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openaire: EC/H2020/856602/EU//FINEST TWINS Public participation and collaboration supported by the opportunities that digital technologies offer are prolific themes in urban and landscape planning. In the past two decades, there has been a growing interest in the capacity of 3D visualisations to support citizen and stakeholder engagement in communicative planning processes. However, the technical advances of 3D visualisations still outstrip the current understanding of their benefits, appropriate uses and usability in practical planning contexts. There are no reviews or systematic mapping of literature, to our knowledge, that investigate the available evidence on the usability of particular 3D visualisations or that document the scope and gaps in current research on 3D applications in communicative planning. To answer this need we conducted a systematic mapping of academic literature reporting recent case studies of 3D visualisations that have been utilised or developed for communicative urban and landscape planning contexts. We follow established guidelines for systematic reviews and used Scopus and Web of Science as primary electronic databases. Altogether, we reviewed 46 case studies globally. Our findings highlight the heterogeneity of planning contexts and purposes, terminology and technological 3D solutions. Moreover, the scarcity of real-life planning cases and robust and well-documented usability evaluations are evident in the literature. We discuss limitations of the existing academic literature for evidence-based understanding and suggest a common framework for reporting in the field of participatory and collaborative 3D visualisations to enable more rigorous and systematic evaluation of the usability and benefits of these technologies in urban and landscape planning.

Context River landscapes represent hotspots for biodiversity and ecosystem services used and embraced by human agents. Changes in river landscapes are subjectively perceived by people and can be assessed through the lenses of cultural ecosystem services (CES) and sense of place (SOP). Objectives This study aims to assess people–place relationships in a river landscape by integrating SOP theory and the CES concept and critically reflecting on their interplay. Research objectives relate to meanings and attachments attributed by citizens to places and the influence of the physical environment and socioeconomic settings. Methods We employed a spatially meaningful place indicator in a public participation GIS survey, combining meanings elucidated through a free listing exercise and multiple-choice questions. Statistical analyses were employed to investigate relationships between meanings, place attachment, and environmental and social variables. Results The results showed that (1) place meaning assessments can complement place attachment data by enhancing the understanding of relationships to biophysical and socioeconomic variables, and (2) combinations of both assessment approaches for place meanings showed that CESs were reflected in many free listed meaning types, dominantly related to forms or practices, but neglect relational values, such as “Heimat” (i.e., in German expression of the long-standing connection to an area) or memories. Conclusions This paper explicates synergies between SOP theory and CES concept. CES research offers insights from spatial assessments, while SOP research provides theoretical depth regarding relational values linked to CES. This paper critically reflects the ostensible consent of understanding SOP as a CES and proposes considering SOP as an overarching theory for CES assessment.

Highlights •We compare the use of PPGIS and Flickr in landscape value assessments. •Landscape values and their spatial patterns are compared across sites. •We find more cross-site differences than similarities both in spatial patterns and value types. •PPGIS elicits a wider spectrum of values, while Flickr mainly elicits relationships to and with landscapes. •We recommend a complementary use in future landscape value studies. Abstract In this study, we bring together participatory mapping and analysis of geolocated social media content from the Flickr platform in an assessment of similarities and differences in their utility for landscape value elicitation. We do so in a Pan-European context comparing types of landscape values and their spatial patterns across 19 case sites in 11 European countries. Across these sites, we find great variety in volume, types and spatial patterns of landscape values elicited from participatory mapping by local people and opportunistic use of tags and image locations crowdsourced from Flickr. Most agreement in spatial patterns across the two data sets are found in densely populated landscapes; however, comparison of types of perceived landscape values is challenged by the differing assumptions of each value elicitation technique. We argue for the complementary potential of both approaches and highlight the strengths and weaknesses of using the two together in landscape research, planning and management. An integrated approach is likely to increase the inclusiveness of landscape value assessments.

This study aims to identify and evaluate the spatial distribution of Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) benefits perceived by people in both urban and rural areas. A public participation GIS (PPGIS)...

