Crowdsourcing indicators for cultural ecosystem services : a geographically weighted approach for mountain landscapes

This study was partially supported by the OpenNESS project funded from the European Union's Seventh Programme for research; technological development and demonstration under grant agreement n° 308428.Integrating cultural dimensions into the ecosystem service framework is essential for appraising non-material benefits stemming from different human-environment interactions. This study investigates how the actual provision of cultural services is distributed across the landscape according to spatially varying relationships. The final aim was to analyse how landscape settings are associated to people’s preferences and perceptions related to cultural ecosystem services in mountain landscapes. We demonstrated a spatially explicit method based on geo-tagged images from popular social media to assess revealed preferences. A spatially weighted regression showed that specific variables correspond to prominent drivers of cultural ecosystem services at the local scale. The results of this explanatory approach can be used to integrate the cultural service dimension into land planning by taking into account specific benefiting areas and by setting priorities on the ecosystems and landscape characteristics which affect the service supply. We finally concluded that the use of crowdsourced data allows identifying spatial patterns of cultural ecosystem service preferences and their association with landscape settings.PostprintPeer reviewe

Development of inventory datasets through remote sensing and direct observation data for earthquake loss estimation

This report summarizes the lessons learnt in extracting exposure information for the three study sites, Thessaloniki, Vienna and Messina that were addressed in SYNER-G. Fine scale information on exposed elements that for SYNER-G include buildings, civil engineering works and population, is one of the variables used to quantify risk. Collecting data and creating exposure inventories is a very time-demanding job and all possible data-gathering techniques should be used to address the data shortcoming problem. This report focuses on combining direct observation and remote sensing data for the development of exposure models for seismic risk assessment. In this report a summary of the methods for collecting, processing and archiving inventory datasets is provided in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 deals with the integration of different data sources for optimum inventory datasets, whilst Chapters 4, 5 and 6 provide some case studies where combinations between direct observation and remote sensing have been used. The cities of Vienna (Austria), Thessaloniki (Greece) and Messina (Italy) have been chosen to test the proposed approaches.JRC.G.5-European laboratory for structural assessmen

Multiscale socio-ecological networks in the age of information

Interactions between people and ecological systems, through leisure or tourism activities, form a complex socio-ecological spatial network. The analysis of the benefits people derive from their interactions with nature—also referred to as cultural ecosystem services (CES)—enables a better understanding of these socio-ecological systems. In the age of information, the increasing availability of large social media databases enables a better understanding of complex socio-ecological interactions at an unprecedented spatio-temporal resolution. Within this context, we model and analyze these interactions based on information extracted from geotagged photographs embedded into a multiscale socio-ecological network. We apply this approach to 16 case study sites in Europe using a social media database (Flickr) containing more than 150,000 validated and classified photographs. After evaluating the representativeness of the network, we investigate the impact of visitors’ origin on the distribution of socio-ecological interactions at different scales. First at a global scale, we develop a spatial measure of attractiveness and use this to identify four groups of sites. Then, at a local scale, we explore how the distance traveled by the users to reach a site affects the way they interact with this site in space and time. The approach developed here, integrating social media data into a network-based framework, offers a new way of visualizing and modeling interactions between humans and landscapes. Results provide valuable insights for understanding relationships between social demands for CES and the places of their realization, thus allowing for the development of more efficient conservation and planning strategies

Integrated assessment and valuation of ecosystem services - Guidelines and experiences

EU FP7 OpenNESS project deliverable D33 & D4

Optical satellite imagery for quantifying spatio-temporal dimension of physical exposure in disaster risk assessments

This work addresses the use of remote sensing imagery to quantify the built environment and its spatial and temporal changes. It identifies the building footprint map, building location map, and built-up area map as information products that can be used to quantify physical exposure, one of the variables required in disaster risk assessments. The paper also reviews urban land use maps and urban classes in land cover maps as potential source for deriving exposure information. The paper focuses on the latest generation of satellite borne remote sensing imaging systems that deliver high resolution optical imagery able to resolve buildings and other three dimensional man made constructions. This work also reviews the semantics, the spatial unit used to define physical exposure, image processing procedures and change techniques.JRC.G.2-Global security and crisis managemen

