and beliefs. With Taiwan household registration records, this study conducted a survey involving mailing out questionnaires to ordinary households as sampling population. The purposes of this study are to understand Taiwanese people’s views on forest ecosystem services, and to analyze factors that affect people’s perception of the importance of forest ecosystem services. The results show that the respondents believe that soil conservation service is the most important. However, the non-economic cognitive analysis and economic evaluation show that the priority of forest ecosystem services is not consistent. In addition, this study shows that social and economic variables such as gender, occupation, and income have significant differences in different clusters of perception of the importance of ecosystem services. It is recommended that before any policy or protection action is taken in the future, the design should be strengthened to reflect the attitudes and preferences of stakeholders, inclusive of environmental, economic and social values to present the concept of human well-being, so that specific strategies can be more easily formulated to adapt to the actual situation.

Participatory ecosystem service assessment to enhance environmental decision-making in a border city of South Korea

Article

Oct 2021

Participatory methods can be used to assess the ecosystem services provided by specific areas and to identify development and conservation preferences in local communities that support the preparation of ecosystem service management strategies and conflict resolution. In this study, local participants selected ecosystem assets in a border city of South Korea and assessed the ecosystem services provided by these assets through rapid assessment. Thereafter, Q methodology was applied to assess preferences for development and conservation of ecosystem assets and the results were compared with the rapid assessment results. The local ecosystem assets contributed to the provision of ecosystem services, which were divided into cultural ecosystem services (CES) and rice field ecosystem service (RES) groups. When the results of the management preference assessment were compared with those obtained using factor analysis, ecosystem assets belonging to the CES group showed a high development preference, whereas ecosystem assets belonging to the RES group showed a high conservation preference. When formulating management plans, these findings can be used to reduce conflicts resulting from differences in the preferences for development and conservation within local communities to provide direction to ecosystem asset managements, while maintaining the ecosystem service characteristics of ecosystem assets.

Understanding visitors’ spatial behavior: a review of spatial applications in parks

Chapter

Full-text available

May 2021

Resident Perceptions of Local Offshore Wind Energy Development: Support Level and Intended Action in Coastal North and South Carolina

Technical Report

Full-text available

May 2019

Valuing the contribution of estuarine habitats to commercial fisheries in a seagrass-dominated estuary

Article

Jun 2022
ESTUAR COAST SHELF S

Estimating the economic value of ecosystem services derived from estuarine habitats is important for prioritising management, conservation, and restoration activities, but remains challenging. Recently, a novel approach to estimate the value of estuarine habitats for species commercially harvested from estuaries was developed, which incorporates Bayesian stable isotope mixing models that identify the underlying primary production responsible for the nutrition of these species and links this to the value of product for fisheries. However, the difficultly of separating common primary nutrient sources in estuaries; saltmarsh grass (Sporobolus virginicus) and seagrasses, means application of this approach has been constrained to estuaries with little or no seagrass. Here, we extend this approach and examine the use of tri-variate (C, N and S) isotopic composition to model the comparative economic value of saltmarsh, seagrass, and other producer groups, for a commercial fishery. Isotope data indicated that grouped estuary producers contributed 44 ± 16% (mangrove and saltmarsh succulents), 22 ± 11% (saltmarsh grass), 11 ± 6% (fine benthic organic matter) and 23 ± 11% (seagrasses) of exploited species diets. Although seagrass and saltmarsh contributions were reasonably similar, the areal coverage of saltmarsh habitats was ∼10% that of seagrasses. This affected the area-standardised valuation of these habitats, which suggested that saltmarsh had the highest value (AUD $621 ± 191 ha⁻¹y⁻¹) followed by mangroves (AUD $227 ± 66 ha⁻¹y⁻¹), while seagrasses had the lowest value (AUD $63 ± 29 ha⁻¹y⁻¹). These results highlight the impact of areal coverage on the comparative value of estuarine habitats, but also highlight that habitats with lesser areal extent but higher proportional contribution to diets of exploited species may present a higher priority for conservation or repair.

Recreational Activity Dynamics at Valentine National Wildlife Refuge

Article

May 2020

Olivia A. DaRugna

Many parks and protected areas are managed for a dual purpose to conserve ecological systems and to provide wildlife-compatible recreational opportunities for visitors. Managing parks and protected areas to meet this dual goal entails progressive management approaches that incorporate information about social and ecological components of these systems. Current management regimes focus heavily on the ecological component with little or no information concerning the social component of parks and protected areas. Incorporating social information is essential for understanding and accounting for social conflicts and ecological impacts that result from a diversity of recreational activities. We examined recreational activities at Valentine National Wildlife Refuge (VNWR) in Nebraska to understand the social aspect of this social-ecological system. We distributed surveys onsite at VNWR during a one-year collection period. We examined the frequency, sociodemographics, and potential for social conflicts and ecological impacts of consumptive (i.e., hunting), intermediate-consumptive (i.e., fishing), and non-consumptive (i.e., wildlife watching, touring, hiking, photography, and environmental education) groups. Valentine National Wildlife Refuge supports heterogeneous recreational-activity groups, which vary in frequency and potential for social conflicts and ecological impacts. The intermediate-consumptive group was the predominate recreational-activity group on VNWR. Delphi methodology was used to measure potential social conflicts and ecological impacts of different recreational activities. Based on the consensus reached using the Delphi method, the consumptive group had the greatest potential for social conflicts and ecological impacts. We subsequently applied the potential social conflicts and ecological impacts caused by different recreational-activity groups to evaluate social and ecological intensities across space and time on VNWR. Social and ecological intensities varied across lake types and seasons, highlighting intense impact areas and periods on the refuge. Valentine National Wildlife Refuge permits diverse recreational opportunities that necessitate a multi-faceted management regime to fulfill the dual purpose. Realizing and accounting for the different recreational activities and coinciding social and ecological intensities will allow parks and protected area managers the ability to concomitantly preserve ecological resources, prioritize conservation efforts, and minimize visitor conflicts. Advisors: Mark A. Kaemingk and Kevin L. Pope

Differing perceptions of the youth and the elderly regarding cultural ecosystem services in urban parks: An exploration of the tour experience

