A.J. Wagtendonk

The Location of New Residential Areas and the Preservation of Open Space: Experiences in the Netherlands

As a consequence of the ongoing growth in demand for houses in the Netherlands over recent decades, the fraction of the total surface used for residential purposes has expanded rapidly. The location patterns of new residential construction are the result of various forces: government intervention aiming at the preservation of open space via zoning, new-town, and ‘compact-city’ policies, and market forces reflecting preferences on the demand side (households and real-estate developers). The main factors influencing the location of residential construction are analysed by means of a statistical analysis. The most significant variables appear to be the proximity of a location to existing residential areas, location in new towns receiving government support, the accessibility of workplaces, distance to railway stations, and, to a lesser extent, the accessibility of nature, surface water, and recreational areas.

Estimation of Distance-Decay Functions to Account for Substitution and Spatial Heterogeneity in Stated Preference Research

In a site-selection choice experiment various hypotheses are tested related to spatial heterogeneity in willingness to pay (WTP) for environmental improvements. Spatial heterogeneity is measured through distance-decay effects, substitute sites inside and outside the experiment’s choice set, and spatial trend variables. We demonstrate that distance-decay functions differ between users and nonusers and across study sites. Also the distance to substitutes outside the choice set explains spatial variation in WTP. We show that further extending the model with spatial trend variables reveals additional spatial heterogeneity in choices. Accounting for spatial heterogeneity patterns results in significantly different WTP estimates for environmental improvements. (JEL Q25, Q51)

GIS-Based Mapping of Ecosystem Services: The Case of Coral Reefs

This chapter illustrates the process of mapping ecosystem service values with an application to coral reef recreational values in Southeast Asia . The case study provides an estimate of the value of reef-related recreation foregone, due to the decline in coral reef area in Southeast Asia , under a baseline scenario for the period 2000–2050. This value is estimated by combining a visitor model , meta-analytic value function and spatial data on individual coral reef ecosystems to produce site-specific values. Values are mapped in order to communicate the spatial variability in the value of coral reef degradation. Although the aggregated change in the value of reef-related recreation due to ecosystem degradation is not high, there is substantial spatial variation in welfare losses, which is potentially useful information for targeting conservation efforts.

Sensible Field Computing

Traditional analogue field methods are increasingly becoming a limiting factor in the workflow of computerized research projects. At the same time, the potential of mobile GIS and other mobile computing methods to support better and more efficient scientific data collection is widely acknowledged. There seems, however, to be little scientific proof for the added value and successful continuation of these methods beyond the pilot stage. In particular, the diversity and unique mobility characteristics of fieldwork pose specific difficulties for the design, implementation, and support of these methods. This paper offers a simple ex ante/ex post evaluation framework to help researchers in estimating the added value of a mobile computing method. The application of this framework is exemplified with an archaeological case study and demonstrates that its use can result in a more comprehensive view of the potential and actual benefits of applying specific mobile computing methods in scientific fieldwork.

A Regional Planning Application of Euroscanner in Portugal

Socio-economic change is becoming more complex and appears to be having greater environmental and land use impacts throughout Europe. Land use morphology reflects changes in the size, shape and function of buildings and is linked with changes in transport infrastructure. It is also related to a general increase in urban and built-up areas (partly a result of urban sprawl) and is closely related to the changing role and function of rural areas. It can be argued that analysing medium to long term spatial planning scenarios is important in order to incorporate appropriate mitigation action in plans to alleviate the potentially detrimental effects of development. Scenario-based land use planning can also be extremely useful in helping to develop an understanding of the driving forces behind land use change (ESDP, 1997).

Ecosystems and biodiversity

Introduction In this chapter we look at the costs and benefits of three possible interventions that would enhance the planets biodiversity and improve its ecosystems over the next forty years The results are based on a study carried out across four research institutes and coordinated by the Scottish Agricultural College (Hussain etal 2011) that combined a global biophysical model (IMAGE-GLOBIO) which analyzed the biophysical impacts of different development scenarios compared to the counterfactual with a set of valuation studies that placed monetary values on the outcomes resulting from the different policy options in terms of biodiversity and ecosystem services (ESSs) While reference is frequently made in the popular press to biodiversity losses in practice it is difficult to quantify and value them There are several studies that attempt to do this in specific cases but no one has successfully estimated the value of the loss of biodiversity at a global level This is because the links between biodiversity and biolo-gical systems and the economic and social values that they support are extremely complex Even the measurement of biodiversity is problematic with a multi-dimensional metric regarded as appropriate (Purvis and Hector 2000; Mace etal 2003) but with further work considered necessary to define the appropriate combination

Scaling up Ecosystem Services Values: Methodology, Applicability and a Case Study

The approach of using existing data on economic values of local ecosystem services for an assessment of these values at a larger geographical scale can be called “scaling up”. In a scaling-up exercise, economic values from a particular study site are transferred to another geographical setting, for instance to the regional, national or global scale. This paper proposes a methodology for scaling up ecosystem service values to a European level, assesses the availability of data for conducting this method, and illustrates the procedure with a case study on wetland values. The proposed methodology makes use of meta-analysis to produce a value function that is subsequently applied to individual European wetland sites. Site-specific, study-specific and context-specific variables are used to define a price vector that captures differences between sites and over time. The proposed method is shown to be practicable and to produce reasonably reliable aggregate value estimates.

Past in Place: The role of Geo-ICT in present-day archaeology

The steadily growing bond between Geo-ICT and archaeology, which follows from the inherently spatial nature of the archaeological record and its interdisciplinary character, involves a wide range of spatial applications from subsurface modelling to distribution maps and predictive modelling. Despite the potential of Geo-ICT for archaeology, its penetration in the discipline is not as extensive as might be expected. The role of education and the approach to technology and information science that archaeologists have adopted are important factors in this development. More specifically, the adoption of Geo-ICT in archaeology is influenced by the field of activity, the nature of the archaeological record and the theoretical perspective. The last factor is particularly influential because it determines which concept of human space is used and consequently the most feasible Geo-ICT methods. Archaeologists are less worried about the geomodelling framework than about the lack of financial resources for software, data and basic training, the limitations of Geo-ICT methods for 3D and temporal modelling, and problems of data conversion and sustainability. The integration of Geo-ICT in archaeology would benefit from a new theoretical framework, together with a concerted effort from different sciences to set up campus-wide support and Geo-ICT infrastructure for multidisciplinary research and collaboration.

WATeRS: an open Web Map Service with near-real time MODIS Level-2 standard chlorophyll products of the North Sea

WATeRS (http://ivm10.ivm.vu.nl/mapserver/WATeRS) is a portal for near‐real time (NRT) satellite‐derived water quality (chlorophyll) information products that is openly and interactively available for all on the Internet. It is based on automated conversion of remotely sensed data (in scientific formats) to geographic information system (GIS) formats, and comprises a customized Arc Internet Map Server (ArcIMS) application with an OpenGIS compliant Web Map Server connector. The resulting GIS‐based open map service comprises a simple, clear and intuitive user interface, grid‐cell query functionality, and is complemented by a metadata catalogue that provides full lineage of the chlorophyll maps, and automated archiving. WATeRS enables users to interactively explore remote sensing products, and to seamlessly combine this with other geographical data.