scholarly journals Devising Urban Biodiversity Habitat Provision Goals: Ecosystem Services Analysis

Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 391 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maibritt Pedersen Zari
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Urban Habitat ◽  
Urban Green ◽  
Analysis Methodology ◽  
Negative Environmental Impact

This paper employs a unique ecosystem services analysis methodology to evaluate how cities could support or generate ecosystem services. Ecosystem services analysis can provide quantifiable goals for urban ecological regeneration that are determined by the site-specific ecology and climate of an urban area. In this research, the ecosystem service of habitat provision is the key focus. The role of urban green space and urban forests is crucial within this. Setting ambitious targets for urban ecological performance and ecosystem services provision is of great importance due to the large negative environmental impact that cities currently have on ecosystems and, therefore, ecosystem service provision, and because healthier ecosystems enable humans to better adapt to climate change through creating potentials for increased resilience. A comparative case study analysing the ecosystem service of habitat provision in two existing urban environments with similar climates (Cfb according to the Köppen Climate Classification System) but in different parts of the world, namely Wellington, New Zealand and Curitiba, Brazil, was conducted to examine how the ecosystem services analysis concept can used to devise urban habitat provision goals. The paper concludes that, although achieving habitat provision goals derived from ecosystem services analysis in urban areas is likely to be difficult, determining quantitative site- and climate-specific staged goals could enable urban design professionals to increase the effectiveness of conservation and regeneration efforts in terms of ecosystem service provision from urban green and blue spaces.

scholarly journals Assessing urban recreation ecosystem services through the use of geocache visitation and preference data: a case-study from an urbanised island environment

One Ecosystem ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. e24490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario V Balzan ◽  
Iain Debono
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Cultural Landscapes ◽  
Stated Preference ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Cultural Ecosystem Service ◽  
Direct And Indirect Benefits

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.

scholarly journals Evaluation of the Equity and Regional Management of Some Urban Green Space Ecosystem Services: A Case Study of Main Urban Area of Xi’an City

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 813
Author(s):  
Hui Dang ◽  
Jing Li ◽  
Yumeng Zhang ◽  
Zixiang Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Green Space ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Urban Green Space ◽  
Green Spaces ◽  
Deposition Flux ◽  
Urban Green ◽  
Xi’An City

Urban green spaces can provide many types of ecosystem services for residents. An imbalance in the pattern of green spaces leads to an inequality of the benefits of such spaces. Given the current situation of environmental problems and the basic geographical conditions of Xi’an City, this study evaluated and mapped four kinds of ecosystem services from the perspective of equity: biodiversity, carbon sequestration, air purification, and climate regulation. Regionalization with dynamically constrained agglomerative clustering and partitioning (REDCAP) was used to obtain the partition groups of ecosystem services. The results indicate that first, the complexity of the urban green space community is low, and the level of biodiversity needs to be improved. The dry deposition flux of particulate matter (PM2.5) decreases from north to south, and green spaces enhance the adsorption of PM2.5. Carbon sequestration in the south and east is higher than that in the north and west, respectively. The average surface temperature in green spaces is lower than that in other urban areas. Second, urban green space resources in the study area are unevenly distributed. Therefore, ecosystem services in different areas are inequitable. Finally, based on the regionalization of integrated ecosystem services, an ecosystem services cluster was developed. This included 913 grid spaces, 12 partitions, and 5 clusters, which can provide a reference for distinct levels of ecosystem services management. This can assist urban managers who can use these indicators of ecosystem service levels for planning and guiding the overall development pattern of green spaces. The benefits would be a maximization of the ecological functions of green spaces, an improvement of the sustainable development of the city, and an improvement of people’s well-being.

scholarly journals Biomimetic Urban and Architectural Design: Illustrating and Leveraging Relationships between Ecosystem Services

Biomimetics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 2
Author(s):  
Maibritt Pedersen Zari
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Urban Design ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Architectural Design ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Spatial Design ◽  
Key Barrier