Article

Jan 2022
SCI TOTAL ENVIRON

Parks have become important spaces for supplying cultural ecosystem services (CESs) in cities, and satisfying various needs of different age groups in parks has become a critical issue. Many studies focused on the environmental preferences and behaviours of different age groups in parks. However, results revealing the differences in value demand and acquisition between elderly and youth from a landscape spatial environmental perspective are limited. In this study, the same number of youth and elderly volunteers were recruited, according to the value-labelled photo fed back after their self-driven tour in the Huanhuaxi Urban Forest Park in Chengdu, China. In addition, this study explored the relationship between the perceived CES needs of the youth and elderly and the landscape spatial environment in the urban park ecosystem with the help of the Social Values for Ecosystem Services model. Results showed that, in comparison, to obtain recreation value, playgrounds, pavilions and squares were more important for the elderly, whereas topography, rivers, landscape sketches and trails were more important for the youth. Moreover, in terms of the sense of place, lakes and wetlands were more important for the elderly, whereas landscape sketches and playgrounds were more important for the youth. Furthermore, for the delivery of therapeutic value, squares were more important for the elderly. Spatially, the areas of lakes or wetlands with geographical combinations of landscape sketches and flowers were the high-value spots for supplying multiple CESs in urban parks. Then, squares, rivers, playgrounds and forests were the focus areas where the value identification of the two age groups diverges. This study emphasises the differences in demand and acquisition of cultural added value provided by the environment between the young and the old. The study provides a basis for more targeted land management and landscape planning of urban parks.

Landscape value in urban neighborhoods: A pilot analysis using street-level images

Article

May 2022
LANDSCAPE URBAN PLAN

This study aimed to develop a methodology for applying the framework of landscape value, which has been used to evaluate natural landscapes on a large scale, to the evaluations of the micro-scale urban places. First, the typology of landscape values that could be applied to urban areas was established based on the literature review of previous studies. Next, an online questionnaire survey was conducted, in which a total of 1,730 residents of the Tokyo metropolitan area were presented with the street-level images and asked to rate their overall impressions of places and the 18 types of landscape values. The results revealed: (1) the degree of correlation with the overall impression of an urban place depends on the type of landscape value, (2) it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the types of values in the evaluation of urban landscapes despite their mutual exclusiveness verified in natural landscapes, (3) eight types of values are rated significantly higher when the participants are familiar with the place, and (4) gender and age affect the evaluations of landscape values. The correlation coefficients with the overall impression of the place are more significant for women than men for all types of values. The associations between landscape values and the favorable impressions of places are stronger for the older generations. A limitation of this study is the geographic scope of the survey limited to Tokyo, Japan. The verification of the differences in the types and natures of place values among countries is a future issue.

Visualizing social-ecological intensities for management of recreation visitors in a multiuse system

Article

Feb 2022
J ENVIRON MANAGE

Accounting for the variation of visitor conflicts and ecological disturbance of outdoor recreation activities across space and time can cause difficulty for managers seeking to make decisions in social-ecological systems (SESs). We develop a method to quantify and visualize social and ecological intensities resulting from outdoor recreation. We demonstrate the utility of our method at Valentine National Wildlife Refuge, where we conducted onsite surveys for an entire year of recreationists participating in consumptive (i.e., hunting), intermediate-consumptive (i.e., fishing) and nonconsumptive (e.g., hiking) activities. We use survey results and combine them with expert consensus by engaging refuge managers and scientists (i.e., Delphi method) to chart patterns in social (e.g., visitor conflicts) and ecological (e.g., damages to natural resources) intensities across multiple spatial and temporal scales. We highlight unexpected patterns that are revealed by collectively considering multi-activity groups through space and time and combining different survey methods (onsite, Delphi method). Based on the consensus reached using the Delphi method, the consumptive group had the greatest potential for social conflicts and ecological disturbances. Social and ecological intensities (i.e., hotspots) of recreation varied across lake types and seasons, highlighting high-intensity areas and periods on the refuge. Accounting for diverse outdoor recreation activities and coinciding social and ecological intensities will allow managers of SESs the ability to concomitantly preserve ecological resources, prioritize conservation efforts, and minimize visitor conflicts. We demonstrate the utility and ease of use of this technique, which can be implemented by managers and scientists within their respective SES of interest.

Social Values for Ecosystem Services (SolVES): Open-source spatial modeling of cultural services

Article

Nov 2021
ENVIRON MODELL SOFTW

Social Values for Ecosystem Services (SolVES) version 4.0 is a fully open-source, GIS-based tool designed to aid in the creation of quantitative, spatially explicit models of the nonmonetary values attributed to cultural ecosystem services, such as aesthetics and recreation, specifically to facilitate their incorporation into larger ecosystem service assessments. Newly redeveloped for QGIS, SolVES can be applied in a wide variety of biophysical and social contexts including mountain, forest, coastal, riparian, agricultural, and urban settings worldwide. Redeveloping SolVES for an open-source platform was intended to expand its user base by eliminating the cost of proprietary GIS software licenses and to remove the impact of proprietary software changes on SolVES development. Providing additional options would enable users to delineate relevant stakeholder groups to better assess how differing preferences impact the intensity and spatial distribution of perceived social values.

Evaluating decision-support tools for monetary valuation of ecosystem services for Marine Protected Areas

Article

Dec 2021
OCEAN COAST MANAGE

Coastal marine resource over-exploitation has led to the loss of marine biodiversity and environmental degradation. This has serious consequences to Coastal and Marine Ecosystems (CME) and ecosystem services. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) can have positive influences on adjacent fisheries and habitat recovery, which can help resolve these issues. However, quantifying the monetary value of an MPA's potential ecosystem service delivery is notoriously difficult. In this study, we review available tools for evaluating the monetary value of CME services for MPAs. We show that only four out of the 12 most frequently used CME tools incorporate monetary value assessments for MPAs, the rest of the tools can help build monetary awareness but only indirectly. We argue that the monetary value measurement of CME services for MPAs should be based on the biophysical production of services in MPAs rather than from subjective human perspectives (e.g., Willingness to Pay surveys). This requires transdisciplinary knowledge connecting ecology and economy, to produce an ecology-based monetary value measurement. We suggest that developing this novel method could help to better understand the valuation of CME services for MPAs and make a positive influence on marine conservation.