Multifunctional landscapes provide critical benefits and are essential for human well-being. The relationship between multifunctional landscapes and well-being has mostly been studied using ecosystem services as a linkage. However, there is a challenge of concretizing what human well-being exactly is and how it can be measured, particularly in relation to ecosystem services, landscape values and related discussions. In this paper, we measure self-reported well-being through applying an inductive free-listing approach to the exploration of the relationships between landscape multifunctionality and human well-being across 13 rural and peri-urban sites in Europe. We developed a face-to-face online survey (n = 2,301 respondents) integrating subjective perceptions of well-being (free-listing method) with mapping perceived ecosystem service benefits (Public Participation GIS, PPGIS approach). Applying content analysis and diverse statistical methods, we explore the links between well-being (i.e. perceived well-being items such as tranquillity, social relations and health) and social-ecological properties (i.e. respondents' sociocultural characteristics and perception of ecosystem service benefits). We identify 40 different well-being items highlighting prominently landscape values. The items form five distinct clusters: access to services; tranquillity and social capital; health and nature; cultural landscapes; and place attachment. Each cluster is related to specific study sites and explained by certain social-ecological properties. Results of our inductive approach further specify pre-defined conceptualizations on well-being and their connections to the natural environment. Results suggest that the well-being contributions of multifunctional landscapes are connected to therapeutic well-being effects, which are largely neglected in the ecosystem services literature. Our results further point to the context-specific character of linkages between landscapes and human well-being. The clusters highlight that landscape-supported well-being is related to multiple interlinked items that can inform collective visions of well-being in the future. For landscape planning and management, we highlight the need for place-specific analysis and consideration of perceptions of local people to identify the contributions to their well-being. Future research would benefit from considering the experiential qualities of value and well-being as they relate to direct experiences with the landscape and wider psychological needs, specifically over time. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

Nature experiences and active mobility both deliver well-being and health benefits but have rarely been investigated together. Conceptualizations of nature experiences largely focus on intention, and the planned motivations for visits. However, nature experiences can also be perceived incidentally, if daily living activities like trips are encouraged towards green spaces. In a public participation GIS (PPGIS) survey of five local districts in Copenhagen, 517 respondents mapped 688 places along their walking or cycling shortcut trips through green spaces. This study investigated what types of green space provide opportunities for such shortcuts, what incidental nature experiences can be perceived there and the different responses of pedestrians and cyclists. This study also explored the relation between incidental nature experiences and green space characteristics in the form of tree cover density. Lastly, this study explored whether frequent short trips through green spaces relate to nature connectedness. The results show that public green spaces and urban cemeteries in Copenhagen allow for such shortcut trips. Enjoyment of pleasing views is the most perceived incidental nature experience. Pedestrians are found more prone to experience surprise, inspiration and emotion, while cyclists prefer shortcuts close to water, which they value highly. The study suggests that high tree cover density is key to delivering incidental nature experiences. Furthermore, the study shows that people who make frequent trips through green spaces have higher levels of nature connectedness, indicating that incidental nature experiences during shortcut trips trigger the reconnection of people and nature. The study's results support a synergistic approach to integrating green spaces and active mobility in planning and management practice, where incidental nature experiences should be emphasized.

Local scale assessments of ecosystem/landscape services in Africa are insufficient and lack relevance in landscape management. Also, few studies have explored the potential benefits of PGIS/PPGIS approaches for landscape management and stewardship among the participating stakeholders. Our aim is (1) to establish an understanding of the realization of landscape services at the local scale across three multifunctional rural landscapes in Tanzania through PGIS/PPGIS approaches and (2) to create an understanding of these approaches’ potential to support participatory spatial planning. Semi-structured surveys (n = 313) including participatory mapping of provisioning and cultural landscape services were organised to characterise their spatial patterns. The survey results were shared with the communities (n = 97) in workshops where services were ranked and the participants interviewed about their map-reading capacity, personal learning experiences, and their ability to use maps to express opinions. The most abundant landscape services are sites for social gatherings and cultivation. The spatial patterns of provisioning services are realizations of human benefits from the patterns of the biophysical landscape. Overall, cultural landscape services show clustering and small spatial extent (except aesthetics). The PGIS/PPGIS approach allows for local-level, spatially specific discussions between stakeholders. The visual power of maps and satellite images is particularly emphasised. In the data-scarce context common in the Global South, the participatory mapping of landscape services has the potential to advance understanding of the benefits that the landscape has for the local communities and how this information, when mapped spatially, can be integrated with local-level planning practices.

