Paul Munday

Bringing Ecosystem Services into Economic Decision-Making: Land Use in the United Kingdom

Monitoring Land Use Land-use decisions are based largely on agricultural market values. However, such decisions can lead to losses of ecosystem services, such as the provision of wildlife habitat or recreational space, the magnitude of which may overwhelm any market agricultural benefits. In a research project forming part of the UK National Ecosystem Assessment, Bateman et al. (p. 45) estimate the value of these net losses. Policies that recognize the diversity and complexity of the natural environment can target changes to different areas so as to radically improve land use in terms of agriculture and greenhouse gas emissions, recreation, and wild species habitat and diversity. The value of using land for recreation and wildlife, not just for agriculture, can usefully factor into planning decisions. Landscapes generate a wide range of valuable ecosystem services, yet land-use decisions often ignore the value of these services. Using the example of the United Kingdom, we show the significance of land-use change not only for agricultural production but also for emissions and sequestration of greenhouse gases, open-access recreational visits, urban green space, and wild-species diversity. We use spatially explicit models in conjunction with valuation methods to estimate comparable economic values for these services, taking account of climate change impacts. We show that, although decisions that focus solely on agriculture reduce overall ecosystem service values, highly significant value increases can be obtained from targeted planning by incorporating all potential services and their values and that this approach also conserves wild-species diversity.

Bringing ecosystem services into economic decision-making

Monitoring Land Use Land-use decisions are based largely on agricultural market values. However, such decisions can lead to losses of ecosystem services, such as the provision of wildlife habitat or recreational space, the magnitude of which may overwhelm any market agricultural benefits. In a research project forming part of the UK National Ecosystem Assessment, Bateman et al. (p. 45) estimate the value of these net losses. Policies that recognize the diversity and complexity of the natural environment can target changes to different areas so as to radically improve land use in terms of agriculture and greenhouse gas emissions, recreation, and wild species habitat and diversity. The value of using land for recreation and wildlife, not just for agriculture, can usefully factor into planning decisions. Landscapes generate a wide range of valuable ecosystem services, yet land-use decisions often ignore the value of these services. Using the example of the United Kingdom, we show the significance of land-use change not only for agricultural production but also for emissions and sequestration of greenhouse gases, open-access recreational visits, urban green space, and wild-species diversity. We use spatially explicit models in conjunction with valuation methods to estimate comparable economic values for these services, taking account of climate change impacts. We show that, although decisions that focus solely on agriculture reduce overall ecosystem service values, highly significant value increases can be obtained from targeted planning by incorporating all potential services and their values and that this approach also conserves wild-species diversity.

Utilising scenarios to facilitate multi-objective land use modelling for Broadland, UK, to 2100.

Landscapes that we see today will change in the future. Scenarios are used as a method for dealing with uncertainties in change and to provide plausible descriptions of our future world. A number of projects have utilised scenarios and a modelling-based approach to quantitatively investigate land use change at the national/regional-scale using a GIS. However, the coarse-scale of such land use data can render outputs inapplicable within local, often environmentally sensitive, landscapes. Improving data resolution allows us to investigate alternative potential futures at greater detail thereby providing vital input into policy and future decision-making. It may also facilitate localised studies of habitat fragmentation connectivity and visualisation. This paper utilises scenarios and regional-scale land use change data to facilitate a GIS-based model of land use change within a sensitive wetland environment. Land use change data from the RegIS project is localised to the study area in Broadland, UK. Areal totals, from the land use change data, are replicated within 0.01% of areal totals prescribed, enabling very spatially detailed land use maps to be developed. This work represents a locally explicit realisation of coarser regional-scale land use change data using an integrated GIS-Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (GIS-MCDA) methodology.

Teaching GIS outside of geography: a case study in the School of International Development, University of East Anglia

The importance of developing employability skills of graduates has become a strategic priority in higher education. Knowledge of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tools is a valuable skill for graduates both in terms of the specific skillset it provides and of the wider transferable skills. This paper discusses the importance of GIS as an interdisciplinary and employability skill within the setting of a weeklong intensive GIS course taught in the School of International Development at UEA. GIS as an employability skill within a commercial setting is discussed, with the focus on how to teach GIS most effectively in this setting.

A Framework for Developing High-Resolution Scenarios at the Landscape Scale: The Norfolk Broads

Scenarios coupled with land-use/cover data are often used as tools for investigating the possible future reaction of landscapes to climatic or socioeconomic perturbation. Yet, a number of factors limit scenario application within local landscapes, in particular inapplicable scenario drivers, inappropriate spatial and temporal scales and incompatibility of available data. Landscape characterisation has become a useful tool for providing localised future drivers of change but readily available datasets often lack the information required to translate changes described to local areas. This is an important requirement, especially to land managers working at scales such as that of the land-parcel. Consequently, one must often select and localise existing coarser-resolution scenarios to provide local information on likely local changes. In this work, a novel methodology is presented and applied to downscale national scenarios to local landscapes. Using a case study of the Norfolk Broads UK, scenario types are described before the range of available scenarios, and land-cover and landscape characterisation data which might be selected for localisation is highlighted. The role of drivers in influencing scenario outcomes is considered and the potential benefits of incorporating landscape characterisation information in the downscaling process are discussed.