scholarly journals Prioritization of ecosystem services related to the natural heritage of Bulgaria

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 19-30
Author(s):  
Stoyan Nedkov ◽  
Radenka Mitova ◽  
Mariyana Nikolova ◽  
Bilyana Borisova ◽  
Desislava Hristova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Natural Capital ◽  
Local Level ◽  
National Level ◽  
Natural Heritage ◽  
Assessment Activity ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Step Algorithm ◽  
Recreation And Tourism

Natural heritage (NH) is an important element of the natural capital of each country, and as such, represents key assets that deliver various benefits to the citizens. The rich and diverse NH of Bulgaria is a prerequisite for the development of various activities such as recreation and tourism, but these activities have also negative impact on some of the NH’s elements. The concept of ecosystem services (ES) has the potential for bridging the gap between the conservation and exploitation needs. In this paper, we propose an approach to prioritizing the ES provided by the natural heritage of Bulgaria for the needs of recreation and tourism. The approach is designed for the mapping of the NH but it can also support the overall process of mapping and assessment of ES. It is based on application of ES prioritization matrix (ESPM) and a five-step algorithm designed to differentiate ES into priority levels according to their significance to recreation and tourism. Through the application of the proposed approach we were able to sort out the ES into three groups (high, medium and low priority) according to their importance to recreation and tourism. The first group contains obligatory ES for each mapping and assessment activity from national to local level. The second group contains optional ES recommended for studies at regional level, while the services can be selected according to the specifics of the study. The low priority ES are recommended for local level studies in cases where the assessment requires high details and accuracy. The mapping of high priority ES at national level shows that the products of the approach can be easily adapted for various studies for assessment of NH and sustainable tourism practices using the conventional mapping methods.

scholarly journals A methodological framework for mapping and assessment of ecosystem services provided by the natural heritage in Bulgaria

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 7-18
Author(s):  
Stoyan Nedkov ◽  
Bilyana Borisova ◽  
Mariyana Nikolova ◽  
Miglena Zhiyanski ◽  
Stelian Dimitrov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Local Level ◽  
National Level ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Methodological Framework ◽  
Pilot Studies ◽  
Existence Value ◽  
Natural Heritage ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Outstanding Universal Value

Natural heritage (NH) includes natural features that can be described as outstanding universal value at a national level. It refers to the importance of ecosystems, biodiversity, and geodiversity for their existence value, and the ecosystems can be considered as the spatial units for its mapping and assessment. The ecosystem services (ES) concept provides an appropriate basis in the form of assessment and mapping methods that enable linking the state of ecosystems with human well-being. Thus, it can be used as a platform to find solutions to the problems related to the conflicts between conservation and the use of the NH. In this paper, we aim to present the process of developing a methodological framework for mapping and assessment of ecosystem services provided by the natural heritage in Bulgaria for recreation and tourism. The conceptual framework of the ecosystem-based assessment of NH in Bulgaria is based on the assumption that the generation of NH for the needs of tourism can be presented as the linkages between the natural systems and tourism in the form of ES potential, flow, and demand. The results demonstrate that the NH can be presented as a spatial phenomenon conceptualized by the flows of benefits from ecosystems to people which contribute to human well-being. The mapping and assessment procedures are fully developed for application at a national level, while for the regional and local level, few pilot studies mark some basic foundations for further development.

scholarly journals Soil Degradation Assessment in Europe, A Review of Status, Interaction and Remediation

Proceedings ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Jannes Stolte ◽  
Gudrun Schwilch
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Soil Degradation ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Natural Capital ◽  
Soil Functions ◽  
Soil Biodiversity ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The Impact