Local perception of ecosystem services provided by symbolic wild cherry blossoms: toward community-based management of traditional forest landscapes in Japan

Article

Dec 2022

Associations between landscape values, self-reported knowledge, and land-use: a public participation GIS assessment

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2022

While previous socio-ecological systems research has shown relationships between local knowledge and the assignment of landscape values, the relationships between value assignment and more nuanced forms of local knowledge remain less understood. This study makes use of public participation geographic information systems (PPGIS), a method for identifying and mapping landscape attributes important to local communities. We use this method to assess the spatial associations between three landscape attributes often overlooked in the PPGIS literature: landscape values, self-reported knowledge about different types of landscape management practices and land-use types. We analyzed responses from residents of Mjölby kommun, Sweden (n = 301) using Monte Carlo simulations and density-based clustering. Overall, we found stronger spatial associations between landscape values and land-use types compared with landscape values and self-reported knowledge about landscape management. For example, significant positive associations were found between aesthetic and recreation values and certain land-use types, but there was no association between these values and self-reported knowledge. The land-use type to which a landscape value is assigned is sometimes supported by self-reported knowledge (especially for underrepresented landscape values), while self-reported knowledge did not provide a conclusive pattern about value assignment on its own. We discuss the implications of using PPGIS in integrated landscape management for building multifunctionality in landscape management by addressing the values of different land-use stakeholders, and the potential benefits of increased inclusivity in forms of local knowledge.

Mapping the intangibles: Cultural ecosystem services derived from Lake Macquarie estuary, New South Wales, Australia

Article

Jun 2020

Mapping recreational ecosystem services from stakeholders' perspective in the Azores

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2021

Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES) in Europe's Outermost Regions (ORs) and Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) is still underdeveloped compared to the European mainland. Most of those territories are small islands for which Marine and Coastal Ecosystems (MCE) constitute a significant resource and provide important provisioning, regulating and cultural Ecosystem Services (ES). Understanding the cultural dimension of ecosystems and considering the cultural benefits and values associated with them, demands methodological plurality, flexibility and creativity. This study focused on two activities related to recreational ES (recreational fishing and recreational SCUBA diving) that are particularly relevant to São Miguel Island (Archipelago of the Azores, Portugal). Stakeholders were interviewed using SeaSketch, a participatory mapping tool in which they indicated where they conduct recreational fishing and scuba diving, the relative value of those areas, in terms of preference over other areas, and their willingness to relinquish them for the purpose of conservation. Responses were aggregated and represented in maps showing key areas for the provision of recreational ES around São Miguel. This approach can be used in the Azorean Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) process and other ongoing conservation initiatives, to better understand the trade-offs between relevant socioeconomic activities and to support negotiations between the government and groups of stakeholders.

Understanding the role of local knowledge in the spatial dynamics of social values expressed by stakeholders

Article

Oct 2020
APPL GEOGR

Understanding the myriad reasons why people value protected areas provides insight on how to align the decisions made by public land management agencies with diverse stakeholder interests. This study drew on survey data collected within the context of Denali National Park and Preserve to better understand the spatial dynamics of social values reported by frontcountry and backcountry recreationists that held differing degrees of local knowledge. Using a Public Participation in Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) exercise and Social Values for Ecosystem Services (SolVES) mapping application, we observed differences in the point allocation and spatial distribution of social values associated with a protected area landscape. Wilderness, aesthetics and ecological integrity were the primary social values embodied by places within Denali. Backcountry recreationists engaged with a broader range of values and derived deeper benefits from recreation and therapeutic qualities of the landscape, whereas frontcountry recreationists expressed multiple, concentrated values for places in Denali that were accessible and symbolically important. We also observed that local knowledge provided a useful basis for better understanding social values, yet variation in knowledge was not spatially manifested. Our findings therefore advance the spatial prioritization of conservation initiatives that aim to represent and legitimize the voices of stakeholders in protected areas.

KENT PARKLARINDAN SAĞLANAN EKOSİSTEM HİZMETLERİNE YÖNELİK KULLANICI ALGISININ İNCELENMESİ

Article

Apr 2021

Neslihan DOYGUN

Dinámicas socioecológicas y valores sociales de servicios ecosistémicos en la cuenca del río Savegre, Costa Rica

Article

Full-text available

May 2021

Objetivo: examinar las dinámicas socioecológicas que explican las configuraciones espaciales de valores sociales sobre servicios ecosistémicos en la cuenca del río Savegre, Costa Rica. Metodología: se usaron un mapeo participativo, encuestas y entrevistas abiertas aplicadas a una muestra de 95 administradores de unidades productivas en la cuenca. Resultados: se encontró que, para este sistema, la zona de transición entre la cuenca alta y la cuenca media es importante en su concentración de valores sociales sobre servicios ecosistémicos. El valor social de biodiversidad fue muy priorizado y generalizado en términos espaciales. Por el contrario, otros valores sociales más abstractos, como el valor futuro y el estético, muestran tendencias más locales. Además, las transiciones históricas de usos de la tierra, así como factores biofísicos, como la topografía y eventos climáticos, se conjugan para determinar las configuraciones espaciales de los valores sociales. Limitaciones: la representación cartográfica de los valores sociales se basó en el uso de puntos debido a las características del programa utilizado (SolVES), por lo que no refleja asignaciones espaciales de valores sociales que comprenden la totalidad de la cuenca o un sector de la misma. Valor y conclusiones: se busca proveer insumos para el diseño de estrategias de sostenibilidad, sustentadas en evaluaciones socioambientales que trasciendan lo pecuniario e incorporen criterios socioculturales explícitos en términos espaciales.

How integrating 'socio-cultural values' into ecosystem services evaluations can give meaning to value indicators

Article

Jun 2021

As an attempt to clarify the meaning of ‘values’ within ecosystem services (ES) assessments, this paper proposes the integration and fine-tuning of the concept of ‘socio-cultural values’ within the ES assessment framework. Firstly, it makes a conceptual clarification between biophysical, social or monetary value indicators describing the performance of a service, and socio-cultural values reflecting opinions on the importance of a (set of) service(s). Secondly, it provides a practical application to illustrate how to interpret ‘social value indicators’ through their interactions with ‘socio-cultural values’. An adequate use of these ‘socio-cultural values’ combined with subjective social value indicators’ makes it possible to take the opinion of a wide range of actors into account and to give meaning to their expressed preferences instead of blindfolding on caricaturized profiles. The case study in this paper deals with the Ardennes forests (Belgium). Wider public preferences for different structural forest characteristics (as performance-oriented ES value indicators) actually relate to different ‘socio-cultural values’. The study results reveal a mismatch between current forest management strategies and wider public preferences. This paper clearly demonstrates the potential of ‘socio-cultural values’ to improve legitimacy and to foster consensus-building of decision-making in natural resource management.

