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Landscape Monitoring, Ecosystem Services and Sustainable Development

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2023) | Viewed by 13235

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Dr. Uta Schirpke

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Guest Editor

1. Institute for Alpine Environment, Eurac Research, Bozen/Bolzano, Italy
2. Department of Ecology, University of Innsbruck, Innrain 52, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
Interests: ecosystem services; landscape ecology and spatial modelling
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Dr. Erich Tasser

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor

Institute for Alpine Environment, Eurac Research, Bozen/Bolzano, Italy
Interests: systems and landscape ecology, landscape modelling, scenario techniques, sustainable development in mountain areas

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Landscapes can provide a wide range of ecosystem services, depending on the variety and state of ecosystems. To meet the increasing demand for food, energy, and living space, more and more natural or seminatural ecosystems are converted to human-dominated landscapes, which often leads to overexploitation and degradation of ecosystems and a decline in ecosystem services that can be provided by such landscapes. To incite and evaluate a sustainable use of the environment and its natural resources, it is indispensable to assess and monitor landscape dynamics and its effects on the provision of ecosystem services in space and time. Although research in ecosystem services is advancing rapidly, the linkages to sustainable landscape dynamics are less explored.

This Special Issue therefore invites studies advancing concepts and applications addressing the interactions between landscape dynamics and ecosystem services to indicate sustainable, nature-based solutions (NBS) inclusive the development of green infrastructure (GI). In particular, we welcome contributions that focus on past and future impacts of land-use/cover changes on ecosystem services, identification of underlying mechanisms, as well as best-practice applications to implement monitoring systems for a sustainable use of natural resources. We also would like to indicate the most relevant open research questions and future perspectives in the context of sustainable landscape dynamics and maintenance of multiple ecosystem services.

Dr. Uta Schirpke
Dr. Erich Tasser
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

land use/cover change
ecosystem service assessment
scenario development
monitoring
sustainability

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 1586 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Towards a Sustainable City with a Sensory Garden in the Context of Urban Well-Being

by Natalia Vukovic and Zhanna Mingaleva

Sustainability 2023, 15(6), 4762; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15064762 - 07 Mar 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2359

Abstract

Human well-being is one of the main goals of sustainable development (SDG 3 and SDG 11). Urban green zones are always presented in all global well-being rankings of the cities. The development of new forms of urban green zones is stimulated by such challenges as urban health and the deficit of urban territory. Sensory gardens are one of the innovative forms of urban green zones. They implement intensive and concentrative interaction of citizens with nature, positively influencing objective and subjective human well-being. In the first part of the research, we analyzed the history of the evolution of the concept of a sensory garden from its mono-sensory to multi-sensory form using the bibliographic analysis. The results of the analyses of scientific publications were confirmed by the results of a survey presented in the second part of the research. The survey was conducted in Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, and Yekaterinburg, where 215 citizens spoke about the sensory garden. The research results confirm that the sensory gardens are a prospective form of urban green zones for citizens, and they are interested in the development of its multisensory concept. According to survey results, the zones of smells and colors in the sensory garden were the most attractive for the respondents. The respondents agreed that the main function of sensory gardens is anti-stress therapy for adults. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Monitoring, Ecosystem Services and Sustainable Development)

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16 pages, 1543 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sustaining Human Nutrition in an Increasingly Urban World

by Angélica Valencia Torres, Chetan Tiwari and Samuel F. Atkinson

Sustainability 2022, 14(13), 7607; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14137607 - 22 Jun 2022

Viewed by 1357

Abstract

The complex interaction between social, economic, and environmental processes coupled with transformations of the landscape primarily driven by urbanization have impacts on the access, availability, and distribution, of food. This has resulted in a global micronutrient deficiency and hunger. Given rapid urbanization and population growth, a more sustainable food system is necessary to feed more urban populations and provide adequate nutrition, especially in developing countries. Existing frameworks for modelling urban-environment interactions contain components related to food security, however, lack the specificity needed to evaluate the effects of land use decisions and agricultural production strategies on the health of local populations measured through metrics such as nutritional output. The research presented here proposes an urban nutrition (UN) extension to the previously published urban ecological economic system by developing a focused component that simulates scenarios of different degrees of urbanization and agricultural production techniques to improve the nutritional output of agricultural land, while considering the conservation of soil. This simulation approach was subsequently applied to the Toluca Metropolitan Zone, Mexico. Results showed that nutritional output would greatly increase when adding a variety of crops, even in scenarios where agricultural land is limited. The proposed extension can be used by decision makers worldwide to evaluate how landscape configurations and agricultural production systems affect the nutritional needs of the local population while fostering sustainable practices. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Monitoring, Ecosystem Services and Sustainable Development)