As soil formation is an extremely slow process, soil can be considered a non-renewable resource. Soils should thus be adequately protected and conserved to ensure that soil functions are not lost or diminished. Soil functions are, however, threatened by a wide range of processes. Europe’s soil resources may continue to degrade due to changes in climate, land use and other human activities. The challenge is to prevent degradation and its adverse effects on soil functions and ecosystem services, and even improve the ability of soil to perform its functions. The soil degradation processes are complex and all parts of Europe are affected by one or more soil threats to some degree. There is a lack of knowledge on, a large uncertainty in, and lack of quantitative information on understanding the interrelationships between soil threats, soil threat and soil functions, and soil and ecosystem services. A major challenge in clarifying these relationships is how to integrate information and to analyse the key interactions. To bridge this gap, we have made an approach based on a review and expert knowledge to understand and describe those interrelations. This has been described in qualitative terms, and showed that the soil functions ‘biomass production’ is affected by almost all threats, whereas the threat ‘biodiversity decline’ has a major negative impact on all functions. It also showed that both soil biodiversity and soil erosion are more or less affected by almost all other soil threats. In the RECARE project, various prevention and remediation measures were trialed. Changes in manageable soil and other natural capital properties were measured and quantified, and a methodology to assess changes in ecosystem services was developed. Overall, the results showed positive on the impacts of the measures on ecosystem services. Although methodological challenges remain, the assessment served as an input to a stakeholder valuation of ecosystem services at local and sub-national levels. Although these activities are steps towards a soil remediation strategy, there is a need for further research on the mentioned issues in order to achieve an improved overview of existing information on soil degradation at the European scale, their interactions, and effects on ecosystem services. In addition, the lack of legally binding targets limits the impact that existing policies have on reducing soil threats and protecting soil function, although various EU policy instruments have shown positive impacts even in absence of binding targets for Member States.

scholarly journals Dziedzictwo kulinarne i przyrodnicze w zarządzaniu rozwojem turystykiwiejskiej na przykładzie Norwegii

2019 ◽  
pp. 85-95
Author(s):  
Czesław Nowak
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Local Level ◽  
National Level ◽  
Slowing Down ◽  
Winter Sport ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
Tourism Enterprises ◽  
Landscape Ecological ◽  
Agriculture And Food

Of the OECD countries Norway has the world’s largest Producer and Support Estimate (PSE). Despite this, employment in agriculture has been decreasing for years and the rural population is dwindling. The development of rural tourism contributes to the slowing down of this process by increasing the income of rural households, as well as preserving the traditional landscape, ecological values and cultural heritage, especially culinary heritage. The Ministry of Climate and Environment (Department of Cultural heritage and cultural environment) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Food are mainly responsible for managing the development of tourism at the national level. At the local level – thanks to an innovative approach to management – tourism enterprises, wanting to limit the negative impact of high seasonality in this sector of the economy, are engaged in the preparation of not only typical winter sport offers, such as skiing, but also of summer sports. This facilitates the better use of resources such as hotels and restaurants, and also helps to maintain employment levels.

scholarly journals Integration of Ecosystem Services and Green and Blue Infrastructures Concepts in the Land Use Planning Process: The Coimbra Case Study

Proceedings ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 90
Author(s):  
Luís Valença Pinto ◽  
Carla Sofia Santos Ferreira ◽  
Paulo Pereira ◽  
Sander Jacobs ◽  
Ieva Misiune ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
National Level ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Eu

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) initiated in 2001 aims to assess the impacts of human pressure on ecosystem services (ES) and human well-being. Since then, the ES have been a worldwide concern, namely regarding to biodiversity loss and land use management (MA, 2005). The EU 2010 Biodiversity Baseline Report stated that 65% of habitats of EU importance were in an unfavorable conservation status, mainly due to anthropic activities over time (EEA, 2010). As a consequence, in 2011, the EU adopted the Biodiversity Strategy to 2020, requiring all Member States to actively work towards stopping the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services by 2020, and to restore ecosystems. ES are particularly relevant in urban areas, where most population is concentrated and expected to reach almost 70% of the total population by 2050 (UN-DESA, 2018). Strategically planned urban Green and Blue Infrastructures (GBI) can be designed and implemented in cities to effectively provide a wide range of ES, relevant to address urban sustainability and resilience to climate change, and thus effectively contribute to stop and revert ES deterioration and loss. However, the integration of ES and GBI concepts into national, regional and local policies and plans, and their effectiveness to implement the EU Biodiversity Strategy, is still a major challenge. This paper aims to analyze the horizontal and vertical integration of the ES and GBI concepts in the Portuguese policies and land use planning, at national, regional and local levels, focusing on the municipality of Coimbra. Among the 19 documents analyzed, most of them are defined at national level (12) and 6 of them are defined at local level. At the regional level, only one single plan is available, although it is still not officially approved and published, despite started being prepared in 1991. This regional situation mirrors the current status of the Portuguese administrative levels, which was triggered by the negative result of the 1998 referendum on the regionalization process. This referendum prevented necessary changes in the administrative divisions, so that current regional divisions do not reflect the economic, demographic and cultural realities of the country, having been emptied of administrative powers. The analysis shows a strong integration of the ES and GBI concepts at the national level, but the vertical coordination shows that plenty of work needs to be done to fully embrace the ES and GBI concepts. This research was performed in the UrbanGaia project, funded through the ERA-net BiodivERsA 3 2015 call under grants BRAIN-be BR/175/A1/URBANGAIA-BE (Belgium); 01LC1616A (Germany); S-BIODIVERSA-17-17-1 (Lithuania), and BIODIVERSA/0008/2015 (Portugal).