Redesigning and retrofitting cities so they become complex systems that create ecological and cultural–societal health through the provision of ecosystem services is of critical importance. Although a handful of methodologies and frameworks for considering how to design urban environments so that they provide ecosystem services have been proposed, their use is not widespread. A key barrier to their development has been identified as a lack of ecological knowledge about relationships between ecosystem services, which is then translated into the field of spatial design. In response, this paper examines recently published data concerning synergetic and conflicting relationships between ecosystem services from the field of ecology and then synthesises, translates, and illustrates this information for an architectural and urban design context. The intention of the diagrams created in this research is to enable designers and policy makers to make better decisions about how to effectively increase the provision of various ecosystem services in urban areas without causing unanticipated degradation in others. The results indicate that although targets of ecosystem services can be both spatially and metrically quantifiable while working across different scales, their effectiveness can be increased if relationships between them are considered during design phases of project development.

scholarly journals Male and female bats differ in their use of a large urban park

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Krista J Patriquin ◽  
Cylita Guy ◽  
Joshua Hinds ◽  
John M Ratcliffe
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Green Space ◽  
Prey Availability ◽  
Radio Telemetry ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
City Centre ◽  
Adult Males ◽  
Urban Green ◽  
Urban Green Spaces

Abstract Understanding how wildlife respond to ever-encroaching urbanization is of great concern. Bats are the second-most speciose mammalian order and while many appear to be urban adapted, we currently have a limited understanding of their demography and habitat use within urban environments. Using a combination of captures to obtain demographic data, radio-telemetry to examine foraging and roosting behaviour, and data on diet and prey availability, we examined how big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus), a synurbic species, use an urban green space (High Park) in Canada’s largest city centre, Toronto. We found that adult males outnumbered adult females more than two to one and that males were found throughout the park, while females were concentrated in an area with greater access to water, but lower prey availability. We also found that bats of both sexes were in poorer body condition than reported for other non-urban areas, including a site within southern Ontario. Our data suggest that High Park may not provide adequate resources for reproductive females as they were never found roosting in the park and beetles, their preferred prey, were limited. Although previous studies suggest urban green spaces may offer refuge to bats, most have not considered sex-specific responses to urbanization as they have largely been based on acoustic surveys. Our study therefore highlights the importance of considering demographic differences in response to urbanization to better inform urban management plans and green space development.

scholarly journals On the Use of Hedonic Price Indices to Understand Ecosystem Service Provision from Urban Green Space in Five Latin American Megacities

Forests ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 478 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ursula Loret de Mola ◽  
Brenton Ladd ◽  
Sandra Duarte ◽  
Nils Borchard ◽  
Ruy Anaya La Rosa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Green Space ◽  
Urban Green Space ◽  
Hedonic Price ◽  
Price Indices ◽  
Urban Green ◽  
Hedonic Price Indices

scholarly journals Does the Ecosystem Service Concept Reach its Limits in Urban Environments?

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone A. Beichler ◽  
Olaf Bastian ◽  
Dagmar Haase ◽  
Stefan Heiland ◽  
Nadja Kabisch ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Extreme Case ◽  
Spatial Relations ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Service Concept ◽  
Urban Structures ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Human Modification ◽  
High Degree

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.

scholarly journals The influence of landscape context on the production of cultural ecosystem services

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Christie Zoeller ◽  
Georgina G. Gurney ◽  
Graeme S. Cumming
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Species Recognition ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Cultural Ecosystem Services ◽  
Multi Scale ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
Cultural Ecosystem Service ◽  
Biophysical Attributes

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.

scholarly journals Modelling Hydrological Ecosystem Services – A state of the art model comparison

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Lüke ◽  
Jochen Hack
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Input Data ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Simulation Models ◽  
Service Models ◽  
Water Assessment ◽  
Soil And Water