Around 30% of European agricultural landscapes are classified as high nature value (HNV) farmlands. Current policies emphasize the multifunctionality of these landscapes, but little is known about the positive and negative associations of multiple ecosystem services within HNV farmland. This study aims to identify perceived ecosystem services synergies, trade-offs, and bundles in agricultural landscapes of HNV from a socio-cultural perspective. We performed a participatory mapping survey of 10 ecosystem services categories among 2301 rural residents in 13 European sites. We analyzed bivariate synergies and trade-offs between perceived ecosystem services through nonparametric correlation analyses. Spatial bundles of perceived ecosystem services were identified through hierarchical cluster analysis. Multinomial logit models were used to assess the influence of land cover on generating associations of ecosystem services. We find two strong and 16 moderate synergies of perceived ecosystem services (out of 46 possible ecosystem services pairs), mainly among different cultural ecosystem services. We do not reveal moderate or strong trade-offs. We identify five spatial bundles of ecosystem services, termed “Ecosystem services coldspots”, “Wild harvesting ranges”, “Nature areas”, “Recreational spaces”, and “Ecosystem services hotspots”. Of all land-cover co-variates, natural areas, urban areas, and roads have the strongest explanatory power. Our study complements prevailing biophysical and economic analyses of ecosystem services synergies, trade-offs and bundles by a spatially explicit, socio-cultural perspective. We conclude that socio-cultural mapping of ecosystem services is useful for understanding the perceived multifunctionality of a landscape.

Funding Information: This work was supported by the Academy of Finland [grant numbers 326246 , 323783 , 321555 ]; the Helsinki Innovation Fund; the Aalto Doctoral Programme in Engineering; the Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council [grant number UKKE029 ]; the European Social Fund [grant number S21997 ]; and the European Regional Development Fund [grant number A77489 ]. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors Virtual reality-based urban audit methods are gaining increasing attention; however, most virtual urban audit studies have focused on panoramic views. The 3D city model-based geovisualizations have remained until now rather unexplored in user studies for urban audits and for communicative urban planning. We explored the feasibility of a 3D geovisualization-based urban audit in virtual reality (VR) for assessing the perceived quality of an urban park deck in Helsinki, Finland. For this purpose, we created a photorealistic and geometrically accurate 3D model (Bryga 3D) based on photogrammetric and laser scanning data. Bryga 3D was implemented on a game engine to be viewed with a head-mounted VR display. Bryga 3D's ability to convey information in a subjective urban audit, that is, subjectively perceived affordances of a park deck, was tested in a walk-along interview study comparing auditing in situ and via the VR method. A comparison of the results with in-situ (n = 13) and VR interviews (n = 21) show that theperception of several tangible elements, such as spatial division, landforms, paths, and chairs when using Bryga VR was similar to when performed in situ. Perception of vegetation was weaker in VR in terms of its detailed quality, which somewhat affected the presented development ideas and assessment of the seasonal context. Also, weaker perception of the surroundings and city context affected the results in VR. However, considering that Bryga 3D presents an example of a highly automated 3D city modeling process conducted with minimal manual work, its results are encouraging for future attempts to advance such realizations for the purposes of communicative urban planning. 3D geovisualization-based virtual audits could be used when urban green space audits are not possible or when they are demanding to implement in situ.

The Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive was ratified (2014/89/EU) along the Strategy of the European Union (EU) on the Blue Economy to contribute to the effective management of maritime activities and resources and incorporate the principal elements of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) (2002/413/EC) into planning at the land-sea interface. There is a need to develop the ICZM approach throughout Europe to realise the potential for both socio-economic and environmental targets set by the EU and national legislations. In this study, we co-developed different approaches for land-sea interactions in four case areas in Estonia and Finland based on the defined characteristics and key interests derived from local or regional challenges by integrating spatial data on human activities and ecology. Furthermore, four ICZM drafts were co-evaluated by stakeholders and the public using online map-based assessment tools (public participatory GIS). The ICZM approaches of the Estonian cases ranged from the diversification of land use to the enhancement of community-based entrepreneurship. The Finnish cases aimed to define the trends for sustainable marine and coastal tourism and introduce the ecosystem service concept in land use planning. During the project activities, we found that increased communication and exchange of local and regional views and values on the prevailing land-sea interactions were important for the entire process. Thereafter, the ICZM plans were applied to the MSP processes nationally, and they support the sustainable development of coastal areas in Estonia and Finland.

