scholarly journals Ecosystems in Books: Evaluating the Inspirational Service of the Weser River in Germany

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 669
Author(s):  
Wei Jiang ◽  
Rainer Marggraf
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Surface Area ◽  
Water Surface ◽  
Cultural Ecosystem Services ◽  
Monetary Value ◽  
Innovative Methods ◽  
Water Surface Area ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Unit Value ◽  
Cultural Service

Attempts at assessing the monetary value of cultural ecosystem services has proven challenging due to their non-material and non-market characteristics. Innovative methods are needed to fill this methodological gap. In this paper, a novel approach is developed for evaluating the inspirational service, one type of valuable cultural service, of a specific ecosystem embodied in published books. Taking the Weser River in Germany as an example, a breadth of evidence found in 19 books shows the strong inspiration of the river to people living around it who create plenty of literary and artistic works that represent different faces of the river, such as novels, poems, folklore and paintings. Based on the prices of these books and the estimated number of persons who have read these books, the total value of the inspirational service provided by the Weser River is calculated as 168,499 € from 1980 to 2019, leading to the annual value of 5,616.63 €/year and the unit value of 0.24 €/ha/year with the water surface area of 23,123 ha and the period of 30 years. The advantages and shortcomings of this approach are discussed, and suggestions for the improvement and further research are made.

scholarly journals Impacts of Rapid Changes of Land Cover and Intensive Human Activities on Avarga Toson Lake Area, Mongolia

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (15) ◽  
pp. 6070
Author(s):  
Urtnasan Mandakh ◽  
Danzanchadav Ganbat ◽  
Bayartungalag Batsaikhan ◽  
Sainbayar Dalantai ◽  
Zolzaya Adiya ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Surface Area ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Water Surface ◽  
Land Development ◽  
Water Area ◽  
Lake Area ◽  
Surrounding Area ◽  
Water Surface Area

Avarga Toson Lake and its surrounding area are very important for people, wildlife, and animals in Delgerkhaan Soum of Khentii Province in Eastern Mongolia. Some research has been conducted so as to explore the medical nature and characteristics of the lake and its surrounding area. However, the adverse effects of land use have neither been studied nor reported. The fact that the water catchment area is shrinking evidences clearly that findings of various real-time studies must be used effectively in the long-term by the local government and relevant authorities in order to take immediate remedial measures. Our study focused on land cover changes occurring as a result of human activities in the area, using a Landsat imageries and water indices approach to estimate the changes of land use and land cover. The aims of this study were to assess the land use and cover change that occurred between 1989 and 2018 and to define the impacting factors on the changes of water surface area in Avarga Toson Lake area, Mongolia. Findings revealed that the water surface area has decreased by 34.1% in the past 30 years. The lake water area had the weakest, positive correlation with temperature and precipitation. We did not find any indicators suggesting a relationship between lake area and climate variables. In contrast, the area was slightly correlated with socio-economic variables, such as Toson Lake area with the number of visitors (R2 = 0.89) and Burd Lake area the with number of livestocks (R2 = 0.75), respectively. Therefore, the main conclusion of this paper is that socioeconomic factors driven by land use change, policy, and institutional failure together with the existing pressure on the lake may amplify their effect of the water surface area decreasing. Additionally, even if policy adoption is relatively sufficient in the country, the public institutional capacity to implement a successful sustainable land management model regarding land access, land development, land resources protection, land market, and investments in infrastructure remains very limited.

scholarly journals Changes in the surface area of lakes in the Gwda River basin

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 121-129
Author(s):  
Kubiak-Wójcicka Katarzyna ◽  
Izabela Lewandowska
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Surface Area ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Water Surface ◽  
General Trend ◽  
Topographic Maps ◽  
Lake Surface ◽  
Water Surface Area ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Lake Surface Area

Abstract This paper presents lake surface area changes that have taken place in the Gwda River basin. The studies were conducted on the basis of the cartographic materials released since the beginning of the twentieth century until the present times. The starting point was the area of all lakes greater than 1 ha which are present on the MPHP map from 2010. The assessment of the changes in the surface area of lakes in the Gwda River basin during approximately the last 100 years was possible thanks to the use of German topographic maps, so called Messtischblatt, at a scale of 1: 25 000 released between 1919 and 1944. The area of all the studied lakes has decreased by 465.09 ha (from 12783.62 ha at the beginning of the twentieth century to 12318.53 ha at the present time). Despite the general trend of lake atrophy, in particular cases one may observe an increase in the water surface area. This is the result of hydrotechnical works leading to river and lake damming, which in turn hampers the pace of atrophy.

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