Spatial distribution and perceived drivers of provisioning service values across an East African montane forest landscape

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2021
LANDSCAPE URBAN PLAN

Increasingly, resource managers and planners seek to manage forested landscapes for the value of the services they provide. This is especially true in the Mau Forest of Kenya, a montane area that harbors some of Kenya’s most important headwaters but has lost a quarter of its forest cover since 1999. While managing for the Mau Forest’s landscape services is a priority, it is critical to understand why and how people value these services differently. Otherwise, land management policies risk exacerbating rather than alleviating conservation and environmental justice problems. This is particularly true of provisioning services, a category of landscape services on which communities directly depend. This research combines participatory mapping and semi-structured interviews to understand how socio-cultural values of provisioning services are distributed across two sites within the Western Mau Forest and analyze linkages between mapped values, their locations, and influencing factors. In total, 55 informants were interviewed. Frequently listed provisioning services were water, firewood, cultivation, grazing, timber, and medicine. Results indicate that four main factors influence the location from where these services were derived: historical and legal arrangements, social relations, economic conditions, and biophysical conditions. How these factors influence where people value provisioning services differ based on the service and community in question. This study demonstrates that communities can use and value provisioning services differently and that the distributions of these services are influenced by the factors mentioned above. Understanding this heterogeneity can enable managers and policy makers to create local land use plans that account for spatially-explicit values.

Measuring the relationship among stakeholders from value-satisfaction-demand in the development of ecotourism of Marine Park

Article

Jul 2021
MAR POLICY

Based on stakeholder theory, this study sets up a research framework of value-satisfaction-demand, and chooses Gili Matra Marine Park, Indonesia as a case study to discuss the differences among stakeholders in ecological service value orientation, ecotourism satisfaction and resource development demand of marine park, to test the relationship among value-satisfaction-demand, and to identify relationships and potential conflicts among stakeholders. It shows that: (1) value orientation is a direct predictor of ecotourism satisfaction; (2) tourists' demands for the development of Gili Matra Marine Park are generally lower than that of local residents; (3) local residents' demands for future development are raised according to their professional needs or living needs; (4) the heterogeneity of resource development demands leads to the existence of conflicts. In order to promote the sustainable development of ecotourism in Gili Matra Marine Park, on the one hand, it is necessary to strictly follow the benefit distribution mechanism; on the other hand, it is also desirable to cultivate ecological value orientation.

Ecosystem services approach in national park planning: factors influencing the inhabitants’ perspectives on local natural resources and protected areas

Preprint

Mar 2022

Despite changing paradigms on nature conservation, protected areas (PAs) such as national parks (NPs) remain key elements of systems of nature protection. Nowadays PAs are perceived as socio-ecological systems and there is a conviction that using ecosystem services (ES) approach (and follow-up derivatives) may help explaining social reluctance towards planned or existing PAs. In our study we focused on the planned Turnicki National Park (TuNP) in the far eastern part of the Polish Carpathians - an arena of intensive conservation conflict between proponents of park establishment and various local stakeholders. We examined the case through the ecosystem services perspective, using a questionnaire survey covering local communities around the planned TuNP. Further, we analyzed the interactions between perception of benefits from nature and attitudes towards NPs, as well as we assessed how social and economic status of local inhabitants shape attitudes towards PAs. Also, we discussed potential roles and viewpoints for a NP for a better coexistence with local social environments. We found important associations between attitudes towards parks and different factors, such as age, the length of living in a municipality, level of education and net income. Most notably, respondents who saw benefits of nature were more positive towards NPs in general and TuNP in specific, however those who prioritized provisioning services were more skeptical. The study has shown that using ES lens can help exploring the factors important in establishment and management of PAs and suggesting approaches to improve people’s attitudes towards PAs.

Evaluation of the cultural ecosystem services of wetland park

Article

Jul 2020
ECOL INDIC

One of effective ways to maintain and expand the protected area of wetlands is the development and construction of wetland parks. As urbanization increases, deep insight on the relationships between wetland cultural ecosystem services and natural environment has become critical. In this paper, we identified and mapped the cultural ecosystem services of two wetland parks (the Xiuhu National Wetland Park and the Guanyintang National Urban Wetland Park) by using the Social Values for Ecosystem Services model and the preference survey data. The results show that 1) the highest score of the cultural ecosystem services of Xiuhu National Wetland Park is the biodiversity perception value with a max value index of 10, and then future value and history value with a max value index of 9, aesthetic value and recreation value with a max value index of 8, and culture value, learning value, spiritual value and therapeutic value with a max value index of 7; 2) subjectively, the gender of the respondents affected the evaluation of cultural ecosystem services. The male prefers the aesthetic value, culture value, recreation value, spiritual value and therapeutic value, while female prefers the history value; 3) objectively, the cultural ecosystem services of wetland is affected by various environmental data layers; 4) the cultural ecosystem services values are transferred from Xiuhu National Wetland Park to Guanyintang National Urban Wetland Park, and the transferred value of Guanyintang National Urban Wetland Park has performed well. Our findings suggest that the Social Values for Ecosystem Services model is appropriate to serve such small-scale wetland park and our results can provide a scientific basis for wetland park managers and planners to optimize the cultural ecosystem services and protect wetland resources.

The value of the world's ecosystem services and natural capital

Article

Full-text available

Jan 1997
ECOL ECON

A Typology for the Classification Description and Valuation of Ecosystem Functions, Goods and Services

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2002
ECOL ECON

An increasing amount of information is being collected on the ecological and socio-economic value of goods and services provided by natural and semi-natural ecosystems. However, much of this information appears scattered throughout a disciplinary academic literature, unpublished government agency reports, and across the World Wide Web. In addition, data on ecosystem goods and services often appears at incompatible scales of analysis and is classified differently by different authors. In order to make comparative ecological economic analysis possible, a standardized framework for the comprehensive assessment of ecosystem functions, goods and services is needed. In response to this challenge, this paper presents a conceptual framework and typology for describing, classifying and valuing ecosystem functions, goods and services in a clear and consistent manner. In the following analysis, a classification is given for the fullest possible range of 23 ecosystem functions that provide a much larger number of goods and services. In the second part of the paper, a checklist and matrix is provided, linking these ecosystem functions to the main ecological, socio–cultural and economic valuation methods.

