The value of urban ecosystem services in New York City: A spatially explicit multicriteria analysis of landscape scale valuation scenarios

Mapping, modeling, and valuing urban ecosystem services are important for integrating the ecosystem services concept in urban planning and decision-making. However, decision-support tools able to consider multiple ecosystem services in the urban setting using complex and heterogeneous data are still in early development. Here, we use New York City (NYC) as a case study to evaluate and analyze how the value of multiple ecosystem services of urban green infrastructure shifts with shifting governance priorities. We first examined the spatial distribution of five ecosystem services – storm water absorption, carbon storage, air pollution removal, local climate regulation, and recreation – to create the first multiple ecosystem services evaluation of all green infrastructure in NYC. Then, combining an urban ecosystem services landscape approach with spatial multicriteria analysis weighting scenarios, we examine the distribution of these ecosystem services in the city. We contrast the current NYC policy preference – which is focused on heavy investment in stormwater absorption – with a valuation approach that also accounts for other ecosystem services. We find substantial differences in the spatial distribution of priority areas for green infrastructure for the valuation scenarios. Among the scenarios we examined for NYC, we find that a scenario in which only stormwater absorption is prioritized leads to the most unevenly distributed ES values. By contrast, we find least variation in ES values where stormwater absorption, local climate regulation, carbon storage, air pollution removal, and recreational potential are all weighted equally.We suggest that green infrastructure planning strategies should include all landscape components that contribute to the production of ecosystem services and consider how planning priority alternatives generate different ecosystem services values.     

Integrating economic landscape valuation into Mediterranean territorial planning

Recent and rapid landscape changes have occurred over large areas in Mediterranean Basin. Wildfires and human activities are the most important disturbances at landscape-level due to their ecological and socio-economic impacts. The increasing demand which society places on the forest landscapes has led us to develop a tool to identify the economic landscape value around natural protected areas. Our research focused on the integration of social, ecological and economic components of landscape management based on stated social preferences and contingent valuation method (CVM). Landscape value research has been motivated by the need to assist land use planning and environmental management.Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have provided new opportunities to spatially distributed modeling of landscape quality. Correlations were found between the representativeness of the landscape and its sense of belonging, and the contingent rating. Landscape with intensive agricultural practices and mining areas were the least preferred landscapes. There was a notable variation in the economic landscape value attributed to the study area based on the considered CVM scenario, ranging from 1,253,075.1 Euros to 3,650,827.8 Euros. We added the geospatial allocation of willingness to pay according to five landscape quality categories. Our approach could be used to identify priority areas for conservation based on maximizing landscape value, and would be useful in detecting interesting or conflict areas associated with new management and planning alternatives. In this sense, this approach offers managers to seek territorial management strategies to increase economic efficiency in the allocation of resources.     

Applying ecosystem concepts to the planning of industrial areas: a case study of Singapore’s Jurong Island

The application of ecological concepts to the industrial setting has been touched upon by literature across several disciplines. Two emerging ecological planning approaches, landscape ecology and industrial ecology, are applied here to look at alternative ways of planning industrial parks. As an emerging field, landscape ecology provides different viewpoints from the traditional approach of natural conservation, which mainly focuses on the protection of nature. The approach of landscape ecology regards the environment as a land mosaic, a mixture of natural and urban environment, which concerns a manageable human-scale environment across one or two human generations. Industrial ecology, on the other hand, goes beyond the traditional “end of pipe” idea of pollution control and learns from the ecosystem concept. The current paper is an attempt to reconcile these two fields as an integrated approach to the planning of industrial areas. Using a case study of Singapore’s Jurong Island industrial park, two fundamental issues behind the idea of landscape ecology and industrial ecology are raised. If raw materials, energy and by-products are more easily replaced or reused by technology and management, then research on industrial ecology and related knowledge will be crucial for developing natural resource substitution by innovative technology and new ways of environmental management. Where it is difficult to substitute natural resources, the skills of planning and managing natural resources will take priority over other strategies. In this situation, the knowledge of landscape ecology needs to be applied to the prediction, design and evaluation of ecologically optimum resource uses, patterns and processes in the mixture of natural, urban and industrial environment. A new concept, “nurtured landscape”, is proposed for mediating between the natural ecosystem and the urban/industrial environment. The nurtured landscape provides a basis for the development of new ecological technology using landscape to ameliorate the polluting effects of the urban/industrial neighbourhood. The planning of Singapore’s Jurong Island industrial park provides a test of applying the principles of landscape ecology and industrial ecology to the possible transformation of an industrial area.     