scholarly journals Mapping of ecosystems in Bulgaria for the needs of natural heritage assessment

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 89-98
Author(s):  
Desislava Hristova ◽  
Vanya Stoycheva
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
National Level ◽  
Natural Heritage ◽  
Level 3 ◽  
Data Source ◽  
Gis Environment ◽  
Comparison Table ◽  
The Relationship

The main purpose of the paper is to explore the relationship between the CORINE Land Cover (CLC) classification and the MAES typology in order to develop a basis for mapping of ecosystems at national level in Bulgaria, which could ensure a spatial framework for mapping and assessment of the ecosystem services provided by the natural heritage. Identifying the necessary data for our purposes, we found that, in spatial terms, CLC data is the only appropriate data source. The subtypes of ecosystems at Level 3 of the classification of ecosystems in Bulgaria (based on the European MAES classification) are identified as mapping units. Firstly, we decided to analyze the links between the CLC and the MAES BG classes through five categories of correspondence: 1) full correspondence – one CLC class corresponds to one MAES BG subtype; 2) multi-directional links – one or more CLC classes correspond to one MAES BG subtype; 3) discrepancies that necessitate further analyses; 4) CLC classes that are not found in Bulgaria; 5) MAES BG subtypes that have no correspondence to a CLC class. Secondly, we prepared a comparison table to determine the correspondence between the CLC classes and ecosystem subtypes, which we integrated into the GIS environment. Thirdly, we developed an algorithm for modifications of the spatial distribution of ecosystem subtypes. The algorithm was applied particularly to grasslands, where at Level 3 of CLC there are two classes of "grassland”, whereas at Level 3 of the classification of ecosystems in Bulgaria, the subtypes are five. This algorithm was applied to the 2018 CLC spatial data so as to develop a GIS database providing the basis for subsequent analyzes related to ecosystems. The database was used to delineate and map the ecosystems at national level in Bulgaria. Furthermore, a map of the potential of the natural heritage to provide ecosystem services was produced.

scholarly journals Cultural ecosystem services for development of nature-based tourism in Bulgaria

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 81-87
Author(s):  
Mariyana Nikolova ◽  
Velimira Stoyanova ◽  
Desislava Varadzhakova ◽  
Aleksandra Ravnachka
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Ecosystem Approach ◽  
Cultural Ecosystem Services ◽  
Natural Heritage ◽  
Heritage Sites ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Different Types ◽  
New Type ◽  
The Rich

The rich and diverse Natural Heritage of Bulgaria is a prerequisite for the development of nature- based tourism (NBT) of a new type. The research is carried out by the implementation of the ecosystem approach. The results include an assessment of the natural heritage capacity to provide goods and services for the development of NBT in the Tourist Regions (TR) of Bulgaria. The results show the spatial distribution of the natural heritage sites in all nine TR in Bulgaria and their natural capacity for development of different types of NBT. There are only 37 municipalities out of 265 with not a one Natural Heritage (NH) site, and all the rest have natural resources to develop NBT. The results can be of use for the achievement of the goals for sustainable tourism by assessment of the capacity to provide recreation ecosystem services (RES).

scholarly journals Natural heritage as a source of ecosystem services for recreation and tourism in Bulgaria

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 3-6
Author(s):  
Mariyana Nikolova ◽  
Stoyan Nedkov ◽  
Bilyana Borisova ◽  
Miglena Zhiyanski ◽  
Stelian Dimitrov
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Natural Heritage ◽  
Recreation And Tourism

scholarly journals A Community EcoHealth Index from EnviroAtlas Ecosystem Services Metrics

