No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

. 2014. Mapping cultural ecosystem services: a framework to assess the potential for outdoor recreation across the EU.Contact CEH NORA team at noraceh@ceh.ac.ukThe NERC and CEH trademarks and logos ('the Trademarks') are registered trademarks of NERC in the UK and other countries, and may not be used without the prior written consent of the Trademark owner. Elsevier Editorial System(tm) for Ecological Indicators Manuscript DraftManuscript Number: Abstract: The publication of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 requires a substantial effort in terms of operationalizing the ecosystem service concept. Target 2 of the Strategy in fact advocates that ecosystems and their services have to be "maintained and enhanced" in the current decade. This necessitates the development of methods to map and assess ecosystem services at regional and Country level, which is recognized under Action 5 of the strategy.Research on ecosystem services mapping and valuing has boosted in recent years, nevertheless compared to other groups (provisioning, regulating) cultural ecosystem services are not yet fully integrated into operational frameworks. One reason is the transdisciplinarity which is required to address the issue: by their own definition cultural services (which encompass physical, intellectual, spiritual interactions with biota) need to be analysed from multiple perspectives (i.e. ecological, social, behavioural). A second reason is most likely the lack of data for large-scale assessments, being direct surveys a main source of information. Among cultural ecosystem services, assessment of outdoor recreation can be based on a large pool of literature developed mostly in social and medical science, and landscape and ecology studies. This paper presents a methodology to include recreation in the conceptual framework for EU wide ecosystem assessments (Maes et al., 2013), which couples existing approaches for recreation management at Country level with behavioural data derived from surveys and literature, and population distribution analysis. The result is a frame that can be applied to quantify the capacity of outdoor recreation as ecosystem service to citizens in the EU, and describe through Country profiles differences in provision, as input to land planning processes.Dear Editor, we are pleased to submit a contribution to Ecological Indicators. The manuscript is entitled Mapping cultural ecosystem services: the case of outdoor recreation. This is an original contribution to the scientific literature and its submission is supported by all the authors. The paper contains new material which is not considered elsewhere for review or publication.Our paper proposes a methodology to include outdoor recreation in the Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystem Services (MAES) framework (http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/knowledge/ecosystem_assessment/pdf/MAESWorkingPaper201 3.pdf), in support of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020. More in general, we believe the paper indicates a viable path to include a cultural ecosystem service in EU...

HighlightsDifferent ecosystem service definitions and interpretations create too much ambiguity.The cascade model is used as framework, and Systems Ecology as theoretical basis.The notions of biomass information and interaction enrich a refreshed conceptualization.The cascade framework shifts from a ‘two dimensional’ to a ‘telescopic’ perspective.This perspective can emphasize the ecological dimension and its complex reality.