River systems provide numerous ecosystem services that contribute to human well-being. Biophysical quantification of spatiotemporal development of ecosystem services is useful for environmental impact assessments or scenario analyses of river management and could be done by linking biophysical indicators of relevant ecosystem services to landscape classifications that allow analyses of natural and management-induced changes in riverscape characteristics. We analyzed 126 case studies in which landscape classification systems (LCSs) were applied over the period 1989–2014. LCSs were mostly applied at regional (subnational) scales and linked to ecosystem services in 46 case studies. Ecosystem services were linked to landscape patches based on quantitative (monetary or biophysical) or semiquantitative approaches. Only 6 case studies linked ecosystem services to river systems. The number of ecosystem services quantified by biophysical indicators and linked to landscape classes also was limited. Moreover, the spatiotemporal development of these indicators in relation to landscape changes is poorly elaborated. Six selected LCSs were considered suitable for application to river systems and biophysical quantification of spatiotemporal development of ecosystem services (e.g., Coordination of Information on the Environment (CORINE) Land Cover, River Ecotope Classification). Future research should be directed to developing sound indicators for quantification of river ecosystem services and analyzing how these services develop spatiotemporally in relation to natural and anthropogenic changes of the riverscape.
Copyright © 2018, The University of Chicago Press
A) The relative number of case studies on each continent in which landscape classification was applied (n 5 126), B) ecosystem services were linked to landscape classification systems (LCSs) (n 5 46), and C) landscape classification systems (LCSs) were applied to rivers and linked to ecosystem services (n 5 6). Source: (Figure 3; Koopman et al. 2018; https://doi.org/10.1086/696612)
- Koopman, K. R., Augustijn, D. C. M., Breure, A. M., Lenders, H. J. R., & Leuven, R. S. E. W. (2018). Suitable landscape classification systems for quantifying spatiotemporal development of riverine ecosystem services. ,” Freshwater Science 37, no. 1 (March 2018): 190-204. https://doi.org/10.1086/696612 (Including link to supplementary material).
- Here is also available the list of related conference abstracts and (under)graduate thesis with progress results of the main researcher or contributors to this project.
Quantifying biomass production for assessing ecosystem services of riverine landscapes
Last modified: 29/01/2019