Estimation of Landscape Potential for Construction of Surface-Flow Wetlands for Wastewater Treatment in Estonia

The main aim of this article is to demonstrate a method of complex landscape analysis in order to estimate the landscape suitability for the construction of surface-flow wetlands (SFW) for wastewater treatment. This is a multilevel suitability analysis from a more general regional (landscape) assessment based on a map of landscape types (1:100,000) toward a detailed analysis based on aerial orthophotos and detailed soil maps (1:10,000). The assessment scheme consists of landscape classification according to the physical-chemical properties of landscape factors (soil conditions, landforms, hydrogeology, expert decisions concerning landscape values, and suitability analysis). The partial suitability values of SFWs are derived by summarizing expert values for landscape factors (each ranging from -1 to +1). By multiplying the summarized partial suitability values with nature protection values (ranging from 0 to 1), we obtain the final suitability value for each landscape type. Any kind of nature protection area has been considered nonsuitable and excluded at regional-level analysis. The results of the regional analysis demonstrate that suitability is distributed relatively equally over the study area. The high suitability potential (classified as "very suitable") is relatively evenly distributed in lowland regions throughout the country. The share of "very suitable" and "suitable" areas in different counties varies from 5 to 23% and 7 to 49%, respectively. The detailed analysis based on aerial orthophotos showed that areas suitable for SFWs can also be found within the areas determined to be unsuitable based on the less detailed map of landscape types, whereas differences are much greater between settlements chosen for the detailed suitability analysis.     

Aphid population response to agricultural landscape change: A spatially explicit,individual-based model

A spatially explicit individual-based simulation model has been developed to represent aphid population dynamics in agricultural landscapes. The application of the model to Rhopalosiphum padi (L.) population dynamics is detailed, including an outline of the construction of the model, its parameterisation and validation. Over time, the aphids interact with the landscape and with one another. The landscape is modified by varying a simple pesticide regime, and the multi-scale spatial and temporal implications for a population of aphids is analysed. The results show that a spatial modelling approach that considers the effects on the individual of landscape properties and factors such as wind speed and wind direction provides novel insight into aphid population dynamics both spatially and temporally. This forms the basis for the development of further simulation models that can be used to analyse how changes in landscape structure impact upon important species distributions and population dynamics.     

广州某景观水体应急除臭处理研究及工程应用

探讨了化学氧化法、微生物抑制法和pH值调节法对广州某景观水体恶臭的去除效果。结果表明：采用pH调节法可以有效抑制水体发臭,使水体臭强度大幅降低,除臭效果最佳的pH值为8．6～9．5。运用该除臭方法进行工程应用,结果表明该方法能够在短期内迅速降低水体臭强度,除臭效果显著。     

高速公路对沿途土地利用及景观格局的影响——以内蒙古省道103线蒲滩木刀口到城壕段为例

利用2002年和2006年公路建设前后的两期遥感数据,分析了公路对沿线土地利用和景观格局的影响。结果表明：公路建设使公路用地面积增加了4.10km^2,主要由侵占农业用地和沙地所导致;居民区、森林面积分别增加了1.12km^2和0.08km^2,其余土地利用类型面积有所减少;道路、居民区和森林的景观破碎化指数增加,农田、草地、灌木、沙地和水域下降;景观多样性指数增加,景观优势度降低。     

磁性絮凝剂处理景观生态水的实验条件探讨

研究了利用粉煤灰制成的磁性絮凝剂处理景观生态水的各种单因素实验,并且用正交实验的方法对该磁性絮凝剂处理景观生态水的实验条件进行了优化选择,研究了该磁性絮凝剂处理景观生态水的一般规律。实验结果表明,当操作条件为：投加量为200mg/L,搅拌时间为1min,搅拌速度为300r/min和磁吸附时间为1.5min时,取得最佳处理效果。在此实验条件下,景观生态水的COD、总P及氨氮的去除率分别可达76.15%、59.54%与53.36%。     

Optimizing the biodiversity gain from agri-environment schemes

How best to optimize the biodiversity gain from agri-environment schemes (AES) has recently been identified as a key policy-relevant question. Here, the effects of two features of lowland agricultural landscapes on the abundance and diversity of larger moths are contrasted. Although both features bring about positive effects, hedgerow trees have a larger impact than 6 m wide grassy field margins. Whilst AES payments are given to create and maintain grass margins, no financial reward is currently offered for the retention of hedgerow trees. Furthermore, it was only in areas where the amount of land under AES was experimentally increased, by targeting farmers, that the presence of hedgerow trees resulted in a substantially higher abundance (+60%) and diversity (+38%) of moths. Thus, by using larger moths as bio-indicators of landscape-scale quality, it is demonstrated that improvements to the cost-effectiveness of AES could be achieved, firstly, by providing more appropriate financial rewards to farmers for different landscape features, and secondly, through landscape-scale targeting of farmers to encourage participation in AES.     

基于RS/GIS技术的南四湖流域典型市域生态敏感性评价——以济宁市为例

基于RS和GIS技术,利用多源数据,从土壤侵蚀、土壤盐渍化、景观以及采矿塌陷4个方面对研究区的生态敏感性进行了评价,研究了空间分布差异及规律。结果表明:土壤侵蚀敏感性以轻度和中度为主,由东北和西南向中心递减趋势;土壤盐渍化除西部平原区盐渍化高风险突出外,敏感性普遍较低,由西向东递减;景观稳定性主要表现为轻度敏感,由四周向中心递减;采矿塌陷敏感性指标由于受人类活动影响呈现极端分布,高敏感区主要分布在研究区中部地区;研究综合生态敏感性分布空间差异显著,以不敏感区为主,整体上呈由西向东递减的趋势。