Abstract
Ecological restoration in marine ecosystems is considered strategic to recover environmental conditions and ecosystem services. However, the traditional single-discipline perspectives followed for analysing the results of both restoration projects (focused in the analysis of biophysical changes) and valuation of ecosystem services (focused in economic valuation), do not provide useful theoretical frameworks when working with cultural ecosystem services, where socio-economic and environmental components are complexly interrelated. We propose an interdisciplinary approach for analysing changes in cultural ecosystem services in restored marine ecosystems, based on the DAPSI(W)R(M) framework and following a social-ecological system approach. Our methodology considers environmental, social and economic elements that may be contributing to changes in the provision and demand for cultural ecosystem services in restored ecosystems. Our approach was tested in the Nerbioi estuary, a system that, after the implementation of a wastewater treatment plant at the end of the 20th Century, changed from being one of the most polluted estuaries in Europe to a nearly recovered system. Based on previous studies that have analysed partial components of the restoration process and of the recreational ecosystem services, here we provide an interdisciplinary picture of the changes occurred in the last 25 years, directly linking the management measures adopted to an increase in human well-being. In the applied methodology, the three discipline domains (social, economic, and environmental) transcend each other to provide a new holistic view, completely different from what one would expect from the addition of the parts. In conclusion, this interdisciplinary approach provides a systematic framework for studying changes in cultural ecosystem services in restored systems, with a practical application for valuing human benefits as outcomes of marine restoration projects.
Highlights
Marine and coastal systems, through ecosystem services, provide many benefits to humans, contributing to our well-being (Barbier, 2017) and health (Borja et al, 2020)
From a social-ecological system approach (Ostrom, 2007, 2009), we propose a way to perform an integrated valuation of marine cultural ecosystem services in restored areas, including environmental, social and economic factors in an interdisciplinary perspective
An integrated valuation is the one that considers environmental, social and monetary aspects (Villegas-Palacio et al, 2016) involved in the delivery of human benefits from ecosystem services. Considering these ideas and based on the model designed by Kulczyk et al (2018) for recreational ecosystem services, we present an interdisciplinary approach for studying the changes in cultural ecosystem services after restoration (Figure 2)
Summary
Through ecosystem services, provide many benefits to humans, contributing to our well-being (Barbier, 2017) and health (Borja et al, 2020). Despite the many scientific publications confirming that the general environmental conditions in the estuarine waters have improved after restoration, how the adopted restoration measures caused changes in ecosystem services has not been studied until recently (Pouso et al, 2018c,b, 2019b) These studies focused on specific values of ecosystem services (i.e., social or economic), but this is the first attempt to evaluate, following an integrative approach, how cultural ecosystem services recovered in the restored Nerbioi estuary. To understand this process (how ecosystem restoration may translate into ecosystem service improvement), the degradation and restoration processes of Nerbioi estuary, presented above, have been conceptualized using the DAPSI(W)R(M) framework (Figure 4), differentiating between Drivers vs Activity, Impact vs Welfare, and Response vs Measures. This work provides a holistic view to explain how the efforts done in reverting a degraded situation resulted in human benefits in the form of cultural ecosystem services
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