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This page gives information on, and materials resulting from completed workshops organized and run by the Aberdeen GLP Nodal Office on Integration and Modelling.
2010
19th – 20th March 2010
‘Representation of ecosystem services in the modelling of land systems’
Background
Understanding ecosystem services is increasingly important as land planners and policy makers make land management choices. Clear representation and description of ecosystem services provided by land systems is crucial to decision making and planning and contributes to understanding complex relationships between society and environment.
During the last half of the 20th century the structure of the world’s ecosystems changed more rapidly than at any other time in human history. Approximately a quarter of the Earth’s terrestrial surface has been now been transformed into cultivated land and one third of annual net primary production is estimated to be appropriated by humans (Vitousek et al 1986; Rojstaczer et al 2001). With the global population projected to increase to almost 9 billion by 2050 (United Nations, 2002), demands on the planet’s ecosystems will continue to intensify, with serious consequences for the goods and services that they provide.
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA, 2005) defines ecosystem services as the benefits people obtain from ecosystems. Many tradeoffs are associated with human responses to, and use of, ecosystem services, with actions that benefit some services potentially having negative consequences for others. Modelling can provide useful tools to explore such tradeoffs, allowing the consequences of varying scenarios to be explored. However, models are only as good as our understanding of the complex system they seek to represent and therefore investment in the understanding and representation of the Earth’s systems is essential.
Models of ecosystem services as an integral part of land systems are needed, both to capture complex dynamics of human-environmental processes, and to explore consequences of land change in provision and management of ecosystem services. This workshop will explore measurement and representation of ecosystem services in land systems and models for application in policy and practice. It will provide an opportunity for leading international researchers in land system science, spatial and process modelling of coupled natural and human systems, and ecosystem services to produce a new research agenda on modelling ecosystem services.
Outputs
Pre-workshop booklet
Post workshop report
Introductory Presentation by Richard Aspinall
| Presenter | Abstract (pdf) |
Powerpoint (pdf) |
|---|---|---|
| Session 1: | ||
| Louise Willemen on behalf of Peter Verburg | Verburg 21KB | Verburg 5MB |
| Dagmar Haase | Haase 16KB | Haase 3MB |
| Pénélope Lamarque | Lamarque 10KB | Lamarque 3MB |
| Gertrud Schaab | Schaab 12KB | Schaab 198KB |
| Session 2: | ||
| Richard Aspinall | Aspinall 15KB | Aspinall 6MB |
| Jo Smith | Smith 28KB | Smith 6MB |
| Jan Dick | Dick 17KB | |
| Marie Castellazzi | Castellazzi 14KB | Castellazzi 3MB |
| Session 3: | ||
| Louise Willemen | Willemen 12KB | Willemen 3MB |
| Jian Peng | Peng 11KB | Peng 2MB |
| Matt Aitkenhead | Aitkenhead 13KB | Aitkenhead 148KB |
| David Miller | Miller 21KB | Virtual Landscape Theatre |
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