scholarly journals Strategy for developing cycling tourism and ecotourism along the Rákos-stream, considering applied ecosystem services

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoltán Bajor ◽  
Kitti Boros ◽  
Krisztina Keller ◽  
Veronika Kiss ◽  
György Pataki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Limited Extent ◽  
Landscape Elements ◽  
Project Area ◽  
Route Network ◽  
Danube Region ◽  
The Creation

The EcoVeloTour tourism project (Fostering enhanced ecotourism planning along the EuroVelo cycle route network in the Danube region, DTP-055-2.2) aims to develop cycle tourism and ecotourism in connection with the EuroVelo international cycle routes across the Danube Region. The objective of the project is to harness the synergies of the EuroVelo network, to develop – and provide communication opportunities for – ecotourism in the region, to promote cultural and natural values through cycle tourism, to preserve biodiversity and landscape elements, and to improve air quality within the framework of ecotourism development. While the characteristics of the project area are favourable for the development of cycle tourism and ecotourism, its potential has not yet – or only to a limited extent – been harnessed. In terms of the condition and service provision of cycle paths and related infrastructure, there are currently no cycling or ecotourism products to speak of along the Rákos Stream. At the time of drafting this strategy (2021), the section of the EuroVelo 14 route that stretches along the Rákos Stream is under planning, and, within the framework of the EcoVeloTour project, a number of improvements – e.g. the creation of a smart cycling rest area, a signposting plan, and a mobile app – are underway in the area, which, in addition to the great assets of the project area, could make it attractive to cycling tourists and ecotourists.

scholarly journals Policy recommendations on cycling tourism for the countries of the Danube region

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Landscape Elements ◽  
Route Network ◽  
Danube Region

EcoVelo Tour Project (Fostering enhanced ecotourism planning along the Eurovelo cycle route network in the Danube region (DTP-055-2.2) aims to develop cycling tourism and ecotourism in connection with the Eurovelo international cycle routes crossing the Danube Region. It exploits synergies of the Eurovelo network, works out and ensures communication opportunities for ecotourism in the region, promotes cultural and natural values through cycling tourism, and strives for preserving biodiversity, landscape elements and air quality while developing ecotourism strategies.

scholarly journals Beijing Resident’s Preferences of Ecosystem Services of Urban Forests

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Han Zhi-Ying ◽  
Youn Yeo-Chang
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Fresh Water ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Urban Forestry ◽  
Urban Forests ◽  
Wildlife Habitat ◽  
Quality Regulation ◽  
Water Provision ◽  
Air Quality Regulation

This paper aims to investigate the Beijing resident’s preferences over various options of urban forest management strategies. The literature investigation and expert Delphi method were conducted to classify the ecosystem services of urban forests into six categories: (1) fresh water provision, (2) noise reduction, (3) moderation of extreme events, (4) air quality regulation, (5) species diversity and wildlife habitat, and (6) recreation and spiritual experience. To elicit the relative preferences to ecosystem service (hereafter referred to as ES) of Beijing residents, we employed the choice experiment method. The data were collected by interviews with questionnaires conducted in October 2017, and a total of 483 valid questionnaires were analyzed. The subjects of this experiment were residents older than 19 years old who have lived in Beijing for more than 1 year and have visited any one of the urban forests located in Beijing more than once during 2016. The results were as follows: Firstly, the air quality regulation ES was considered as the most important service for Beijing residents in terms of their choices of urban forest. In addition, Beijing residents regarded the fresh water provision ES as the second most important ES. Beijing residents were willing to pay up to 1.84% of the average monthly income of Chinese households annually to expand urban forest ecosystems in order to improve air quality. Secondly, apartment owners were willing to pay more municipality tax for forest ESs than residents who did not own an apartment. Thirdly, residents were more willing to pay for urban forest ESs as their income increases. The results indicated that Beijing residents were willing to pay more tax in support of urban forestry for air quality improvement. This research suggests that urban environmental policy makers in Beijing should pay more attention to the regulation function of forests (especially improving air quality) when designing and managing urban forests.

scholarly journals From climate information to climate services: the need for a Belgian climate service centre

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rozemien De Troch ◽  
Piet Termonia
Keyword(s):  
Service Provision ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Climate Projections ◽  
Research Institutions ◽  
Climate Information ◽  
Climate Services ◽  
Climate Research ◽  
Scientific Expertise ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Meteorological Institute

