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To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2007.05.019 Byline: Adrienne GrA*t-Regamey (a), Peter Bebi (b), Ian D. Bishop (c), Willy A. Schmid (a) Keywords: Alpine regions; Ecosystem services; Environmental management; Geographic information system; Economic valuation; Land-use change; Scenarios Abstract: Planning frequently fails to include the valuation of public goods and services. This can have long-term negative economic consequences for a region. This is especially the case in mountainous regions such as the Alps, which depend on tourism and where land-use changes can negatively impact key ecosystem services and hence the economy. In this study, we develop a semi-automatic procedure to value ecosystem goods and services. Several existing process-based models linked to economic valuation methods are integrated into a geographic information system (GIS) platform. The model requires the input of a digital elevation model, a land-cover map, and a spatially explicit temperature dataset. These datasets are available for most regions in Europe. We illustrate the approach by valuing four ecosystem services: avalanche protection, timber production, scenic beauty, and habitat, which are supplied by the 'Landschaft Davos', an administrative district in the Swiss Alps. We compare the impacts of a human development scenario and a climate scenario on the value of these ecosystem services. Urban expansion and tourist infrastructure developments have a negative impact on scenic beauty and habitats. These impacts outweigh the benefits of the developments in the long-term. Forest expansion, predictable under a climate change scenario, favours natural avalanche protection and habitats. In general, such non-marketed benefits provided by the case-study region more than compensate for the costs of forest maintenance. Finally, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the approach. Despite its limitations, we show how this approach could well help decision-makers balance the impacts of different planning options on the economic accounting of a region, and guide them in selecting sustainable and economically feasible development strategies. Author Affiliation: (a) Eidgenossiche Technische Hochschule Zurich (ETHZ), ETH Honggerberg, LEP, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland (b) WSL Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research, Research Unit Ecosystem Boundaries, 7260 Davos, Switzerland (c) Department of Geomatics, University of Melbourne, Vic. 3010, Australia Article History: Received 22 November 2005; Revised 12 May 2007; Accepted 15 May 2007

Over the recent years, spatial data have become more accessible to members of the public, and there is an increased awareness that spatial data are an essential ingredient in the development of governance policies. In parallel, computing devices that can render real-time 3D environments in nearly photo-realistic quality have become a common household item. Integrating spatial data and virtual environments opens the possibility of presenting spatial data in a highly visual way--the same way we experience our everyday world. We have developed a landscape planning tool called SIEVE (Spatial Information and Visualization Environment), which allows users to explore existing spatial data and hypothetical future scenarios in a real-time 3D environment, links to environmental process models outcomes, and also provides a collaborative decision-making environment. SIEVE has an automatic model-building component that allows users to select a region on a 2D map using a web portal and to download automatically generated 3D landscape environments. SIEVE not only models above-ground features but also incorporates underground features. This allows users to see the connection between below- and above-ground processes. Lastly, SIEVE incorporates a multi-user environment that allows users from different locations to gather in the virtual landscapes for exploring and decision-making purposes., Introduction Landscape planning processes that include the general public usually support presented scenarios with visualization options which can range from 2D maps and 2D still renders (e.g., What If? (Klosterman [...]