Keywords
ecosystem services, scenarios, land use change
Start Date
1-7-2010 12:00 AM
Abstract
Ecosystems are dependent upon the interactions between the natural environment and human factors. Each different ecosystem service is also associated with varying spatial scales related to their functioning and human benefits. Thus, key requirements for an ecosystem-based approach (EBA) are i) multiple scales, especially landscape scale, ii) flexible method for adaptive response and iii) stakeholders participation. Understanding complex inter-relationships between ecosystem functions and their services requires tools to handle change and uncertainty, notably scenarios and sensitivity analysis. We propose an iterative approach, which is multi-scale and userfocused based upon the LandSFACTS toolkit to generate a suite of land use change scenarios. The complexity of the scenarios and knowledge of the ecosystem is evaluated and built up through an iterative procedure with stakeholders using spatio-temporal constraints on land use. This method has been used to link climate change impacts (direct and indirect) with climate change responses (adaptation and mitigation). An example of evaluating alternative scenarios of land use changes through EBA (e.g. for food security, carbon sequestration, woodland habitat network) is presented in this paper at two scales (Tarland sub-catchment and Dee catchment in Scotland, UK).
Multi-Scale Modelling of Ecosystem Services – an Iterative Approach
Ecosystems are dependent upon the interactions between the natural environment and human factors. Each different ecosystem service is also associated with varying spatial scales related to their functioning and human benefits. Thus, key requirements for an ecosystem-based approach (EBA) are i) multiple scales, especially landscape scale, ii) flexible method for adaptive response and iii) stakeholders participation. Understanding complex inter-relationships between ecosystem functions and their services requires tools to handle change and uncertainty, notably scenarios and sensitivity analysis. We propose an iterative approach, which is multi-scale and userfocused based upon the LandSFACTS toolkit to generate a suite of land use change scenarios. The complexity of the scenarios and knowledge of the ecosystem is evaluated and built up through an iterative procedure with stakeholders using spatio-temporal constraints on land use. This method has been used to link climate change impacts (direct and indirect) with climate change responses (adaptation and mitigation). An example of evaluating alternative scenarios of land use changes through EBA (e.g. for food security, carbon sequestration, woodland habitat network) is presented in this paper at two scales (Tarland sub-catchment and Dee catchment in Scotland, UK).
