Objectives
Scientific Objectives
To reach of the overall objective of the project, different scientific objectives need to be achieved.
- Application of advanced conceptual modelling methods to (1) unravel the complex institutional and sociological mechanisms that determine ES-demand and valuation (2) unravel the impact of land, soil and water management measures on the complex physical-ecological mechanisms that drive the generation of ecosystem services.
- Development and application of validation methods and associated uncertainty assessments on mapping methods. To what extent can proxies be used to map ecosystem services? How can they be measured and at what scale?
- Model the interactions/tradeoffs between ecosystem services both spatially and in time.
- The development of advanced valuation methods that take in to account the spatial-temporal aspects of demand and supply.
- The use of advanced remote sensing image analysis for ecosystem service mapping and validation.
End-products
Different end-users desire different levels of complexity and accuracy. Therefore ECOPLAN will develop different endproducts that adress the needs of the different end-users.
- Tier 1: Qualitative mapping of ecosystem service maps on relative importance of specific ecosystem services (scores)
- Tier 2: Quantitative conceptual mapping/modeling of ES: maps reflecting the quantity and value of specific ecosystem services
- Tier 3: Quantitative spatially distributed modeling of ES: model scripts to calculate the quantity and value of specific ecosystem services on low scale for different scenarios.
The development of different end-products that meet the expectations and capabilities of endusers will lower the threshold for actual use