Understanding complexity in ecosystem service assessment: perspectives and innovations in spatial analysis

Abstract

Research efforts are increasingly driven toward assessing provision, use and demand of ecosystem services as interconnected components of complex social-ecological systems. The aim of this dissertation is to contribute to the literature about mapping and assessment of ecosystem services through a series of methodological applications under the paradigm of complexity. In the first paper, exploratory spatial data analysis is used to quantify the loss of information that occurs when upscaling spatial data to a coarser grain. The second paper explores temporal pattern and dynamics of land use change in the Alto Bellunese (South-Eastern Alps, Italy), to simulate the mechanistic evolution of forests and assess the provision of outdoor recreation opportunities over time. The third paper proposes a novel methodology for mapping summer non-rival demand for outdoor recreation, through spatial agent-based modeling.