|
Natural capital and ecosystem frameworks provide a means to understand a broad range of ecosystem values (e.g. Costanza et al., 1997; Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005) that are essential to creating and maintaining human and non-human life support systems. To date, the GIS mapping of natural capital and ecosystem services have largely been done by experts without the benefit of local knowledge and expertise and these mapping systems have yet to evolve in ways that engage local communities and rural populations in the identification and valuation of natural capital assets and ecosystem services at place specific and regional scales (e.g. Kumar and Kumar, 2008).
This project will develop a prototype of a web-based, participatory geographic information system (PGIS) for mapping natural capital and ecosystem services to assist in the management of rural and regional landscapes. While PGIS and PPGIS systems have mapped a wide variety of landscape attributes (see Brown, 2005; Sieber, 2006; Craig et al., 2002; and Sawicki and Peterman, 2002 for a review of applications), this project presents an opportunity to develop a web-based system for the mapping natural capital and ecosystem services that are grounded in lay knowledge of rural and regional landscapes. The data collected through this method can be integrated with expert knowledge into resource management and environmental decision-making systems.
To develop the web-based PGIS system, the following methods will be employed: 1) operationalization of natural capital and ecosystem services concepts to make them accessible to a lay public in a web application; 2) review of web-based information technologies to select the most appropriate method for collecting spatial data; 3) development of a web-based PGIS prototype applied to a specific rural region; 4) and formal evaluation of the prototype’s usability and data collection capabilities by a panel of individuals with diverse employment, educational, and economic backgrounds.
This research will result in an internet application with the capacity to collect spatial perceptions of natural capital and ecosystem services from a variety of user groups, including the lay public, for potential application in a wide range of rural and regional landscapes in the U.S. and elsewhere. Specific deliverables will include: 1) a functional website (URL) with open access that allows individuals to map ecosystem services for a particular region, 2) an evaluation of the web prototype’s usability for collecting data (written report); and 3) a description of the types of decisions the system could be used for in regional planning applications (written report).
|