The scale, pace, and intensity of human activity on the planet demands radical departures from the status quo to remain within planetary boundaries and achieve sustainability. The steering arms of society including embedded financial, legal, political, and governance systems must be radically realigned and recognize the connectivity among social, ecological, and technological domains of urban systems to deliver more just, equitable, sustainable, and resilient futures. We present five key principles requiring fundamental cognitive, behavioral, and cultural shifts including rethinking growth, rethinking efficiency, rethinking the state, rethinking the commons, and rethinking justice needed together to radically transform neighborhoods, cities, and regions.

openaire: EC/H2020/856602/EU//FINEST TWINS Today, various methods are applied to analyze the data collected through participatory mapping, including public participation GIS (PPGIS), participatory GIS (PGIS), and collecting volunteered geographic information (VGI). However, these methods lack an organized framework to describe and guide their systematic applications. Majority of the published articles on participatory mapping apply a specific subset of analyses that fails to situate the methods within a broader, more holistic context of research and practice. Based on the expert workshops and a literature review, we synthesized the existing analysis methods applied to the data collected through participatory mapping approaches. In this article, we present a framework of methods categorized into three phases: Explore, Explain, and Predict/Model. Identified analysis methods have been highlighted with empirical examples. The article particularly focuses on the increasing applications of online PPGIS and web-based mapping surveys for data collection. We aim to guide both novice and experienced practitioners in the field of participatory mapping. In addition to providing a holistic framework for understanding data analysis possibilities, we also discuss potential directions for future developments in analysis of participatory mapping data.

Current sustainability challenges demand approaches that acknowledge a plurality of human–nature interactions and worldviews, for which biocultural approaches are considered appropriate and timely. This systematic review analyses the application of biocultural approaches to sustainability in scientific journal articles published between 1990 and 2018 through a mixed methods approach combining qualitative content analysis and quantitative multivariate methods. The study identifies seven distinct biocultural lenses, that is, different ways of understanding and applying biocultural approaches, which to different degrees consider the key aspects of sustainability science—inter‐ and transdisciplinarity, social justice and normativity. The review suggests that biocultural approaches in sustainability science need to move from describing how nature and culture are co‐produced to co‐producing knowledge for sustainability solutions, and in so doing, better account for questions of power, gender and transformations, which has been largely neglected thus far. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

Academics have frequently used and endorsed the Public Participation Geographic Information System (PPGIS) approach for national park management. However, it is only minimally used by public agencies such as national park organisations. This study explores the potential that managers of Finnish national parks see in the PPGIS approach in the context of planning for the visitor use of parks. Ten semi-structured interviews with managers of Parks and Wildlife Finland were conducted. The managers perceived that PPGIS could help in optimising site management, and preferred PPGIS studies that are practical and clearly connected to planning site management actions. They envisioned a mobile phone application that would allow mapping visitor experiences on the spot. Overall, the managers were open to adopting place-based planning practices. The study increases the understanding of public agencies’ views towards PPGIS. It also produces practical information for conducting PPGIS case studies as well as for integrating PPGIS tools into planning processes.

Small islands are characterised by geographic isolation, strong place attachment, and vulnerabilities to social, economic, and ecological changes. They are often subject to development activities that raise concerns about impacts on multiple land- and seascape values. This study elicits a range of land- and seascape values, development preferences, and land-use conflicts in a Northern Atlantic islands setting. We do so by linking participatory mapping with narrative analysis techniques to elicit landscape values and development preferences and to identify the potential for land-use conflicts. Four narratives were illustrative of human-nature relationships in the North Atlantic, revealing a great appreciation for wildlife and landforms, for peaceful and undisturbed ecosystems, for open access to land and sea, and for people being part of nature as major themes. The overlay of mapped landscape values and development preferences identified areas with a high potential for future land-use conflicts. Tourism development had a particularly high potential for conflicts. The local narratives on development activities – tourism, renewable energy, and fish farming/processing – confirmed diverging viewpoints. Respondents acknowledged the need for new economic opportunities that may create employment and wealth, but were concerned about negative effects for nature and society and the perceived inability to govern these developments. We argue that planning for multiple landscape values and preferences is crucial to manage the potential for trade-offs in land- and seascape development that is influenced by a range of pressures and drivers of change.

Participatory mapping (PM) solutions have become common in many sectors of society to enhance engagement of the local communities in planning processes. Especially in data scarce regions, like Africa, PM that captures local knowledge in spatially explicit form is an important tool for integrating previously non-existent spatial knowledge in to collaborative planning. Despite the increasing usage of PM solutions, there still lies a gap in our knowledge of the influence and enabling factors of PM adoption in real-world decision-making processes. We studied practitioners’ and participants’ perceptions on benefits and limitations of PM that uses high-resolution remote sensing imagery to engage with participants in six use cases in Tanzania. We conducted interviews and one group discussion with practitioners, and feedback surveys among PM participants. According to the experiences of the practitioners and participants, PM methods based on high-resolution remote sensing images have increased practitioners’ work quality and professional competence, and enhanced participants’ active participation and spatial understanding for informed decision-making. Technical challenges and lack of skilled experts and institutional support were commonly identified limitations. Based on the users’ perceptions we identified previously recognized enabling factors such as supportive policy environment but also context specific factors; removal of disincentives and wider awareness raising. Moreover, advocacy among policymakers on the benefits of participatory decision-making and geospatial technologies is needed to build their ownership of the new governance practices.

