scholarly journals Ecosystem service potentials, flows and demands-concepts for spatial localisation, indication and quantification

2014 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Burkhard ◽  
Marion Kandziora ◽  
Ying Hou ◽  
Felix Müller

The high variety of ecosystem service categorisation systems, assessment frameworks, indicators, quantification methods and spatial localisation approaches allows scientists and decision makers to harness experience, data, methods and tools. On the other hand, this variety of concepts and disagreements among scientists hamper an integration of ecosystem services into contemporary environmental management and decision making. In this article, the current state of the art of ecosystem service science regarding spatial localisation, indication and quantification of multiple ecosystem service supply and demand is reviewed and discussed. Concepts and tables for regulating, provisioning and cultural ecosystem service definitions, distinguishing between ecosystem service potential supply (stocks), flows (real supply) and demands as well as related indicators for quantification are provided. Furthermore, spatial concepts of service providing units, benefitting areas, spatial relations, rivalry, spatial and temporal scales are elaborated. Finally, matrices linking CORINE land cover types to ecosystem service potentials, flows, demands and budget estimates are provided. The matrices show that ecosystem service potentials of landscapes differ from flows, especially for provisioning ecosystem services.

Land ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ando Aulia ◽  
Harpinder Sandhu ◽  
Andrew Millington

Ecosystem services in oil palm plantations owned by smallholders in four villages in the Riau Province, Indonesia were identified and valued. Nine provisioning, three regulating and maintenance, one cultural ecosystem service, and a single ecosystem dis-service, were identified from interviews with 62 farming households. Direct and indirect market valuation methods were used to estimate the total economic value (TEV) of these services, which averaged USD 6520 ha−1 year−1 (range = USD 2970–7729 ha−1 year−1). The values of provisioning services were USD 4331 ha−1 year−1 (range = USD 2263–5489 ha−1 year−1), regulating and maintenance services were valued at USD 1880 ha−1 year−1 (range of USD 707–3110 ha−1 year−1), and cultural services were USD 309 ha−1 year−1. We conclude that identifying and valuing ecosystem services offers an opportunity to improve the environmental and economic sustainability of smallholders in oil palm landscapes in Indonesia.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 1217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuan Pan ◽  
Yue Che ◽  
Stuart Marshall ◽  
Lorraine Maltby

One way of linking research and environmental policies is to increase public participation and identify ecosystem services valued by society, but the reasons influencing ecosystem values can vary. Our study investigates the reasons influencing ecosystem service values at the third largest freshwater lake in China, Lake Tai (Taihu). We interviewed 257 rural and 257 urban respondents in four cities and their respective rural regions surrounding the lake. Respondents were more willing to pay to protect a provisioning ecosystem service than a cultural ecosystem service, and those emotionally attached to the lake may value it more highly. There is also spatial heterogeneity in respondents’ ecosystem values. Rural communities ranked directly used ecosystem services higher than urban communities. The city that respondents lived in also significantly affected the amount they were willing to pay for ecosystem services. Identifying potential reasons behind ecosystem service values can provide insights into linking public perception and policy making, helping to form environmental policies that reflect societal values.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 4131
Author(s):  
Wenbo Cai ◽  
Tong Wu ◽  
Wei Jiang ◽  
Wanting Peng ◽  
Yongli Cai

Transboundary environmental problems caused by urban expansion and economic growth cannot be solved by individual cities. Successful intercity environmental cooperation relies on the clear identification and definition of the rights and obligations of each city. An Ecosystem services (ES) approach not only budgets the ES supply and demand of a city, but also defines the spatial relationships between Services Provisioning Areas (SPA) and Services Benefiting Areas (SBA). However, to date, quantitative studies integrating ES budgets and spatial relations have been scarce. This study integrates ecosystem services supply–demand budgeting with flow direction analysis to identify intercity environmental cooperation in the highly urbanized Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region of China for water-related ecosystem services (flood protection, erosion regulation and water purification). The results demonstrated that there were significant spatial mismatches in the supply and demand of three water-related ES among 16 core cities in the YRD region: five to six cities in the southern part of the region had significant service surpluses, while ten to 11 cities in the north–central part had significant service deficits. We then went on to offer definitions for Ecosystem Services Surplus City, Ecosystem Services Deficit City and Ecosystem Services Balance City, as well as Service Provisioning City, Service Benefiting City and Service Connecting City in which to categorize cities in the YRD Region. Furthermore, we identified two intercity cooperation types and two non-cooperation types. This framework can be used to promote ecological integration in highly urbanized regions to advance sustainable development.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1010-1012 ◽  
pp. 339-343
Author(s):  
Run He Cheng