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (15) ◽  
pp. 2760
Author(s):  
Ferdouz Cochran ◽  
Laura Jackson ◽  
Anne Neale ◽  
John Lovette ◽  
Liem Tran
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Urban Communities ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Distance Measure ◽  
Local Level ◽  
National Level ◽  
Local Version ◽  
Weighted Distance ◽  
Environmental Decision Making ◽  
Land Cover Data

Human health is inextricably tied to ecosystem services (ES), including those associated with greenspace in urban communities. EnviroAtlas provides close to 100 maps of ES metrics based on high-resolution land cover data in featured communities across the contiguous United States. Using selected EnviroAtlas ES metrics, a Community EcoHealth Index (CEHI) was created based on an ecohealth framework including health promotion and hazard buffering domains. Aggregation of eight selected ES metrics in these domains entailed a weighted distance measure, where objective, data-driven weights were generated. CEHI was calculated by Census Block Group (CBG) at both the local level and the national level for 22 EnviroAtlas communities. Results were mapped to show one- to five-star CBGs or neighborhoods within and across all 22 featured communities. At the national level, CEHI favors communities in forested ecoregions. The local version of CEHI is more appropriate to inform social, economic, and environmental decision-making for improving community ES associated with human health.

scholarly journals Inclusion of the Public in the Natural Capital, Ecosystem Services and Green Infrastructure Assessments (Results of Structured Interviews with Stakeholders of Commune Liptovská Teplička)

2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milena Moyzeová
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Natural Capital ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Public ◽  
Rural And Urban Areas ◽  
Rural And Urban

AbstractNowadays, topics like natural capital assessment, ecosystem services and green infrastructure have become frequent subjects of a number of national and international projects accomplished on local, regional, national and cross-frontier levels. These projects respond to the deterioration of biotopes due to their fragmentation and degradation as a result of constructions and tourism/recreation. This situation requires an economic assessment of ecosystems from the view point of their capacities to satisfy human necessities with simultaneous conservation of the environmental quality, and the optimal status of landscape diversity both in rural and urban areas. The aim of the Green Infrastructure initiative is to stop the loss of land as an irreplaceable natural resource and to contribute to the inclusion of ecological and sustainability aspects into the spatial planning and regional development in rural and urban areas. Green Infrastructure is the tool that may reduce the loss of ecosystem services connected with future occupation of land and improve functions of land. It may support ecological measures aimed at conservation of agricultural landscape and adoption of measures in the sphere of forest and water economies. Important role in the assessment of ecosystems is played not only by the scientists but also by experts and the public at large. This is the reason why ever more stakeholders possessing knowledge of local territory and personal life experience participate in these projects. Their judgments and views, often bearing information important for the above-mentioned assessment, are applied to proposed measures aimed at the improvement of environmental quality and quality of life in terms of sustainability. This article brings the possible example of how to include a selected sample of stakeholders into the assessment of natural capital and ecosystem services on local level in the frame of Green Infrastructure. The aim of this paper is to analyse attitudes of the involved for the evaluation of natural capital and ecosystem services at a local level by means of structured interviews. Obtained views will be applied for the assessment of ecosystem services and proposals aimed at protection and conservation of natural capital and building of green infrastructure. The research was carried out in the model territory of the rural commune Liptovská Teplička.

scholarly journals The impact of the local conservative climate on generalised trust in Sweden

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-133
Author(s):  
Dávid Sümeghy ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Local Politics ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Local Level ◽  
National Level ◽  
Conflict Theory ◽  
Radical Right ◽  
Contextual Effect ◽  
Local Media ◽  
Radical Right Parties ◽  
The Impact

The rise of the radical right parties, with their anti-immigrant rhetoric, may amplify the generally observed negative impact of diversity on generalised trust. The impact of the conservative climate created by these parties is apparent at the national level, but the little research carried out in the field has yet to examine the role of their local political power. In Sweden, the literature suggests that the radical right Sweden Democrats party has a stronger anti-immigration and ethnonationalist rhetoric at the local level, which may reduce the generalised trust of residents by triggering conflict theory. Calculating the conservative climate based on the percentage of party representatives on local councils using multi-level modelling, we observe that the contextual effect of the conservative climate is present and reduces generalised trust. However, the underlying cause of this effect is not fully known. It can be traced back to the party’s local politics, the residents and the local media.

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