Abstract. Different simulation models are used in science and practice in order to incorporate hydrological ecosystem services in decision-making processes. This contribution compares three simulation models, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool, a traditional hydrological model, and two ecosystem services models, the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs model and the Resource Investment Optimization System model. The three models are compared on a theoretical and conceptual basis as well in a comparative case study application. The application of the models to a study area in Nicaragua reveals that a practical benefit to apply these models for different questions in decision-making generally exists. However, modelling of hydrological ecosystem services is associated with a high application effort and requires input data that may not always be available. The degree of detail in temporal and spatial variability in ecosystem service provision is higher when using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool compared to the two ecosystem service models. In contrast, the ecosystem service models have lower requirements on input data and process knowledge. A relationship between service provision and beneficiaries is readily produced and can be visualized as a model output. The latter is especially useful for a practical decision-making context.

scholarly journals Disentangling the Multidimensional Relationship between Livestock Breeds and Ecosystem Services

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2548
Author(s):  
Elena Velado-Alonso ◽  
Antonio Gómez-Sal ◽  
Alberto Bernués ◽  
Daniel Martín-Collado
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Farming System ◽  
Ecosystem Processes ◽  
Natural Factors ◽  
System Sustainability ◽  
Cultural Entities ◽  
Livestock System

There is an increasing interest in assessing livestock breed contributions to ecosystem services (ES) and including this knowledge in decision making. However, this task has been limited due to the complexity of the multidimensional relationship between livestock diversity and ecosystem services. In this work, we elaborate on the livestock breed characteristics central to developing a comprehensive approach to livestock breed inclusion in the ecosystem services framework. Thus, we explore the multidimensional nature of livestock breeds, i.e., as eco-cultural entities, biodiversity components, and drivers of livestock system heterogeneity and functioning. First, anthropogenic and natural factors have acted jointly to develop breeds as eco-cultural entities. This fact represents an opportunity to move toward farming system sustainability by Nature-Based Solutions and Nature’s Contribution to People paradigms. Second, livestock breeds are components of biodiversity, and as such, can be framed as goods, as final ecosystem services, and as regulators of ecosystem processes. Third, livestock breeds contribute to livestock system heterogeneity and resilience. By integrating these aspects, we might better understand how livestock breeds provide and modulate ecosystem service provision and, therefore, how to improve breed conservation and livestock policies toward farming system sustainability.

scholarly journals Assessment of the Impact of Residential Urban Patterns of Different Hillslopes on Urban Drainage Systems and Ecosystem Services in the Federal District, Brazil

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (14) ◽  
pp. 5859
Author(s):  
Leticia Karine Sanches Brito ◽  
Maria Elisa Leite Costa ◽  
Sergio Koide
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Groundwater Recharge ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Stormwater Management ◽  
Low Impact Development ◽  
Runoff Generation ◽  
Infiltration Capacity ◽  
Urban Patterns ◽  
The Impact

In Brazil, stormwater management systems are usually deficient and very commonly implemented after the urban areas have settled. In Brasilia, the Federal capital of Brazil, this problem is aggravated due to the fact that the rainy and dry seasons are very well defined, thereby increasing the importance of groundwater recharge as an ecosystem service. This research aims to evaluate the impact of urban structure types and topographies in stormwater management and three ecosystem services: groundwater recharge, flooding, and water quality. The urban patterns studied included mixed residential areas with two block positions (orthogonal and parallel to the topography) and a single-family house with low density. The studied landforms include a divergent-convergent surface and a flat hillslope with high slope taxa—strictly convergent and strictly divergent surfaces, respectively. The arrangement of landforms has an impact on runoff generation, with an average of 9% during peak flow, and an infiltration capacity, on average, 3% higher in the divergent-convergent surface. The greatest impact of the topography on stormwater management is considered based on the direct cost of the drainage system, which is 44% higher in the flat hillslope. Low impact development (LIDs) devices helped to improve ecosystem service provisions and even presented efficiency that almost achieved that of the predevelopment conditions in the evaluated scenarios. Seeking the urban patterns that best suit given environmental conditions is one of the approaches studied in this paper.

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