Changing national forest values: A content analysis. Forest Service research paper

Article

Full-text available

This evolution of forest values is currently being widely discussed and debated in the forestry community. It is often claimed that a fundamental shift in forest values has taken place in recent decades. Gordon argued that a shift in public values is part of the explanation for the declining influence of the multiple-use sustained-yield paradigm of forest management. It is increasingly recognized that the values people hold about forest ecosystems are an important part of the social underpinning of ecosystem management, the emerging forest management paradigm. In either case, values play a critical role in identifying ecosystem management goals, setting the context for decisionmaking, and guiding our choices.

Connectivity through ontogeny: Fish population linkages among mangrove and coral reef habitats

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2010

Most evidence for ontogenetic migration of fishes from mangroves to coral reefs has been based on cross-sectional studies of <2 yr duration that have not considered annual variability in recruitment. Taking a longitudinal approach of following cohorts over time, we evaluated evidence for mangrove-derived replenishment of 10 coral reef fishes by drawing on data from 2 concurrent fish monitoring efforts conducted in Biscayne National Park, Florida, USA, over the period 1999 to 2007. Annual indices of abundance were calculated for fish estimated to be age-0 to 4+ in both habitats, and correlation analyses, with appropriate temporal lags, were performed. Statistically significant (p < 0.05; r2 = 0.30 to 0.71) correlations between juvenile abundances in mangrove habitats and adult abundances on the reef tract 1 to 2 yr later emerged for 4 species: Abudefduf saxatilis, Lutjanus apodus, L. griseus, and Sphyraena barracuda. This is one of the few longitudinal studies that uses juvenile abundance indices to test mangrove-reef ontogenetic connectivity. Our results have potential utility for nursery habitat assessment, marine reserve design, and for forecasting species-specific year-class strength on the reef, where most fishing is directed.

The role of marine habitat mapping in ecosystem-based management

Article

Full-text available

Aug 2009

Cogan, C. B., Todd, B. J., Lawton, P., and Noji, T. T. 2009. The role of marine habitat mapping in ecosystem-based management. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66: 2033–2042. Ecosystem-based management (EBM) and the related concept of large marine ecosystems (LMEs) are sometimes criticized as being too broad for many management and research applications. At the same time, there is a great need to develop more effectively some substantive scientific methods to empower EBM. Marine habitat mapping (MHM) is an example of an applied set of field methods that support EBM directly and contribute essential elements for conducting integrated ecosystem assessments. This manuscript places MHM practices in context with biodiversity models and EBM. We build the case for MHM being incorporated as an explicit and early process following initial goal-setting within larger EBM programmes. Advances in MHM and EBM are dependent on evolving technological and modelling capabilities, conservation targets, and policy priorities within a spatial planning framework. In both cases, the evolving and adaptive nature of these sciences requires explicit spatial parameters, clear objectives, combinations of social and scientific considerations, and multiple parameters to assess overlapping viewpoints and ecosystem functions. To examine the commonalities between MHM and EBM, we also address issues of implicit and explicit linkages between classification, mapping, and elements of biodiversity with management goals. Policy objectives such as sustainability, ecosystem health, or the design of marine protected areas are also placed in the combined MHM–EBM context.

Can Ecotourism Interpretation Really Lead to Pro-Conservation Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviour? Evidence from the Galapagos Islands

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2008
J Sustain Tourism

Proponents of ecotourism within protected areas believe that tour design and interpretation can help mitigate the negative impacts of tourism, human and environmental, and build an educated and motivated constituency that supports environmental conservation and social improvements. However, ecotourism's claims to achieve those objectives are largely untested, and linkages between tourism's operational characteristics and positive changes in tourists” environmental knowledge, attitudes and behaviours are largely unexplored. This exploratory research investigated the efforts of one Galapagos National Park tour operator to explore whether a well-conceived interpretation/ecotourism product could influence tourists” educational outcomes and support of environmental conservation. Results suggest that well-designed and delivered interpretation during the ecotourism experience can increase knowledge of the host-protected area, supportive attitudes towards resource management issues facing the host-protected area, general environmental behavioural intentions and philanthropic support of conservation.

Value orientations toward coral reefs in recreation and tourism settings: A conceptual and measurement approach

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2010
J Sustain Tourism

Mark D. Needham

This paper examines recreationist and tourist value orientations toward coral reefs (e.g. protection–use, biocentric-anthropocentric), tests a scale for measuring these orientations in recreation and tourism settings, groups individuals based on their orientations and examines demographic and activity differences among groups. Data were obtained from surveys of 2821 users at three coastal and marine sites in Hawai'i. Belief statements about reefs (e.g. “coral reefs have value whether humans are present or not”) were used to measure value orientations. Users agreed with protectionist and disagreed with use-oriented beliefs. Except for one statement (“humans should manage coral reefs so that humans benefit”), the scale provided a reliable and valid measure of value orientations toward reefs. Respondents were grouped into three subgroups (strong protection, moderate protection, mixed protection–use). The largest number of users had strong protectionist orientations toward reefs, and there was no group possessing only use orientations. There were no relationships between value orientations and site, age and residence. Females, snorkelers and sunbathers had stronger protectionist orientations, whereas most scuba divers and anglers had mixed orientations. Given that most respondents had protectionist orientations, efforts to conserve reefs would be supported, whereas activities with deleterious effects on reefs would not be widely supported.

Tools for mapping social values of urban woodlands and other green areas

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2007
LANDSCAPE URBAN PLAN

Since the social values of urban woodlands are not always sufficiently taken into account in decision-making on urban land-use and green space planning, new means of collecting the experienced values of urban green areas and integrating this information into the planning processes are needed. The main aim of this study was to develop a simple method to describe the experienced qualities of green areas for strategic green area planning purposes. In a postal survey conducted in Helsinki, Finland, general attitudes towards and benefits felt to be derived from green areas as well as site specific information about the experience values were gathered. Local residents were asked to identify, those areas on a map of the study area that had particular positive qualities, such as beautiful scenery, peace and quiet and the feeling of being in a forest as well as those areas with negative features. These results were compiled in map form using GIS software. The results highlight the most valued sites as well as problem areas within the study area. The most important features associated with favourite places were: tranquillity, the feeling of being in a forest, and naturalness. The results suggest that the method is communicative and relatively easy to use in both collaborative green area planning and land-use planning.