Rural Europe encompasses a variety of landscapes with differing levels of forest, agriculture, and agroforestry that can deliver multiple ecosystem services (ES). Whilst provisioning and regulating ES associated with individual land covers are comparatively well studied, less is known about the associated cultural ES. Only seldom are provisioning, regulating, and cultural ES investigated together to evaluate how they contribute to multifunctionality. In this study we combined biophysical and sociocultural approaches to assess how different landscapes (dominated by forest, agriculture or agroforestry) and landscape characteristics (i.e. remoteness and landscape diversity) drive spatial associations of ES (i.e. synergies, trade-offs and bundles). We analysed data of: i) seven provisioning and regulating ES (spatially modelled), and; ii) six cultural ES (derived from participatory mapping data) in 12 study sites across four different biogeographical regions of Europe. Our results showed highly differentiated ES profiles for landscapes associated to a specific land cover, with agroforestry generally providing higher cultural ES than forest and agriculture. We found a positive relationship between the proportion of forest in a landscape and provisioning and regulating ES, whilst agriculture showed negative relationships. We found four distinct bundles of ES. Three of them were directly related to a dominant land cover and the fourth to a mixture of forest and agroforestry that was associated with high social value. The latter bundle was related to zones close to urban areas and roads and medium to high landscape diversity. These findings suggest that agroforestry should be prioritised over other land covers in such areas as it delivers a suite of multiple ES, provided it is close to urban areas or roads. Our results also illustrate the importance and application of including people’s perception in the assessment of ES associations and highlight the relevance of developing integrated analyses of ES to inform landscape management decisions.

Human–nature interactions are reflected in the values people assign to landscapes. These values shape our understanding and actions as landscape co-creators, and need to be taken into account to achieve an integrated management of the landscape that involves civil society. The aim of this research was to increase the current knowledge on the most and least common landscape values perceived by local stakeholders, the patterns in the spatial distribution of values, and their connection to different socio-economic backgrounds and landscape characteristics across Europe. The research consisted of a cross-site comparison study on how landscape values are perceived in six areas of Europe using Public Participation GIS surveys. Answers were analysed combining contingency tables, spatial autocorrelation and bivariate correlation methods, kernel densities, land cover ratios, and viewshed analyses. Results were discussed in the light of findings derived from other European participatory mapping studies. We identified shared patterns in the perception of landscape values across Europe. Recreation, aesthetics, and social fulfilment were the most common values. Landscape values showed common spatial patterns mainly related to accessibility and the presence of water, settlements, and cultural heritage. However, respondents in each study site had their own preferences connected to the intrinsic characteristics of the local landscape and culture. The results encourage land planners and researchers to approach landscape values in relation to socio-cultural and bio-physical land characteristics comprehensibly, acknowledging the complexity in the relationship between people’s perception and the landscape, to foster more effective and inclusive landscape management strategies.

Cultural landscape corridors provide opportunities for recreation and other cultural ecosystem services (CES). Currently, many local governments are preparing cultural landscape corridor (CLC) proposals along China's Silk Roads, which include many notable features of historical human activity and communication between different cultures. However, public values and perceptions of these projects have been largely excluded from the planning processes. This study presents a spatial pattern analysis of public perceptions of the impact of a CLC in Zhangye, China. CES were used as a framework for participatory mapping, interviews, and a structured survey of public perceptions, and correspondence analysis was used to identify resident perceptions of the corridor's expected impact, especially as related to CES. Our results show that aesthetic values, cultural heritage values, and recreation were valued most highly. These values varied according to respondents' employment and land-use rights. The riverside was the most highest-valued area for CES. Respondents expressed concerns about the project's potentially negative impact, especially on the spiritual values of land. These concerns could be the source of conflict during project implementation. We conclude that linking participatory mapping with CES has the potential to improve corridor proposals and assist in the management of conflicts between planners and public stakeholders.

