Mapping and assessment of ecosystem condition and ecosystem services across different scales and domains in Europe

Mapping and assessment of ecosystem condition and ecosystem services across different scales and domains in Europ

Towards integrated mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their services in Bulgaria: The Central Balkan case study

The aim of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 isto maintain and enhance ecosystem services (ES) in Europe and requires all Member States to map and assess the state of ecosystems and their services in the respective national territories. The EU-funded project ESMERALDA analyses ES mapping and assessment methods and approaches in their biophysical, social and economical perspectives, as well as their application in different case studies. The project also aims at the development of an integrated and consistent assessment framework. In Bulgaria, methodological guides for evaluation and mapping of the services provided by the nine main types of ecosystems have been prepared together with the respective proposals for their implementation in the national assessment. The Bulgarian research team analyses and tests various aspects of ecosystem services mapping and assessment, such as alternative economic assessments, multi-criteria analyses and biophysical assessment approaches, mapping challenges and local population surveys. In this paper paper, we review the ES activities in Bulgaria and present selected mapping and assessment methods tested in the Central Balkan case study area. It provides relevant examples for the implementation of integrated mapping and assessment of ecosystem services at local and regional level, where different mapping approaches and techniques are embedded within diverse policy contexts. The main goal of the study is to investigate how the assessment results can support the integration of the ecological functions of the Central Balkan National Park with the economic opportunities that it creates for the local and regional communities. A tiered approach has been used to organise the mapping and assessment exercises in the study area, in order to meet the needs for integrated ecosystem assessment and overcome the limitations of data availability. At tier 1, the study performs identification and initial ES mapping of the whole area. At tier 2, it applies economic valuation for the Municipality of Karlovo by using statistical data and the contingent valuation method. At tier 3, the investigation applies modelling methods to assess carbon storage and flood regulation on a larger scale. The results are presented in the form of maps at all levels, which use a uniform 0 to 5 assessment scale. The integrated approach presented here ensures a clear communication of the end results to the respective decision-makers

Mapping and assessment of urban ecosystem condition and services using integrated index of spatial structure

Urban ecosystems are the areas where built infrastructure covers a large proportion of the land surface but the main source of ecosystem services provision is the green infrastructure. This provision is very much dependent on the particular combination of green spaces such as parks or vegetation belts and paved areas such as buildings and streets. The spatial arrangement of these elements is an important parameter which could be used for the assessment of the ecosystem condition in the urban areas. An integrated index of spatial structure is proposed which incorporates built types and land cover from the Local Climate Zones (LCZ) concept with urban ecosystems' classes developed on the basis of MAES typology. An algorithm has been developed for index generation using an urban ecosystems' database and remote sensing data. The index is used to define vegetation cover in urban ecosystems and assess their condition as a part of the assessment framework. It is also applied in the assessment of several ecosystem services through quantification of ecosystem services' indicators or as an indicator in a complex assessment. The results show that, although most urban ecosystems in Bulgaria are assessed as moderate and good condition, very few of them have very good condition and about 3.5% have very bad condition. The highest scores are defined for urban green areas while the lowest are for transport networks. The use of an integrated index in urban ecosystem services' assessment is represented by examples for global and local climate regulation. The results are used to develop maps of ecosystem services supply capacity for selected cities. The overall analysis indicates that the urban ecosystems in Bulgaria have a moderate to good capacity for local climate regulation and moderate to low capacity for global climate regulation. The integrated index of spatial structure provides an appropriate basis for characterisation and assessment of the urban ecosystems condition and ecosystem services following the requirements of the EU Biodiversity Strategy and the MAES process. The proposed approach enables the internal heterogeneity of the urban ecosystems at national level to be defined, this being one of the main challenges in studying urban ecological systems

Critical Loads of Lead and Cadmium for Different Type of Forest and Aquatic Ecosystems at the Petrohan LTER Site, Bulgaria

The current study was designed to determine the critical loads of lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) for two types of vegetation (broadleaves and coniferous) and freshwaters (stream water and reservoir), in order to evaluate the effect of Cd and Pb deposition on investigated ecosystems by comparative simultaneous study at a mountainous LTER site in Bulgaria. Bulk precipitation and throughfall chemistry were monitored during the period 2005-2010 at two forest stands (Fagus sylvatica and Picea abies). Monitoring of water, sediment and bulk precipitation chemistry at two water bodies (stream and reservoir) were carried out too. The removal of Pb and Cd by the biomass and their vertical migration with drainage water was determined. It has been found that the tolerance of surface water to the pollution of Pb has been comparable with forests but aquatic ecosystems are more sensitive to the deposition of Cd due to the low values of critical loads meaning that critical loads for forest can not protect the surface water from the same catchment. Steady state critical loads of Pb and Cd for forests based on human health approach have remained stable and have not been exceeded during the study period. Real risk of harmful effect in the future has been discovered for surface waters because of higher input of Cd than critical loads obtained by ecotoxicological approach

Resilience in sensitive mountain forest ecosystems under environmental change

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Assessing the resilient provision of ecosystem services by social-ecological systems: introduction and theory

The concepts of resilience and ecosystem services broaden the opportunities for assessing sustainability of social-ecological systems (SESs). The lack of operational frameworks for assessing the resilient provision of ecosystem services by SESs impedes greater integration of resilience thinking in natural resource governance. The greatest challenge so far has been to understand the capacity of the SES to (re) organize itself and sustain the flow of benefits from nature to people under various global and local pressures and trade-offs between ecosystem services users. To assess the resilience of an SES within a single framework, we propose a new approach which is a combination of: (1) the Driver-Pressure- State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework; (2) social-ecological indicators; and (3) scenario building. Practical application of the approach is demonstrated with the example of European polar and altitudinal treeline areas. The DPSIR framework analyzes causal relationships between the components of the SES. Social-ecological indicators quantify processes in the SES and estimate trends in the DPSIR factors. Combined top-down and bottom-up scenarios envision plausible development paths of the SES in the future based on expected global environmental and social changes which create context specific dynamics between DPSIR factors at specific localities. The proposed approach represents the analytical framework of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) action SENSFOR (Enhancing the resilience capacity of SENSitive mountain FORest ecosystems under environmental change) and can be applied to promote systemic resilience thinking in any SES.201

Mapping and assessing ecosystem services in the EU - Lessons learned from the ESMERALDA approach of integration

The European Union (EU) Horizon 2020 Coordination and Support Action ESMERALDA aimed at developing guidance and a flexible methodology for Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES) to support the EU member states in the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy’s Target 2 Action 5. ESMERALDA’s key tasks included network creation, stakeholder engagement, enhancing ecosystem services mapping and assessment methods across various spatial scales and value domains, work in case studies and support of EU member states in MAES implementation. Thus ESMERALDA aimed at integrating various project outcomes around four major strands: i) Networking, ii) Policy, iii) Research and iv) Application. The objective was to provide guidance for integrated ecosystem service mapping and assessment that can be used for sustainable decision-making in policy, business, society, practice and science at EU, national and regional levels. This article presents the overall ESMERALDA approach of integrating the above-mentioned project components and outcomes and provides an overview of how the enhanced methods were applied and how they can be used to support MAES implementation in the EU member states. Experiences with implementing such a large pan-European Coordination and Support Action in the context of EU policy are discussed and recommendations for future actions are given.ISSN:2367-819