A GIS Application for Assessing, Mapping, and Quantifying the Social Values of Ecosystem Services

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2011
APPL GEOGR

As human pressures on ecosystems continue to increase, research involving the effective incorporation of social values information into the context of comprehensive ecosystem services assessments is becoming more important. Including quantified, spatially explicit social value metrics in such assessments will improve the analysis of relative tradeoffs among ecosystem services. This paper describes a GIS application, Social Values for Ecosystem Services (SolVES), developed to assess, map, and quantify the perceived social values of ecosystem services by deriving a non-monetary Value Index from responses to a public attitude and preference survey. SolVES calculates and maps the Value Index for social values held by various survey subgroups, as distinguished by their attitudes regarding ecosystem use. Index values can be compared within and among survey subgroups to explore the effect of social contexts on the valuation of ecosystem services. Index values can also be correlated and regressed against landscape metrics SolVES calculates from various environmental data layers. Coefficients derived through these analyses were applied to their corresponding data layers to generate a predicted social value map. This map compared favorably with other SolVES output and led to the addition of a predictive mapping function to SolVES for value transfer to areas where survey data are unavailable. A more robust application is being developed as a public domain tool for decision makers and researchers to map social values of ecosystem services and to facilitate discussions among diverse stakeholders involving relative tradeoffs among different ecosystem services in a variety of physical and social contexts.

Mangrove habitats as nurseries: unique assemblages of juvenile fish in subtropical mangroves in eastern Australia

Article

Full-text available

Oct 1995

A total of 53 species of juvenile fish were caught over a 2 yr study period in 2 mangrove lined estuaries in Moreton Bay, eastern subtropical Australia. Comparing juvenile fish communities among mangrove forests, seagrass beds and mudflats identified significant differences in species richness and abundances of juveniles. Seagrass communities comprised distinct species of resident and nonresident fish species of little economic importance. Mangrove forests and mudflats had many shared species (but mangrove forests were dominated by smaller or younger juveniles in greater abundances; Laegdsgaard unpubl. data). Mudflat habitats appear to be transition zones between juvenile and adult habitats. Only 4 species were exclusive to seagrass whereas 27 species were exclusive to the mangrove/mudflat habitat. Juveniles of 7 of the 10 commercially harvested fish species in Moreton Bay were found in greatest numbers in mangrove forests. Salinity, temperature and turbidity were similar in all habitats so could not account for differences in habitat choice of juvenile fish. Most juvenile fish in mangroves during summer were nonresidents and species richness and abundance were highest in summer and lowest in winter. There were significant differences among sites and years in the numbers of species and individuals; however, the trends were similar and demonstrated clearly that mangrove sites within Moreton Bay play a more important role and have greater potential as nursery habitats than do adjacent habitats. Preferential selection of mangrove habitats by juvenile fish, particularly commercial species, indicates a need for conservation.

Beyond the Commodity Metaphor: Examining Emotional and Symbolic Attachment to Place

Article

Full-text available

Jan 1992

In contrast to the dominant multiattribute commodity view of outdoor recreation settings, wilderness users are described as having emotional and symbolic ties to the setting that are manifested as attachment to the site and the wilderness concept. Data from four wilderness areas show stronger place and wilderness attachment to be associated with previous visits, rural residence, a setting focus, visiting alone and on weekdays, hunting in the area, and sensitivity to site impacts and horse encounters. Place attachment is also associated with a lack of nonwilderness substitutes and lower income and education. Wilderness attachment is associated with membership in wilderness and conservation organizations, visits to more wilderness areas, a preference for longer visits, participation in nature study, and sensitivity to sight and sound intrusions and hiker encounters. -from Authors

Rethinking Ecosystem Services to Better Address and Navigate Cultural Values

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2012
ECOL ECON

Ecosystem service approaches have become a prominent basis for planning and management. Cultural services and non-use values are included in all major typologies and present some of the most compelling reasons for conserving ecosystems, though many barriers exist to their explicit characterization. The values that conform least well to economic assumptions—variously lumped together with/as cultural services—have proven elusive in part because valuation is complicated by the properties of intangibility and incommensurability, which has in turn led to their exclusion from economic valuation. We argue that the effectiveness of the ecosystem services framework in decision-making is thwarted by (i) conflation of services, values, and benefits, and (ii) failure to appropriately treat diverse kinds of values. We address this challenge by (1) distinguishing eight dimensions of values, which have implications for appropriate valuation and decision-making; (2) demonstrating the interconnected nature of benefits and services, and so the ubiquity of intangible values; (3) discussing the implications of these propositions for ecosystem-services research; and (4) outlining briefly a research agenda to enable decision-making that is ecologically appropriate and socially just. Because many ecosystem services (co-)produce ‘cultural’ benefits, full characterization of services must address non-material values through methods from diverse social sciences.

The Politics of Place: Understanding Meaning, Common Ground, and Political Difference on the Rocky Mountain Front

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2003
FOREST SCI

A major challenge of forest policy and management is effectively understanding different people's viewpoints on natural resource use and conservation, and how those viewpoints contribute to conflict and conflict resolution. In response to this challenge, the concept of place is gaining currency in natural resource research. The study of place promises an integrative approach to understanding people's relationships with particular areas. Realizing the potential of place research to inform forest policy and management means conceptualizing place as an arena of shared and contested meanings. A politics of place is attentive to different and potentially conflicting meanings, and how senses of place may be connected to larger political struggles. This study examines people's images, values, and interests with respect to the Rocky Mountain Front in Montana. In this case study, discourse about placenames provided a window into the politics of place. Results illustrate the ways in which place meanings are connected to people's ideas about property, conservation, and governance. Knowledge of the politics of place can inform forest policy and management and contribute to a more sophisticated understanding of natural resource conflict and the potential effectiveness of decision-making processes. FOR. SCI. 49(6):855866.

The Value of the World's Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital

Article

Full-text available

May 1997
NATURE

The services of ecological systems and the natural capital stocksthat produce them are critical to the functioning of the Earth’s life-support system. They contribute to human welfare, both directly and indirectly, and therefore represent part of the total economic value of the planet.We have estimated the current economic value of 17 ecosystem services for 16 biomes, based on published studies and a few original calculations. For the entire biosphere, the value (most of which is outside the market) is estimated to be in the range of US$16–54 trillion (1012) per year, with an average of US$33trillion per year. Because of the nature of the uncertainties, thismust be considered a minimum estimate. Global gross national product total is around US$18 trillion per year.