Mapping and quantifying habitat fragmentation in small coastal areas: a case study of three protected wetlands in Apulia (Italy)

In the Mediterranean Region, habitat loss and fragmentation severely affect coastal wetlands, due to the rapid expansion of anthropogenic activities that has occurred in the last decades. Landscape metrics are commonly used to define landscape patterns and to evaluate fragmentation processes. This investigation focuses on the performance of a set of landscape pattern indices within landscapes characterized by coastal environments and extent below 1,000 ha. The aim is to assess the degree of habitat fragmentation for the monitoring of protected areas and to learn whether values of landscape metrics can characterize fine-resolution landscape patterns. The study areas are three coastal wetlands belonging to the Natura 2000 network and sited on the Adriatic side of Apulia (Southern Italy). The Habitat Maps were derived from the Vegetation Maps generated integrating phytosociological relevés and Earth Observation data. In the three sites, a total of 16 habitat types were detected. A selected set of landscape metrics was applied in order to investigate their performance in assessing fragmentation and spatial patterns of habitats. The final results showed that the most significant landscape patterns are related to highly specialized habitat types closely linked to coastal environments. In interpreting the landscape patterns of these highly specialized habitats, some specific ecological factors were taken into account. The shape indices were the most useful in assessing the degree of fragmentation of habitat types that usually have elongated morphology along the shoreline or the coastal lagoons. In all the cases, to be meaningful, data obtained from the application of the selected indices were jointly assessed, especially at the class level.JRC.G.2-Global security and crisis managemen

Population density modelling in support of seismic risk assessment

Demographic data is a fundamental component of an earthquake loss model for the estimation of human exposure and social vulnerability. Fine scale population distribution information is needed for the assessment of causalities, determination of shelter needs and proper implementation of evacuation plans in pre- and/or post-disaster phases, i.e. earthquake scenario modelling and rapid emergency response. This paper describes the techniques that are used to map the population distribution, and to integrate the building damage information with demographic data for casualty estimation. Methods to map population density are described focusing on different downscaling techniques and the contribution of ancillary data. An application for the Larger Urban Zone (LUZ) of Vienna is illustrated. The case study disaggregates the residential population from a local and a country level census at the level of single building blocks. The downscaling is based on a dasymetric approach using an urban land use map as ancillary information. The model was applied after testing two different methods: a limiting variable and a fixed-ratio method. The latter performed slightly better and was applied on the entire study area. The results of the proposed methodology can be used to perform population vulnerability analysis for night time scenarios which deals mainly with residential building typologies. The enhanced spatial detail influences the accuracy of the information on human exposure when the population map is used in risk assessment models.JRC.E.1-Disaster Risk Managemen

Disentangling socio-ecological interactions using geo-tagged photographs

International audienc

The means determine the end – pursuing integrated valuation in practice

In environmental valuation, although it is well recognised that the choice of method heavily affects the outcome, little is known on how existing valuation methods actually elicit the different values. Through the assessment of real-life applications of valuation of nature, this study tracks down the suitability of 21 valuation methods for 11 value types and assesses the methodological requirements for their operationalization. We found that different valuation methods have different suitabilities to elicit diverse value-types. Some methods are more specialized than others, but every method has blind spots, which implies risks of biased decision-making. We summarized different value-types according to three value dimensions: non-anthropocentric, relational and instrumental. No single valuation method is able to capture this full spectrum of values of nature. Covering all value dimensions requires careful selection of complementary valuation methods. This study also demonstrates that performing such an integrated valuation does not necessarily entail more resources, as for every value dimension, methods with low to medium operational requirements are available. With this study, we aim to provide guidance for selecting a complementary set of valuation methods in order to develop integrated valuation in practice that includes values of all stakeholders into environmental decision-making