Flanders Ecosystem Assessment - From mapping to accounting – scale is everything Toon Spanhove, Sander Jacobs, Nicolas Dendoncker, Toon Van Daele, Carine Wils, Marijke Thoonen, Heidi Demolder, Helen Michels, Johan Peymen, Anik Schneiders, Maarten Stevens, Peter Van Gossum, Wouter Van Reeth
Flanders Ecosystem Assessment - “what do we need for proper mapping of multiple ecosystem services and respective practical applications?”
Goals of ES assessments Broader goal of sustainable and equal use of nature’s resources Concrete goal of (mapping and) assessment: 2014 Concrete goal of accounting the (economic) value of ES: is nearing: what maps are out there already? – Ingeniously combined data layers, scientifically sound – Proxy-based extrapolations, practically applicable Accounting requires repeated scientific assessment in realistic and comparable units. Flanders Ecosystem Assessment -
-Scale effect -Aggregation effect Modifiable Area Unit Problem “MAUP” a.k.a. Ecological Fallacies Gehlke, C. and Biehl, K., Certain Effects of Grouping Upon the Size of the Correlation Coefficient in Census Tract Material, Journal of American Statistical Association, 29: Wrigley, N., Holt, T., Steel, D., and Tranmer, M Analysing, modelling, and resolving the ecological fallacy. Pages in P. Longley and M. Batty (eds) Spatial analysis: modelling in a GIS environment. Cambridge: GeoInformation International. Openshaw, S Developing GIS-relevant zone-based spaital analysis methods. Page in P. Longley and M. Batty (eds) Spatial analysis: modelling in a GIS environment. Cambridge: GeoInformation International. ecological-fallacies/
ES maps based on biophysical data Soil texture Climate … Land Use Distance rules Regions INPUT MAPSGIS “MODEL”ES MAPS
11 / 40 / 114 units Several area divisions “which ecosystems supply which ES?” “which accounting units are optimal?” Ecosystem (LU) classification
How much are these maps alike? Average of absolute value of residuals (%) AREA UNIT
Wood production Water production Climate regulation
Conclusions Accounting must be developped by merging (improving) BF information in repeatable units over time. MAUP generates large effects on the final results and their comparability. Remember… don’t focus on maps only: Flanders Ecosystem Assessment -