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16 pages, 4938 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Small Water Cycle in the Czech Landscape: How Has It Been Affected by Land Management Changes Over Time?

by Nina Noreika, Julie Winterová, Tailin Li, Josef Krása and Tomáš Dostál

Sustainability 2021, 13(24), 13757; https://doi.org/10.3390/su132413757 - 13 Dec 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1959

Abstract

For the Czech Republic to recover from the effects of past mismanagement, it is necessary to determine how its landscape management can be improved holistically by reinforcing the small water cycle. We conducted a scenario analysis across four time periods using SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) to determine the effects of land use, land management, and crop rotation shifts since the 1800s in what is now the Czech Republic. The 1852 and 1954 land-use scenarios behaved the most similarly hydrologically across all four scenarios, likely due to minimal landscape transformation and the fact that these two scenarios occur prior to the widespread incorporation of subsurface tile drainages across the landscape. Additionally, the crop rotation of 1920–1938 reinforces the small water cycle the most, while that of 1950–1989 reinforces the small water cycle the least. Diversified crop rotations should be incentivized to farmers, and increasing the areas of forest, brush, and permanent grassland should be prioritized to further reinforce the small water cycle. It is necessary to foster relationships and open communication between watershed managers, landowners, and scientists to improve the small water cycle and to pave the way for successful future hydrological modeling in the Czech Republic. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Monitoring, Ecosystem Services and Sustainable Development)

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22 pages, 5982 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Trends in Ecosystem Services across Europe Due to Land-Use/Cover Changes

by Uta Schirpke and Erich Tasser

Sustainability 2021, 13(13), 7095; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137095 - 24 Jun 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3346

Abstract

The growing pressure on society due to global change requires better integration of ecosystem services (ES) into decision-making. Despite a growing number of ES assessments, Europe-wide information on recent changes of multiple ES is still rare. This study aimed at analysing changes in ES values between 2000 and 2018 across Europe based on land use/land cover (LULC) distribution. We mapped 19 ES for 52 ecoregions and identified six major groups of ecoregions with similar LULC distribution and trends. Our results indicated that provisioning ES mainly increased in the forest-dominated region (G2), decreasing in the near-natural grassland region (G1), the region with agricultural mixed systems (G3), and the intensively-used steppic region (G6). Regulating ES slightly decreased in G1 and G6, but increased in G2 and the wetland-dominated region (G5). Cultural ES had generally low negative trends for most ecoregions. In addition, our results revealed ecoregions with differing trends in ES that could be related to specific socioeconomic developments. Our findings provide spatial and quantitative information that can be used for policy development at European national and regional levels—as well as for monitoring of ES. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Monitoring, Ecosystem Services and Sustainable Development)

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15 pages, 2853 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Good Pastures, Good Meadows: Mountain Farmers’ Assessment, Perceptions on Ecosystem Services, and Proposals for Biodiversity Management

by Alexander Wezel, Sibylle Stöckli, Erich Tasser, Heike Nitsch and Audrey Vincent

Sustainability 2021, 13(10), 5609; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13105609 - 18 May 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2964

Abstract

An ongoing decrease in habitat and species diversity is occurring in many areas across Europe, including in grasslands in mountain areas, calling for adapted biodiversity management and measures. In this context, we carried out 79 interviews with grassland farmers in five alpine mountain regions in Germany, France, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. We analyzed farmers’ perceptions about the functions and services of their grasslands, how they qualify “good” grasslands, which grassland management practices have changed over the last 10 years, and proposals to increase species diversity on the farm. They related them primarily to cultural ecosystem services, secondly to provisioning services, and thirdly to regulating and supporting services. Good pastures or meadows were mostly related to composition, quality of forage and productivity, structural criteria, and certain characteristics of soils and topography. The measures for increasing biodiversity that were most frequently proposed were upgrading of forest edges, planting hedges or fruit trees, less or late grassland cutting, reduction or omission of fertilization, and more general extensification of farm productions. Factors hindering the implementation of these measures were mainly increased workload, insufficient time, and a lack of financial means or support to cover additional costs for biodiversity management. These factors have to be taken specifically into account for future policies for enhanced biodiversity management of grasslands, also beyond mountainous areas. Overall, we found that farmers have good but varying knowledge about biodiversity management of their grasslands, but also different perspectives on how to improve it. Here, local initiatives that bring together farmers and flora or fauna specialists to exchange knowledge could be designed and used in participatory pilot schemes to enhance the implementation of improved biodiversity management. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Monitoring, Ecosystem Services and Sustainable Development)

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