Cristina Quintas-Soriano

From supply to social demand: a landscape-scale analysis of the water regulation service

Worldwide water managers and policy makers are faced by the increasing demands for limited and scarce water resources, particularly in semi-arid ecosystems. This study assesses water regulation service in semi-arid ecosystems of the southeastern Iberian Peninsula. Comparisons between the supply–demand sides were analyzed across different landscape units. We mapped the biophysical supply as the potential groundwater recharged by aquifers and water supplies from reservoirs. The social demand was focused on an analysis of water consumed or used for irrigation and the stakeholder’s perceptions regarding water regulation importance and vulnerability. Results show that some landscape units are able to maintain and conserve water regulation service when the volume of recharge water by aquifers and the water supply from reservoirs is greater than its consumption (e.g. rural landscape units). However, we also found potential social conflicts in landscape units where water consumption and use is much greater than the water recharge and supply. This particularly occurs in the non-protected littoral areas with the highest water consumption and where water is perceived as a non-important and vulnerable natural resource. Overall, our results emphasized the importance of assessing ecosystem services from both supply to demand sides, for identifying social conflicts and potential trade-offs, and to provide practical information about how to integrate the ecosystem service research into landscape management and planning.

Social-ecological systems influence ecosystem service perception: a Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) analysis

Facing the challenges of environmental and social changes, sustainable management of ecosystem services is a worldwide priority. The Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) approach provides a unique opportunity for promoting transdisciplinary place-based comparative research for social-ecological systems (SES) management. As part of the PECS-sponsored WaterSES project, we used four place-based SES research sites to analyze patterns in perceptions of ecosystem services. Our data come from about 1,500 face-to-face surveys conducted in southern Spain, the south-central Great Plains of Oklahoma (USA), and the Portneuf and Treasure Valleys, Idaho (USA). Specifically, this study aimed to (1) describe and compare perceptions of ecosystem services within and across SES sites, (2) explore how perceptions of ecosystem services vary among local respondents and by sociodemographic factors, and (3) evaluate the overall relationship between place-based SES contexts and ecosystem service perceptions. Our results revealed that cultural ecosystem services were the most highly mentioned among those surveyed across all four sites. However, we found differences in how ecosystem services were perceived among the four SES contexts. For instance, both, social (e.g., gender, education) and local ecological (e.g., land use and climate) characteristics play roles in influencing peoples perceptions of which services are important. Overall, our findings suggest the relationship between peoples perceptions of ecosystem services and their socialenvironmental context is complex, which highlights the value of the PECS approach for crafting more effective and inclusive landscape management strategies.