An Evaluation of Respondent Selection Methods for Household Mail Surveys

Article

Full-text available

Aug 2009

Mail surveys are a staple of the survey industry; however, they are rarely used in surveys of the general population. The problem is twofold: (1) lack of a complete sampling frame of households and (2) difficulties with ensuring random selection of a respondent within the household. However, advances in electronic record keeping, such as the U.S. Postal Service Delivery Sequence File, now make it possible to sample from a frame of residential addresses. Unfortunately, less is known about the effectiveness of within-household selection techniques for household mail surveys. A six-state pilot study was conducted as part of the 2005 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System using the Delivery Sequence File to sample addresses for a mail survey. The pilot study tested three respondent selection methods: any adult, adult with the next birthday, and all adults. The next-birthday and all-adults methods yielded household-level response rates that were comparable to the any-adult method, the method assumed to have the least respondent burden. At the respondent level, however, the response rate for the all-adults method was lower when we accounted for within-household nonresponse.

The Value of Biodiversity: Markets, Society, and Ecosystems

Article

Full-text available

Feb 1997

John Malcolm Gowdy

The value of biodiversity is discussed at different levels including market value, non-market values to humans, and the value of biodiversity to ecosystems. The main conclusion is that, although market exchange values of environmental services may be used to justify biodiversity protection measures, it must be stressed that exchange value constitutes a small portion of total biodiversity value. The total value of existing biodiversity is largely unknown but indications are that it is essential to human existence. The various levels of biodiversity value point to the need for a hierarchical and pluralistic methodology to determine appropriate policies for its preservation.

Developing Computer-Based Participatory Approaches to Mapping Landscape Values for Landscape and Resource Management

Chapter

Full-text available

Jan 2009

The last 50 years or so have seen a steady increase in the rate of destructive wildfires across the world, partly as a result of climate change and partly as a result of encroachment of human settlement on fire-based ecosystems (Russell et al. 2004; Westerling et al. 2006). Years of active fire suppression in such areas has inevitably led to the build-up of hazardous fuel loads, creating ideal conditions for destructive wildfires (Johnson et al. 2001). Recently, serious wildfires have occurred in Australia, southeast Asia and the Mediterranean, as well as those occurring in the USA in California, Montana, Idaho and Alaska. Current thinking on fire management is very much focused on re-instating natural fire regimes and allowing fire, as nearly as possible, to function in its natural ecological role (Miller 2006), thereby reducing the occurrence of destructive fires. Mechanical fuel treatments (e.g. thinning) and prescribed burning are being used to reduce fuel loads to near natural conditions, after which natural fire regimes can be allowed to operate. There are two main types of thinning that either remove selected trees to create a more widely spaced forest consisting of trees of different sizes/ages or remove all smaller trees and brush within the understory to leave a more uniform forest of more widely spaced older trees. Prescribed burning uses small managed fires, rather than mechanical means, to achieve the latter. This is a long and involved process and often has the potential to create conflict between the different management regimes associated with adjacent lands and between the different inhabitants and stakeholders affected in the short to medium term. This requires a high degree of collaboration and participatory planning if acceptable fuel reduction strategies and management plans are to be developed.

Non-consumptive wildlife-oriented recreation: A conceptual framework

Article

Full-text available

Dec 1990
BIOL CONSERV

Recreational non-consumptive use of wildlife has been attracting increasing numbers of people and generating growing economic benefits from tourism activity. More importantly this type of wildlife interaction has potential benefits to conservation from the long-term effect of changing attitudes towards wild animals and natural habitats. It does not, however, fit well into the existing wildlife management paradigm due to the nature of the final product, a recreation experience. This paper aims to provide an integrated framework that illustrates the major components of non-consumptive wildlife recreation and links between research areas in ecology, animal behaviour, recreation, tourism and existing wildlife management institutions. The fundamental purpose of this paper is to cast wildlife conservation in a new light that recognizes the need to formulate management plans in both a social and biological context.

Mapping Community Values for Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2009
ECOL ECON

Effects of Place Attachment on Users’ Perceptions of Social and Environmental Conditions in a Natural Setting

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2004

Research on place attachment has provided insight on the diversity of meanings humans associate with the physical environment. We provide further insight on the nature of human–place bonding by examining place attachment's effect on respondents’ perceptions of social and environmental conditions along the Appalachian Trail (AT) in the United States. Using a social judgment framework, our results indicated that the two dimensions of place attachment, place identity and place dependence, had opposing effects on the condition domains. For all condition domains, as respondents’ scores on the place identity dimension increased, they were more inclined to perceive the condition encountered as problematic. The opposite pattern of relations was observed for place dependence. These results indicate that the two dimensions of place attachment, while moderately and positively correlated, examine different sources of meaning for AT hikers.

Surveying the extent of PPGIS practice in the United States

Article

Nature's services: societal dependence on natural ecosystems natures services societal dependence on natural ecosystems

Article

Jan 1997

G.C. Daily

Mapping spatial attributes in survey research for natural resource management: Methods and applications

Article

Jan 2004
SOC NATUR RESOUR

Gregory Brown

Studies in Outdoor Recreation: Search and Research for Satisfaction

Article

Jan 2010

R.E. Manning

For twenty-five years, Studies in Outdoor Recreation has served as an invaluable reference for park and recreation managers and a standard text in college courses. The only book to integrate social science literature on outdoor recreation, it reviews studies from this broad, interdisciplinary field and synthesizes them into a body of knowledge, providing a historical perspective on outdoor recreation research and developing its practical management implications. This third edition is fully revised to reflect current research and new concerns in the field. A new chapter examines the emerging issue of sense of place and its relationship to outdoor recreation. The book concludes with twenty principles to guide outdoor recreation management and research. An extensive bibliography and section entitled Notes on Sources: A Guide to the Social Science Literature in Outdoor Recreation lead readers to valuable primary source material.

A forest ethic and multivalue forest management

Article

Jan 1991
J FOREST

A Conjoint Analysis of Preference Heterogeneity among Day and Overnight Visitors to the Okefenokee Wilderness

Article

Dec 2006
J LEISURE RES

The purpose of this study is to examine preference heterogeneity among day non-motorized, day motorized and overnight visitors to the Okefenokee Wilderness using conjoint analysis. Study results support the hypothesis that the subgroups of Okefenokee Wilderness visitors considered in this study are not homogeneous with respect to their wilderness setting preferences and that they may be better understood by studying similarities and differences in preferences among them. The study findings suggest that the issue most likely to be a source of contention among day motorized, day non-motorized and overnight Okefenokee Wilderness visitors is the percentage of water trail miles motorized visitors are allowed to use, while there was general agreement among the subgroups of visitors considered in this study about what constitutes reasonable numbers of encounters with other boating groups.

