Multi-scale mapping of cultural ecosystem services in a socio-ecological landscape: A case study of the international Wadden Sea Region

Abstract

Context The governance of international natural World Heritage sites is extremely challenging. In the search for effective multilevel governance there is a need to identify the community of people which have place attachment to the areas, i.e. 'the community of fans' at local to international levels. Objectives Focusing on the landscape of the international Wadden Sea coastal area in the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark as a case study, we address three key questions: What is the spatial distribution of the community of fans? How does the size of this community relate to the overlapping communities of locals and actual visitors to the Wadden Sea coastal area? Which parts of the Wadden Sea coastal area are most appreciated by the community of fans, and how does this relate to its formal protection status? Methods We analysed 7650 respondents' answers to a trilateral web survey (the standardized Greenmapper survey) conducted in Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. Results We estimated that 14 million German, Dutch and Danish citizens can be regarded as the potentialnational level-community of fans. The correlation between place or landscape attachment and distance was varied among the three countries. Furthermore, only 37% of the markers placed by fans of the Wadden Sea coastal area are within the protected UNESCO World Heritage limits, suggesting that a broader demarcation could be possible. Conclusions We discuss how the identification of fans can potentially contribute to more effective public involvement in the governance of valuable landscapes.

Technology as a Tool for Environmental Engagement. The Case of Digital Participatory Mapping (DPM)

“…Thanks to easier international traveling and increasing globalized imaginaries, Bijker and Sijtsma (2017) have demonstrated that citizens-at least in Western countries-have a clear "portfolio of natural places" spanning from the local scale to favourite places at the planetary level. Consequently, citizens from different parts of the world may be attached to the same natural place, constituting what Sijtsma et al (2019) refer to as the "community of fans".…”

“…Following the previously introduced definition of a digital "community of fans" (Sijtsma et al, 2019), the Greenmapper is designed to explore the reasons behind this connection and how to enable interaction between community members. Crowdsourcing through DPM is, in this case, used to identify these communities and enable their existence (Brown & Kyttä, 2018).…”

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Identifying Citizens' Place Values for Integrated Planning of Road Infrastructure Projects

“…'The countless layers of any place come together in specific times and spaces and have bearing on the cultural, economic, and political characteristics, interpretations, and meanings of place' (Graham 2010). PPGIS has developed as an approach to overcome the limitations of 'hard' GIS and introduce 'soft' GIS elements to complement the information support for spatial planning (Kyttä et al 2013;Vich et al 2018;Sijtsma et al 2019). Hard GIS refers to data such as data on land use, job and population densities, and protection and conservation status.…”