Ecosystem services (ES) of the biological resources are the foundation for human survival and development, but due to frequent interferences of human activities and high rate of population increasing, biological resources have been severely damaged. The occupation of the value of ecosystem services makes the biodiversity receiving more and more threats. Therefore, protection and management of ecosystem services has become more and more urgent. Through evaluation of the values of ecosystem services at the spatial and temporal scales in a strategic environmental assessment (SEA) framework, we may assess the influences of government policies, programs and plans on ecosystem services more efficiently. In this paper we presented on the method for ecosystem service valuation and involving stakeholders and decision-makers in SEA Processes. Then put forward the evaluation procedure framework of integrating ecosystem service into strategic environmental assessment.


2017 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone A. Beichler ◽  
Olaf Bastian ◽  
Dagmar Haase ◽  
Stefan Heiland ◽  
Nadja Kabisch ◽  
...  

There is a rapidly growing body of literature on the theory about the ecosystem service concept and the practical assessment of ecosystem services in different contexts ranging from natural to urban environments. Yet, where does the concept reach its limits? This paper critically reflects the application of the ecosystem service concept in urban environments illustrating the handling of urban structures (incl. built-up areas) and the risk that the normative principle of the concept could be missed. It is shown that in theory urban structures refer to a variety of ecosystem concepts. As a starting point for ecosystem service assessments, these could be classified into natural, managed, constructed and overbuilt systems. Since ecosystem service concepts do not directly refer to a specific ecosystem definition, but to biophysical structures and processes, all of these classes could be included. However, the dependency on context and scale makes a differentiation in  practical ecosystem services assessment challenging. We conclude that the ecosystem service concept does not reach its limits in urban environments, but urban environments represent an extreme case characterized by multifunctionality and a high degree of modification that enables to uncover research challenges applying in any environment. There is a need for a more transparent reporting of theoretical and methodological assumptions to facilitate the comparability between ecosystem service assessments. Comprehensive approaches that consider multiple ecosystem services and include human input, human modification, the ecosystem status as well as their interactions are required to understand the spatial relations between ecosystem services delivered by different ecosystems.


One Ecosystem ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. e24490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario V Balzan ◽  
Iain Debono

Recreation is an important cultural ecosystem service and is one way in which communities experience the direct and indirect benefits arising from the experiential use of their environment. The recent rise in popularity of Global Positioning System (GPS) game applications, which combine information technology with an activity that increases mobility and encourages outdoor enjoyment, provides ecosystem service practitioners with an opportunity to make use of this georeferenced data to assess recreational ecosystem services. Geocaching is one such worldwide outdoor game. It has fixed points of incursion where people can hide and look for caches. This study explores the possibility of using geocaching data as a proxy for recreational ecosystems services in the Maltese Islands. A quantitative analysis of the georeferenced caches was used together with their visit rates and number of favourite points. This was supplemented by two questionnaires that investigated the preferences and experiences of both geocache placers (n=39) and hunters (n=21). Results show that the highest number of caches were placed and searched for in urban areas and that geocaching is strongly associated with the presence and accessibility of urban green infrastructure. The number of geocachers who stated preference for experiences in nature did not translate into high visit rates to sites of high conservation value (protected areas) but landscape value was significantly associated with recreational ecosystem services flow. The results presented here provide evidence that geocaching spatial data can act as an indicator for assessing and mapping recreational ecosystem services in urban environments and in cultural landscapes.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Christie Zoeller ◽  
Georgina G. Gurney ◽  
Graeme S. Cumming