<p>The Belgian expertise with respect to climate research is very fragmented and led by both federal (like the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium, hereafter RMI) as well as regional scientific research institutions and universities. Furthermore, both in societal, research as well as policy context there is an increasing need for detailed, quantitative, reliable and consistent climate information and services, in particular linked to the expected climate changes and its impacts in different sectors (e.g. water, agriculture, energy, health, transport).</p><p>To make all this scientific expertise and climate information available in a coordinated and, above all, user-friendly way, a Belgian climate centre or a one-stop shop for climate research and services would fully address the needs. With its long-standing scientific expertise and service provision, RMI plays a crucial role in fulfilling this growing need for climate information and services.</p><p>Hence, RMI has elaborated a proposal on the creation of a Belgian climate centre. For the creation of such centre it is preferable to use existing collaborations from previous or ongoing research and service-provision activities in Belgium, requiring a structural cooperation in which each members’ expertise can be fully deployed. In the context of a previous research project, a large consortium of Belgian research institutions active in regional climate modelling, calculated for the first time a consistent set of high-resolution climate projections and sectoral impacts for Belgium. Nevertheless, it should be emphasized that the number of models used was far too limited to develop reliable information of the future climate. Moreover, this was a one-time project and there is currently an urgent need to update the climate projections to meet the new scientific requirements of the IPCC's new sixth Assessment Report.</p><p>One of the activities of the centre would thus be the coordination of the climate research based on scientific research projects. Furthermore, in order to ensure the continuous development and provision of climate services based on this objective and scientifically based expertise coming from Belgian climate scientists, the climate centre would carry out two main core tasks: (i) the production and storage of climate information and (ii) the support for the development of climate services.</p><p>The financing and implementation of a Belgian climate centre, would provide a structural framework for climate research and services, establishing partnerships with the various regions and communities, at both policy and research levels. In this way, RMI, as national meteorological institute and at the start of the climate services value chain, can guarantee a continuous scientific expertise and respond to the major needs for climate information and services at national and international level.</p>

scholarly journals First Evidence of Human's Influence on Climate of Prague and Brno

Geografie ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 99 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-19
Author(s):  
Jan Munzar
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Urban Environment ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Quality Deterioration ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Impact

The paper brings some new knowledge on air quality deterioration as a part of urban environment in Prague and Brno in the end of the 18th and in the 19th centuries. The impact of man-induced processes on the creation of specific features of urban climate is documented.

scholarly journals A review of regulation ecosystem services and disservices from faunal populations and potential impacts of agriculturalisation on their provision, globally

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 1-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Gutierrez-Arellano ◽  
Mark Mulligan
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Service Use ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Natural Ecosystem ◽  
Structure Degradation ◽  
Animal Populations

Land use and cover change (LUCC) is the main cause of natural ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss and can cause a decrease in ecosystem service provision. Animal populations are providers of some key regulation services: pollination, pest and disease control and seed dispersal, the so-called faunal ecosystem services (FES). Here we aim to give an overview on the current and future status of regulation FES in response to change from original habitat to agricultural land globally. FES are much more tightly linked to wildlife populations and biodiversity than are most ecosystem services, whose determinants are largely climatic and related to vegetation structure. Degradation of ecosystems by land use change thus has much more potential to affect FES. In this scoping review, we summarise the main findings showing the importance of animal populations as FES providers and as a source of ecosystem disservices; underlying causes of agriculturalisation impacts on FES and the potential condition of FES under future LUCC in relation to the expected demand for FES globally. Overall, studies support a positive relationship between FES provision and animal species richness and abundance. Agriculturalisation has negative effects on FES providers due to landscape homogenisation, habitat fragmentation and loss, microclimatic changes and development of population imbalance, causing species and population losses of key fauna, reducing services whilst enhancing disservices. Since evidence suggests an increase in FES demand worldwide is required to support increased farming, it is imperative to improve the understanding of agriculturalisation on FES supply and distribution. Spatial conservation prioritisation must factor in faunal ecosystem functions as the most biodiversity-relevant of all ecosystem services and that which most closely links sites of service provision of conservation value with nearby sites of service use to provide ecosystem services of agricultural and economic value.

scholarly journals Agriculture and Supporting Ecosystem Services: A Trade-off Analysis Using Open Data in Brazil

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Ana Paula Dias Turetta ◽  
Bruno Pedrosa ◽  
Luca Eufemia ◽  
Michelle Bonatti ◽  
Stefan Sieber
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Open Data ◽  
Sustainable Land Use ◽  
Production Region ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Agricultural Areas

Open data are important for adding legitimacy and transparency to public sciences. These data have also a potential to be used as a first approach for scientific investigation, such as spatial evaluation of ecosystem services. This paper presents a methodological approach to evaluate the trade-offs between agriculture and supporting ecosystem services based on spatial analysis and open data. The study area is an important agricultural production region in Bahia State, Brazil. The framework was able to establish the spatial interactions between agriculture and ecosystem service provision, while the regional scale was useful in supporting guidelines regarding sustainable land use for agricultural areas.

scholarly journals Auckland’s Urban Sprawl, Policy Ambiguities and the Peri-Urbanisation to Pukekohe

Urban Science ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristian Silva
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Sprawl ◽  
Agricultural Activities ◽  
Environmentally Sustainable ◽  
City Regions ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Over Time

