Ecosystem services mapping in practice: A Pasteur’s quadrant perspective

Chundi Chen, Yuncai Wang, Junsong Jia, Longfei Mao and Colin D. Meurk

Ecosystem Services, 2019, vol. 40, issue C

Abstract: Compared to non-spatial calculation of service values which is not intuitive, ecosystem services (ESs) mapping are more appealing to practitioners. However, applying these representations into ecological practice is still a challenge. Such research essentially embraces fundamental and applied characteristics, which have been exemplified by “Pasteur’s Quadrant” of use-inspired basic research. Based on this instructive quadrant model, we propose an analytical framework (Problem-Research-Practice) to review 76 SCI ESs mapping articles that purport to be relevant to ecological practice. Two questions led our investigation: (1) do these studies emulate (intentionally or otherwise) Pasteur’s Quadrant by establishing a clear pathway between research and practice (e.g. particular problems, issues or needs in the real world)? (2) what challenges-cum-opportunities for ESs mapping do we observe that may overcome resistance to practical purposes? Overall, substantial gaps exist in the research capacity to produce transformative and/or readily-usable knowledge; existing efforts to map ESs generally belie the conventions of practice systems. Given that ecological practice engages with real world problems at varying scales of human activity, we suggest some possible ways forward, such as developing participatory mapping techniques and alternative indicators directly targeting human needs that may accelerate uptake of ESs mapping outcomes by practitioners.

Keywords: Science-practice gap; Ecological practice; Mapping techniques; Scholar-practitioners; Use-inspired (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212041619303092
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoser:v:40:y:2019:i:c:s2212041619303092

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2019.101042

Access Statistics for this article

Ecosystem Services is currently edited by Leon C Braat

More articles in Ecosystem Services from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().