Integrating Social Values and Ecosystem Services in Systematic Conservation Planning: A Case Study in Datuan Watershed

Yu-Pin Lin, Wei-Chih Lin, Hsin-Yi Li, Yung-Chieh Wang, Chih-Chen Hsu, Wan-Yu Lien, Johnathen Anthony and Joy R. Petway
Additional contact information
Yu-Pin Lin: Department of Bioenvironmental Systems Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
Wei-Chih Lin: Geographic Information Technology Co., 4F., No. 310, Section 4, Zhongxiao E. Road., Taipei 10694, Taiwan
Hsin-Yi Li: Fong-Yi Construction Co., LTD., 20F.-2, No.501, Section 2, Taiwan Blvd., West Dist., Taichung City 403, Taiwan
Yung-Chieh Wang: Department of Water and Soil Conservation, National Chung Hsing University, No. 145, Xingda Road, South District, Taichung 402, Taiwan
Chih-Chen Hsu: Department of Bioenvironmental Systems Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
Wan-Yu Lien: Department of Bioenvironmental Systems Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
Johnathen Anthony: Department of Bioenvironmental Systems Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
Joy R. Petway: Department of Bioenvironmental Systems Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 5, 1-22

Abstract: Systematic conservation planning (SCP) deals with a delicate interplay of competing interests and has far-reaching impacts for all stakeholders and systems involved. While SCP has traditionally attempted to conserve ecosystem services that benefit ecological systems, public perceptions of conservation initiatives influence their ultimate feasibility and sustainability. In an attempt to balance ecological integrity, social utility, and urban development, this study develops a framework that applies four popular models to represent these competing factors, including two ecosystem services models—InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Environmental Services and Tradeoffs) for biophysical services (BpS), and SolVES (Social Values for Ecosystem Services) for social values (SV); a land use and land cover (LULC) suitability model; and Zonation for delimiting high priority areas. We also analyze a number of conservation scenarios that consider varying levels of urban development. While BpS are distributed with considerable spatial variability, SV spatially overlap. Approximately 6% of the area was identified as having both high BpS and SV, whereas a further 24.5% of the area was identified as either high BpS low SV or vise-versa. Urban development scenarios affected the conservation area selection drastically. These results indicate tradeoffs and potential synergies between development, SV, and BpS. Our findings suggest that the information provided by the proposed framework can assist in finding solutions to social-ecological planning complexities that serve multiple stakeholders.

Keywords: ecosystem services; social values; systematic conservation planning (SCP); biophysical services (BpS); social values (SV); conservation strategy; social-ecological matrix (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/5/718/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/5/718/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:5:p:718-:d:97220

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().