Abstract Context: Recent efforts to apply sustainability concepts to entire landscapes have seen increasing interest in approaches that connect socioeconomic and biophysical aspects of landscape change. Evaluating these connections through a cultural ecosystem services lens clarifies how different spatiotemporal scales and levels of organisation influence the production of cultural benefits. Currently, however, the effects of multi-level and multi-scale ecological variation on the production of cultural benefits have not yet been disentangled.Objectives: To quantify the amount of variation in cultural ecosystem service provision by birds to birders that is due to landscape-level attributes.Methods: We used data from 293 birding routes and 101 different birders in South African National Parks to explore the general relationships between birder responses to bird species and environmental conditions, bird-related observations, the biophysical attributes of the landscape and their effect on bird-related cultural benefits.Results: Biophysical attributes (particularly biome, vegetation type, and variance in elevation) significantly increased the percentage of variance explained in birder benefits from 57–65%, demonstrating that birder benefits are derived from multi-level (birds to ecosystems) and multi-scale (site to landscape) social and ecological interactions.Conclusions: Landscape attributes influence people’s perceptions of cultural ecosystem service provision by individual species. Recognition of the complex, localised and inextricable linkage of cultural ecosystem services to biophysical attributes can improve our understanding of the landscape characteristics that affect the supply and demand of cultural ecosystem services.


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 843
Author(s):  
Qingxiang Meng ◽  
Likun Zhang ◽  
Hejie Wei ◽  
Enxiang Cai ◽  
Dong Xue ◽  
...  

The continuous supply of ecosystem services is the foundation of the sustainable development of human society. The identification of the supply–demand relationships and risks of ecosystem services is of considerable importance to the management of regional ecosystems and the effective allocation of resources. This paper took the Yihe River Basin as the research area and selected water yield, carbon sequestration, food production, and soil conservation to assess changes in the supply and demand of ecosystem services and their matching status from 2000 to 2018. Risk identification and management zoning were also conducted. Results show the following: (1) The spatial distribution of the four ecosystems service supply and demand in the Yihe River Basin was mismatched. The food production supply levels in the middle and lower reaches and the upstream water yield, carbon sequestration, and soil conservation supply levels were high. However, most of the areas with high demand for ecosystem services were concentrated downstream. (2) From 2000 to 2018, the supply of water yield and carbon sequestration in the Yihe River Basin decreased, while that of food production and soil conservation increased. The demand for the four ecosystem services also increased. (3) Water yield faced considerable supply–demand risks. Fifty percent of the sub-basins were at a high-risk level, and the risk areas were concentrated in the middle and lower reaches. The three remaining services were mainly at low-risk levels. The Yihe River Basin was divided into eight types of supply–demand risk spatial management zones based on the ecosystem service supply and demand levels, which will help promote refined regional ecosystem management and sustainable development. The supply and demand assessment of ecosystem services from a risk perspective can integrate the information of natural ecosystems and socio-economic systems and provide scientific support for watershed spatial management.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 710 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trinidad del Río-Mena ◽  
Louise Willemen ◽  
Anton Vrieling ◽  
Andy Nelson

Landscape processes fluctuate over time, influencing the intra-annual dynamics of ecosystem services. However, current ecosystem service assessments generally do not account for such changes. This study argues that information on the dynamics of ecosystem services is essential for understanding and monitoring the impact of land management. We studied two regulating ecosystem services (i. erosion prevention, ii. regulation of water flows) and two provisioning services (iii. provision of forage, iv. biomass for essential oil production) in thicket vegetation and agricultural fields in the Baviaanskloof, South Africa. Using models based on Sentinel-2 data, calibrated with field measurements, we estimated the monthly supply of ecosystem services and assessed their intra-annual variability within vegetation cover types. We illustrated how the dynamic supply of ecosystem services related to temporal variations in their demand. We also found large spatial variability of the ecosystem service supply within a single vegetation cover type. In contrast to thicket vegetation, agricultural land showed larger temporal and spatial variability in the ecosystem service supply due to the effect of more intensive management. Knowledge of intra-annual dynamics is essential to jointly assess the temporal variation of supply and demand throughout the year to evaluate if the provision of ecosystem services occurs when most needed.


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