National frameworks for marine conservation - A hierarchical geophysical approach

Article

May 2000

1. Development of environmental protected areas has been driven 'more by opportunity than design, scenery rather than science' (Hackman A. 1993. Preface. A protected areas gap analysis methodology: planning for the conservation of biodiversity. World Wildlife Fund Canada Discussion Paper; i-ii). If marine environments are to be protected from the adverse effects of human activities, then identification of types of marine habitats and delineation of their boundaries in a consistent classification is required. Without such a classification system, the extent and significance of representative or distinctive habitats cannot be recognized. Such recognition is a fundamental prerequisite to the determination of location and size of marine areas to be protected. 2. A hierarchical classification has been developed based on enduring/recurrent geophysical (oceanographic and physiographic) features of the marine environment, which identifies habitat types that reflect changes in biological composition. Important oceanographic features include temperature, stratification and exposure; physiographic features include bottom relief and substrate type 3. Classifications based only on biological data are generally prohibited at larger scales, due to lack of information. Therefore, we are generally obliged to classify habitat types as surrogates for community types. The data necessary for this classification are available from mapped sources and from remote sensing. It is believed they can be used to identify representative and distinctive marine habitats supporting different communities, and will provide an ecological framework for marine conservation planning at the national level.

Biophysical impacts and psychosocial experiences associated with use of selected long-distance walking tracks within the Wet Tropics region of North Queensland, Australia

Article

May 2006

Nigel Gordon Ryan Young

Density Estimation for Statistics and Data Analysis.

Article

Jan 1988

Navigating Social-Ecological Systems Building Resilience For Complexity And Change

Book

Jan 2003

Mapping a Values Typology in Three Counties of the Interior Northwest, USA: Scale, Geographic Associations Among Values, and the Use of Intensity Weights

Article

Apr 2011

Max Nielsen-Pincus

Spatial attribution mapping is one method of eliciting the relationship between people and place. I use a landscape values typology and environmental values theory to investigate how people attribute values to the landscape in three counties of Idaho and Oregon. Using geographically referenced values data collected in a mail survey (n = 767), I examine the use of intensity weights when implementing a mapping exercise and the spatial scale and geographic associations between values in the typology. The results demonstrate that places within a landscape can offer multiple values, and that when geographically operationalized the landscape values typology can be divided primarily into two categories: material (socioeconomic quality) and postmaterial (personal/environmental quality) values. The findings reflect the linkages between spatially operationalized values and established environmental values theory, and the need for land use planners, natural resource managers, and local decision makers to facilitate both material and postmaterial values in their decisions.

An Evaluation of the Use of Points Versus Polygons in Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) Using Quasi-Experimental Design and Monte Carlo Simulation

Article

Jan 2011
INT J GEOGR INF SCI

The collection of spatial information through public participation geographic information systems (PPGIS) is most frequently implemented using either point or polygon spatial features but the research trade-offs between the two methods are not well-understood. In a quasi-experimental PPGIS design, we collected four attributes (aesthetic, recreation, economic, and biological values) as both point and polygon spatial features in the same PPGIS study. We then used Monte Carlo simulation methods to describe the relationship between the quantity of data collected and the degree of spatial convergence in the two methods for each of the four PPGIS attributes. The results demonstrate that the same PPGIS attributes identified by points and polygons will converge on a collective spatial ‘truth’ within the study area provided there are enough observations, however, the degree of spatial convergence varies by PPGIS attribute type and the quantity of data collected. The use of points for mapping PPGIS attributes and aggregating areas through density mapping constitutes a conservative approach to spatial inference about place significance, but the data demands for point collection are considerably higher than for polygon features. Based on our results, we provide heuristic guidelines for future PPGIS research when using point or polygon spatial attributes. We argue that other variables such as the cognitive complexity of the PPGIS mapping process and stronger claims of external validity favor the use of point features, but these advantages must be weighed against the significantly higher sampling effort required.

Using analyses of public value orientations, attitudes and preferences to inform national forest planning in Colorado and Wyoming

Article

Apr 2011
APPL GEOGR

Understanding public value orientations, attitudes and preferences towards national forests is a critical task for the USDA Forest Service (USFS) during the development of their forest plans. Social surveys are efficient and effective ways to generate this information from a representative sample of the larger public who may care about national forests but do not attend participatory events – the so-called silent majority. Survey results can be used to complement input generated from participatory and collaborative processes. This paper presents results and discusses implications from social surveys conducted on three national forests in Colorado and Wyoming. The results indicate that although respondents identified aesthetic, biodiversity, future and recreation value orientations as most important, there are also surprising linkages between value orientations, attitudes and preferences towards forest uses and policy options associated with specific geographic and socio-economic contexts and conditions. The results also suggest some “hotspots” where value orientations, attitudes and preferences display some apparent contradictions. Such hotspots indicate potential conflicts and suggest opportunities to focus participatory, collaborative methods. The relevance of these results to national forest planning in particular and public resource management is explored in the discussion and conclusion, especially as the USFS – and other public resource management agencies – face increased pressure to make room for place-based, collaborative planning while also taking into account broader public sentiments and preferences.

Mapping Spatial Attributes in Survey Research for Natural Resource Management: Methods and Applications. Society & Natural Resources

Article

Dec 2004

Gregory Brown

Traditional survey research measures attributes such as opinions, attitudes, beliefs, values, norms, and preferences. Few public surveys have attempted to map perceived spatial attributes of places and landscapes, a subject of increasing importance to environmental and natural resource management. For the past 5 years, this researcher has included spatial measures of landscape values and attributes in five separate surveys of the general public in Alaska (1998–2003). This article reviews the spatial data collection rationale behind these studies, design concepts, methods, and implementation issues when administering a general public survey that includes a spatial mapping component. A research framework for using landscape values and spatial measures in GIS planning applications is presented, including suitability analysis, gap analysis, and hot-spot identification. Spatial measure ambiguity and survey response rates will require future research attention. The mapping of psychometric attributes of place through survey research remains

Mapping outdoor recreationists' perceived social values for ecosystem services at Hinchinbrook Island National Park, Australia

No full-text available