Mapping and assessment of urban ecosystem condition and services using integrated index of spatial structure

Abstract

Citation: Nedkov S, Zhiyanski M, Dimitrov S, Borisova B, Popov A, Ihtimanski I, Yaneva R, Nikolov P, BratanovaDoncheva S (2017) Mapping and assessment of urban ecosystem condition and services using integrated index of spatial structure. One Ecosystem 2: e14499. https://doi.org/10.3897/oneeco.2.e14499 AbstractUrban ecosystems are the areas where built infrastructure covers a large proportion of the land surface but the main source of ecosystem services provision is the green infrastructure. This provision is very much dependent on the particular combination of green spaces such as parks or vegetation belts and paved areas such as buildings and streets. The spatial arrangement of these elements is an important parameter which could be used for the assessment of the ecosystem condition in the urban areas. An integrated index of spatial structure is proposed which incorporates built types and land cover from the Local Climate Zones (LCZ) concept with urban ecosystems' classes developed on the basis of MAES typology. An algorithm has been developed for index generation using an urban ecosystems' database and remote sensing data. The index is used to define vegetation cover in urban ecosystems and assess their condition as a part of the assessment framework. It is also applied in the assessment of several ecosystem services through quantification of ecosystem services' indicators or as an indicator in a complex assessment. The results show that, although most urban ecosystems in Bulgaria are assessed as moderate and good condition, very few of them have very good condition and about 3.5% have very bad condition. The highest scores are defined for urban green areas while the lowest are for transport networks. The use of an integrated index in urban ecosystem services' assessment is represented by examples for global and local climate regulation. The results are used to develop maps of ecosystem services supply capacity for selected cities. The overall analysis indicates that the urban ecosystems in Bulgaria have a moderate to good capacity for local climate regulation and moderate to low capacity for global climate regulation. The integrated index of spatial structure provides an appropriate basis for characterisation and assessment of the urban ecosystems condition and ecosystem services following the requirements of the EU Biodiversity Strategy and the MAES process. The proposed approach enables the internal heterogeneity of the urban ecosystems at national level to be defined, this being one of the main challenges in studying urban ecological systems.

Evaluation of the Potential Change to the Ecosystem Service Provision Due to Industrialization

“…Authors such as Maes et al [38], Rounsevell et al [59], and van Zanten et al [60] state that the ES-matrix should be used only to assess relatively large areas for which detailed information is not available. However, the matrix has been replicated successfully in several contexts in different countries such as Germany [21], Italy [61], Bulgaria [62], Bangladesh [39], and Argentina [43]. It will be necessary to test and validate these new matrices with more studies in order for them to gain the same validity as the original matrix assessment.…”

Mapping Local Climate Zones and Their Applications in European Urban Environments: A Systematic Literature Review and Future Development Trends

“…Furthermore, Bassett et al [144] and Feng et al [145] used urban surface information from the Birmingham region's administrative authority (UK) and from the Urban Atlas land-use types classified by the European Environmental Agency, to detect LCZs classes around BUCL (Birmingham urban climate laboratory) station locations. Nedkov et al [63] employed the three-level MAES (mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their services) typology, where the third level included LCZ classes that contributed to more detailed spatial representation of the study area by applying GIS-based analyses and visual interpretation of orthophoto images. Using the combination of building and surface databases from France's national administration sources, such as the MApUCE project, BD TOPO, GENIUS, and INSEE, Gardes et al [62] obtained detailed object and land-cover features in order to calculate the LCZ patterns of French cities.…”

“…In a number of studies, analyses took in ten or more cities at once, in one or more European countries, and some did not address all the cities in detail, but showed only general LCZ patterns. This was the situation for 42-100 cities in France [59][60][61], 235 cities in Bulgaria [62], from ten to a few dozen cities across Europe [52,[63][64][65][66]. Cities from those articles do not, therefore, appear in Figure 5.…”

Soil Organic Carbon in Godech Municipality, Western Bulgaria

“…Dimitrova et al (2015) studied carbon storages in Yundola, Georgi Damyanovo and Berkovski Balkan. Nedkov et al (2016Nedkov et al ( , 2017) also conducted research on carbon stocks and finally, Zhiyanski and coauthors (2015Zhiyanski and coauthors ( , 2016Zhiyanski and coauthors ( a,b, 2020 investigated the carbon pool in Western Rhodopes, Beklemeto and other key areas in the country.…”