Using Multi-Criteria Analysis Method for Assessment the Impacts of Integrated Land-use/cover Management on the Provision of Ecosystem Services in Protected Area of Lakes Prespa

Year 2017, Volume: 12 Issue: 4, 299 - 307, 30.12.2017

Dorina Grazhdani

Abstract

There is a growing need of integrating ecosystem services into
management strategies of protected areas. The objective of this study was to develop a framework for assessment the effects of integrated
land-use/cover management on the provision of ecosystem services in a protected
area. The framework was tested in Prespa Park, a watershed with fragile environments. Within this framework,
first to provide ecosystem services were used a
modified approach compared to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Then was
employed a “benefit transfer” and “expert-based assessment” approach to assess
contribution of the land cover classes in case study region to the provision of
ecosystem services. In a subsequent step, the services were combined to
ecosystem services groups that were designed together with regional
stakeholders, considering their ideas, concerns and experiences in regional
decision making. The latter was analyzed in a weighting experiment, in which
different weighting approaches were tested. For the case study, were identified
16 CORINE land cover classes, 13 ecosystem services and related ecosystem
services indicators? Based upon this, was
analyzed the performance of the case study region to provide ecosystem
services. It was concluded that land-use/cover management was found to
affect ecosystem services directly. Results showed that the different data
gathering methods: “benefit transfer” and “expert-based assessment” have a
considerable impact on the evaluation outcomes, and that the combination of
selected services and land cover data can contribute to regional planning by
communicating the effect of land cover change on ecosystem services groups. Finally,
the results revealed that the proposed framework can be used to determine
qualitative estimation of regional potentials to provide ecosystem services as
a prerequisite to support regional development planning.

Keywords

Multi-criteria assessment, benefit transfer, expert-based assessment, stakeholder weighting, ecosystem services, landscape planning

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