Urban green infrastructure provides a range of experiences for people and various health benefits that support human well-being. To increase urban resilience, exceptional situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, are important to learn from. This study aims to understand how the residents in Turku, a middle-sized city in Finland, perceived their outdoor recreation changed and how nature contributed to their subjective well-being during the early phases of the COVID-19. Sites of outdoor recreation and associated ecosystem service benefits were gathered through a map-based survey. In addition, the contribution of nature on subjective well-being was measured through Likert scale statements and the perceived changes in outdoor recreation behaviour were measured through self-reported number of days and from responses to open survey questions. Data was analysed through quantitative, qualitative and spatial methods. The results show that nearly half of the respondents increased outdoor recreation and the majority of outdoor recreation sites were visited more or as often as before the pandemic. The spatial analysis revealed that the most often visited recreation sites were near forests, semi-natural areas and housing areas as well as relatively close to respondent's residence. Respondents had various reasons for changes in outdoor recreation behaviour. For some a shift to working remotely and changes in everyday routines led to spending time outdoors more often and for some spending less while others avoided recreation in crowded areas due to social distancing. The results also indicate that people's opportunities to adapt to the pandemic conditions differ greatly. The nature's contribution to subjective well-being during COVID-19 was important regardless of respondent's outdoor recreation behaviour. Our study highlights that urban planning should respond to different needs for outdoor recreation in order to widely, and in a just way, promote the well-being benefits of urban nature during a pandemic, and to increase the resilience of the city and its residents. Participatory mapping can capture the variety in resident's values and identify key recreation sites of multiple ecosystem service benefits. © 2021 The Authors

Agroforestry has been proposed as a sustainable agricultural system over conventional agriculture and forestry, conserving biodiversity and enhancing ecosystem service provision while not compromising productivity. However, the available evidence for the societal benefits of agroforestry is fragmented and does often not integrate diverse ecosystem services into the assessment. To upscale existing case-study insights to the European level, we conducted a meta-analysis on the effects of agroforestry on ecosystem service provision and on biodiversity levels. From 53 publications we extracted a total of 365 comparisons that were selected for the meta-analysis. Results revealed an overall positive effect of agroforestry (effect size = 0.454, p < 0.01) over conventional agriculture and forestry. However, results were heterogeneous, with differences among the types of agroforestry practices and ecosystem services assessed. Erosion control, biodiversity, and soil fertility are enhanced by agroforestry while there is no clear effect on provisioning services. The effect of agroforestry on biomass production is negative. Comparisons between agroforestry types and reference land-uses showed that both silvopastoral and silvoarable systems increase ecosystem service provision and biodiversity, especially when compared with forestry land. Mediterranean tree plantation systems should be especially targeted as soil erosion could be highly reduced while soil fertility increased. We conclude that agroforestry can enhance biodiversity and ecosystem service provision relative to conventional agriculture and forestry in Europe and could be a strategically beneficial land use in rural planning if its inherent complexity is considered in policy measures.

Visitors’ assessments of the negative impact of tourism, on physical and social environment, vary based on the location where the evaluation occurs. Research that focuses on identifying visitors’ norms within outdoor recreation settings has not been able to link the geographical location with the corresponding evaluation of unacceptable levels of impact. This study combines a traditional on-site visitor survey with a Public Participation Geographic Information Systems survey to produce spatially explicit information on visitors’ acceptance of tourism impacts. Using a web-based participatory survey, visitors were asked to indicate specific locations where they felt the effects of tourism disturbed the quality of their experience in Oulanka National Park. These evaluations were analyzed at multiple scales — destination, specific zones, and sites — to promote more efficient park management. Based on visitor evaluations, we found a collection of hotspots in the park where tourism has already caused unacceptable impacts. Visitors noted that crowding and erosion disturbed their experiences, especially along highly visited trail sections, while littering was considered problematic near wilderness huts. However, participant satisfaction at these sites was not lower than elsewhere in the park. This indicates that the association between negative impacts of tourism and visitor satisfaction is not straightforward, but complex. This study encourages the collection of spatially accurate data on visitors’ assessments of the effects of tourism because it has the potential to more efficiently direct park management policies. In addition, spatial techniques provide a new means to monitor the impacts of tourism, acknowledging that visitors’ perceptions of acceptability of tourism impacts also vary within tourism destinations, such as parks.

