University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU) - Research portal

• Go directly to the nagivation.
• Go directly to the content.

• Print view.
• Deutsch.
• Contact.
• Data entry.
• BOKU startpage.
• Open Access.
• ArgeData.
• Core Facilities.
• .

Biosphere Reserve Integrated Monitoring based on Social and ENvorinmental ecosytem services

Project Leader

Brandenburg Christiane, Project Leader

Duration:

01.05.2018-01.07.2019

Programme:

Earth System Sciences (ESS)

Type of Research

Applied Research

Staff

Sams Katharina Theresa, Project Staff (bis 30.09.2019)

Knopper Friedrich, Project Staff (bis 02.02.2020)

BOKU Research Units

Institute for Landscape Development, Recreation and Conservation Planning

Funded by

Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Dr. Ignaz- Seipel Platz, 1010 Wien, Austria

Abstract

Comprising the diversity of ecosystems and species as well as the genetic diversity within species biodiversity is the basis for human life. Human well-being is strongly dependent on the functions and services which are delivered by our ecosystems and landscapes. Intact ecosystems fulfil important services, for example supplying us with food, water and timber, cleaning water an d air, regulating the climate and offering facilities for recreation. This awareness was triggered by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment in 2005 and has stimulated a widespread debate on the sustainable use of our environment. As Biosphere Reserves are seen as model regions for such a sustainable use, they represent the perfect living laboratory for investigating the relationship of balanced human uses and the environment. Within this frame, monitoring plays a fundamental role. This can only be done by developing indicators for long-term monitoring representing the ecological and socio -cultural development as two main pillars of sustainability. Ecosystem services lend itself to this purpose in an optimal way as they measure not only the current state of land use but are also a good communication tool with stakeholders and the local population. Still, it is of current scientific debate in which amount the different services are provided on different scales, as single services seem to react in various ways if viewed from the local or the regional scale.

Aim of the present project is the development of a set of integrative indicators for a Biosphere Reserve Integrated Monitoring system (BRIM) in the Biosphere Reserve Wienerwald based on the concept of ecosystem functions and services (Millennium Assessment 2005).

The different objectives of this project do thus include several issues and steps:
Embedded in a spatial reference framework that links scales and topics (WP2) we will assess environmental and socio-cultural landscape services. The assessment will take place at the regional as well as at the local scale. As a first step, within a stakeholder workshop we will identify regional relevant landscape services, which will be linked to land use types by a capacity matrix (WP3 ). The calculated landscape services will then be illustrated by spider web diagrams and service maps within the different landscape types and zones in the BR. In a second step, locally relevant environmental and socio- cultural services and their parameters shall be defined within a participatory process including stakeholders and experts (WP4). The calculation of the identified service parameters will allow an assessment of landscape services at the local scale. Depending on availability and quality of exi sting datasets these services are targeted to act and contribute as BRIM indicators on the local scale. Finally, the parameters for the individual environmental and socio-cultural landscape services need to be synthesised according to their scales to provide one common result. The results will be visualised as spider web diagrams and thematic maps. In order to derive recommendations for a core set of BRIM indicators a comparison of regional and local assessment results will be indispensable. Finally we will propose a sustainable Landscape Services Provision Model based on Seville criteria which will serve as baseline for the reduction of vulnerability for the Biosphere Reserve Wienerwald as well as for other Biosphere Reserves (WP5).

Keywords

Landscape planning;

Recreation; Ecosystem Services; Socio-cultural Servives;