Urban sprawl has been discussed extensively with regard to its negative impacts. On this basis, regulations have been put in place to control sprawling suburbanization, including the establishment of restricted areas for expansion defined by administrative urban boundaries. Overall, these measures have not been at all successful, considering that city-regions continue to expand inorganically, often reinforcing urban sprawl patterns. As clear evidence of the weaknesses of planning regimes of control, these unsuccessful attempts are partly explained by a series of policy ambiguities that contradict the meaning of planning as a prescriptive discipline. This ambiguity is justified by the need to frame flexible regulations that allow adaptation to unforeseen events over time. In this paper, using the case of Auckland, New Zealand, it is demonstrated that instead of planning flexibility, there is planning “ambiguity” accompanied by weak opposition from rural regimes, which deliberately contributes to urban sprawl. This is relevant considering that the inorganic encroachment of rural lands diminishes the huge environmental potential of the peri-urban space of Auckland, its ecosystem services, and agricultural activities—all elements that encourage the creation of more environmentally sustainable peripheral landscapes as a counterpoint to traditional sprawling suburbanization.

scholarly journals Urban Vegetation Types are Not Perceived Equally in Providing Ecosystem Services and Disservices

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 2076 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zuzana Drillet ◽  
Tze Fung ◽  
Rachel Leong ◽  
Uma Sachidhanandam ◽  
Peter Edwards ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Secondary Forest ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Urban Vegetation ◽  
Vegetation Types ◽  
Regulating Services ◽  
Planning And Management

Urban vegetation is important in providing ecosystem services to people. Different urban vegetation types provide contrasting suites of ecosystem services and disservices. Understanding public perceptions of the ecosystem services and disservices can therefore play an important role in shaping the planning and management of urban areas. We conducted an online survey (n = 1000) to understand how residents in the tropical city of Singapore perceived urban vegetation and the associated ecosystem services and disservices. The questionnaire was designed to explore whether different urban vegetation types (grass, shrubs, trees, trees over shrubs, and secondary forest) were perceived as equal in providing benefits. Respondents considered ecosystem services provided by urban vegetation to be more important than disservices. Among ecosystem services, regulating services were most highly rated, with more than 80% of the respondents appreciating urban vegetation for providing shade and improving air quality. Respondents recognized that different vegetation types provided different ecosystem services. For example, secondary forest was most commonly associated with education and wildlife, while trees were strongly associated with cooling and air quality. We conclude that in developing plans and designs for urban vegetation and ecosystem services, it is important to understand the perceptions, priorities, and concerns of residents.

scholarly journals Addressing the Livelihood of Non-Resettlers in Dam-Induced “Detached” Areas: The Case of the Shichikashuku Dam

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Mikiyasu Nakayama ◽  
Ryo Fujikura
Keyword(s):  
Construction Projects ◽  
Dam Construction ◽  
Project Area ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Downstream Area

Most dam construction projects inevitably lead to the creation of involuntary resettlers due to inundation of their lands and houses by reservoirs. How resettlers should be dealt with or “compensated” has long been discussed. The report published by the World Dam Commission was one of the major milestones on this issue. However, attention should also be given to the fact that non-resettlers who are obliged to stay in the project area after completion of a dam also suffer from dam construction. Even though their assets are not submerged, if their land is “detached” from the downstream area by a reservoir, they tend to become worse off socially and even financially. Improvement of infrastructure, in particular having roads to the downstream area, is essential to minimize the impacts on those who are “detached.” Compensating for the lost assets of the resettlers alone may not be sufficient to prevent the people in the project area of a dam construction from becoming worse off.

scholarly journals Ecosystem services from southern African woodlands and their future under global change

2016 ◽  
Vol 371 (1703) ◽  
pp. 20150312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Casey M. Ryan ◽  
Rose Pritchard ◽  
Iain McNicol ◽  
Matthew Owen ◽  
Janet A. Fisher ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Rural Livelihoods ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Rural People ◽  
Land Acquisitions ◽  
Human Use ◽  
Large Scale Land

Miombo and mopane woodlands are the dominant land cover in southern Africa. Ecosystem services from these woodlands support the livelihoods of 100 M rural people and 50 M urban dwellers, and others beyond the region. Provisioning services contribute $9 ± 2 billion yr −1 to rural livelihoods; 76% of energy used in the region is derived from woodlands; and traded woodfuels have an annual value of $780 M. Woodlands support much of the region's agriculture through transfers of nutrients to fields and shifting cultivation. Woodlands store 18–24 PgC carbon, and harbour a unique and diverse flora and fauna that provides spiritual succour and attracts tourists. Longstanding processes that will impact service provision are the expansion of croplands (0.1 M km 2 ; 2000–2014), harvesting of woodfuels (93 M tonnes yr −1 ) and changing access arrangements. Novel, exogenous changes include large-scale land acquisitions (0.07 M km 2 ; 2000–2015), climate change and rising CO 2 . The net ecological response to these changes is poorly constrained, as they act in different directions, and differentially on trees and grasses, leading to uncertainty in future service provision. Land-use change and socio-political dynamics are likely to be dominant forces of change in the short term, but important land-use dynamics remain unquantified. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Tropical grassy biomes: linking ecology, human use and conservation’.

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