Agroforestry offers proven strategies as an environmentally benign and ecologically sustainable land management practice to promote ecosystem services. In this literature review, we systematically consider the agroforestry and ecosystem services literature with the aim to identify and catalogue the knowledge field and provide the first systematic synthesis of ecosystem services research in relation to European agroforestry. We reviewed 71 scientific publications from studies conducted in farmland and forest ecosystems with various types of agroforestry management. Each publication was systematically characterized and classified by agroforestry practice and research approach in order to provide an insight into the current research state in addressing ecosystem services (including methods, indicators, and approaches). Spatial distribution of the case study sites in Europe was also explored. In addition, typical clusters of similar research approaches were identified. The results show that ecosystem service assessment of European agroforestry is currently focused on the spatially extensive wood pastures in the Mediterranean, Atlantic, and Continental agricultural mosaic landscapes. A specific emphasis has been on regulating, supporting, and provisioning services, such as provision of habitat and biodiversity, food, climate regulation, fibre, and fuel, and the consideration of cultural services has been largely limited to aesthetic value. There is a bias to biophysical and monetary research approaches. The majority of the studies focus on quantitative methods and biophysical field measurements addressing the assessment of only one or two services. Monetary approaches have been applied in less than one fifth of the studies but form a distinctive group. Our results highlight gaps and biases in the ecosystem service research agenda within agroforestry based on which we conclude that research should aim to diversify from the biophysical and monetary approaches, towards a wider variety of approaches, especially socio-cultural, and a wider coverage of ecosystem services. Stronger consideration of stakeholder participation and introduction of spatially explicit mapping are also important key actions. We make suggestions to advance the promise of ecosystem services provision from European agroforestry in decision making including various actors, stakeholders, and institutions, with strong links to policy processes, such as the EU Biodiversity Strategy and Common Agricultural Policy.

Previous studies have recognized the importance of social dimensions of ecosystem services and their incorporation into planning processes. However, understanding how people’s management preferences relate to their perceptions of ecosystem services and biodiversity still needs further exploration in different geographical contexts. We aimed to examine spatial patterns and relationships between perceived ecosystem services, biodiversity and management preferences to illuminate possible synergies and trade-offs between them, and their relationships to protected areas. Empirical data on perceptions of eleven ecosystem services, biodiversity, and seven management preferences were collected using a paper-based participatory mapping technique in a case study in Khorasan Razavi, Iran. The results revealed that provisioning service hotspots were moderately associated with biodiversity (r = 0.39) and cultural service hotspots (r = 0.54), while cultural and biodiversity hotspots showed to be more highly associated (r = 0.71). The hotspot areas for development preferences had low spatial overlap with provisioning hotspots (r = 0.32) and high overlap with conservation preference hotspots (r = 0.66). The majority of service and biodiversity hotspots were located inside protected areas, which indicates that protected areas provide resources that support local livelihoods and social well-being. The findings provide an appropriate foundation for incorporating social perceptions, deriving from needs and interests of local communities, into planning and management.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization&rsquo, s (UNESCO&rsquo, s) Biosphere Reserves aim to be flagships of sustainable landscapes. Many of them are important locations for tourism and leisure activities. We explored the perceptions of short-term visitors and summer residents on ecosystem services (ESs) tied to characteristic habitats of the Archipelago Sea Biosphere Reserve in Finland. During holiday season, we conducted structured on-field interviews with 74 Biosphere Reserve visitors. From these data, we gained information on the visitors&rsquo, appreciation of different ESs and the selected habitats. We also derived habitat-specific ES profiles. Excluding the reedbeds, most habitats were both highly valued and considered as important producers of the listed ESs. The derived ES profiles were partially overlapping and inclined towards appreciation of cultural services, and the importance of scenery was highlighted. Provisioning services were not particularly appreciated. We discovered several linkages among biodiversity, ESs, and recreational land uses. Certain habitats were found to be in need of protection under high recreational land-use pressure, but also potential synergies were found. Our method introduces an important socio-cultural perspective into the region&rsquo, s land management that aims to find a balance between the protection of the Biosphere Reserve&rsquo, s unique biodiversity and the need to support sustainable local livelihoods and tourism.

International audience; Rural development policies in many Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries promote sustainable landscape management with the intention of providing multiple ecosystem services (ES). Yet, it remains unclear which ES benefits are perceived in different landscapes and by different people. We present an assessment of ES benefits perceived and mapped by residents (n = 2,301) across 13 multifunctional (deep rural to peri-urban) landscapes in Europe. We identify the most intensively perceived ES benefits, their spatial patterns, and the respondent and landscape characteristics that determine ES benefit perception. We find outdoor recreation, aesthetic values and social interactions are the key ES benefits at local scales. Settlement areas are ES benefit hotspots but many benefits are also related to forests, waters and mosaic landscapes. We find some ES benefits (e.g. culture and heritage values) are spatially clustered, while many others (e.g. aesthetic values) are dispersed. ES benefit perception is linked to people's relationship with and accessibility to a landscape. Our study discusses how a local perspective can contribute to the development of contextualized and socially acceptable policies for sustainable ES management. We also address conceptual confusion in ES framework and present argumentation regarding the links from services to benefits, and from benefits to different types of values.

Cultural ecosystem services, such as aesthetic and recreational enjoyment, as well as sense of place and local identity, play an outstanding role in the contribution of landscapes to human well-being. Online data shared on social networks, particularly geo-tagged photos, are becoming an increasingly attractive source of information about cultural ecosystem services. Landscape photographs tell about the significance of human relationships with landscapes, human practices in landscapes and the landscape features that might possess value in terms of cultural ecosystem services. Despite all the recent advances in this emerging methodological approach, some challenges remain to be explored: (a) how to assess a broad suite of cultural ecosystem services, beyond aesthetic beauty of landscapes, (b) how to identify the landscape features that are relevant for providing cultural ecosystem services and determine trade-offs and synergies among cultural ecosystem services. To address these challenges, we have developed a methodological approach suitable for eliciting the importance of cultural ecosystem services and the landscape features underpinning their provision across five different sites in Europe (in Estonia, Greece, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland). We have performed a content analysis of 1.404 photos uploaded in Flickr and Panoramio platforms that can represent cultural ecosystem services. Four bundles of landscapes features and cultural ecosystem services showed the relation of recreation with mountain areas (terrestrial recreation) and with water bodies (aquatic recreation). Cultural heritage, social and spiritual values were particularly attached to landscapes with woodpastures and grasslands, as well as urban features and infrastructures, i.e. to more anthropogenic landscapes. A positive though weak relationship was found between landscape diversity and cultural ecosystem services diversity. Particularly wood-pastures and shrubs were more frequently portrayed in all study sites in comparison with their actual land cover. The results can be of interest both for methodological purposes in the face of an increasing trend in the use of geo-tagged photos in the ecosystem services research and for the elicitation and comparison of landscape values across European cultural landscapes.

While a number of studies have applied public participation GIS (PPGIS) approaches to the spatial assessment of ecosystem services, few have considered the associations between the spatial distribution of ecosystem services and the context-specific nature of self-reported well-being. In this study, we engage the general public to identify and map a range of ecosystem services that originate in place-based, local knowledge and explore the context-dependent nature of subjective well-being. We conducted a PPGIS survey with 219 local residents in a Spanish agroforestry (dehesa) landscapes and analysed the spatial patterns of mapped ecosystem services, their relation to land cover, protected area and common land patterns. In addition, we explored the landscape values contributing to people’s well-being; and the relationships between ecosystem services in different land covers, landscape values and socio-demographic characteristics. A mosaic of landscape types (i.e., the landscape) provided more ecosystem services (especially cultural and provisioning) to people compared with the individual land system of agroforestry. However, land tenure and public access significantly guided the spatial practices and values of the people beyond the preferred landscape types. The contribution of the landscape to well-being is largely related to values based on interactions among people and the landscape, as tranquillity/relaxation and people-people interactions such as being with family and friends. We discuss the specific contribution of agroforestry landscapes to the provision of ecosystem services and human well-being. We conclude that the integration of the applied methods of social-cultural assessment on the one hand links to ecosystem services frameworks but on the other hand represents a more holistic conceptualisation of people’s benefits from landscapes.

There is increasing concern that the ecosystem servicesapproach puts emphasis on optimizing a small number ofservices, which may jeopardize environmental sustainability.One potential solution is to bring cultural ecosystemservices more strongly into the foreground. We synthesizerecent empirical evidence and assess what consideration ofcultural ecosystem services adds to landscapemanagement and planning. In general, cultural ecosystemservices incentivize the multifunctionality of landscapes.However, depending on context, cultural ecosystemservices can either encourage the maintenance of valuablelandscapes or act as barriers to necessary innovation andtransformation. Hence, cultural ecosystems services are notuncontested, as seen through the three analytical lenses oflandowner behavior, cultural practices of communities, andlandscape planning. Refereed/Peer-reviewed