Effects of Land Use Changes on Ecosystem Services Value Provided By Coastal Wetlands: Recent and Future Landscape Scenarios

Vera Camacho Valdez,Arturo Ruiz-Luna

doi:10.4172/2473-3350.1000418

Abstract

Wetlands are very sensitive to land use changes which alter supply and quality of their ecosystem services. This study analyzes the effect of land cover changes on the spatial and temporal patterns of the value of ecosystem services provided by coastal wetlands in northwest Mexico. These ecosystems have a high degree of naturalness, but are at risk because of land use changes promoted to reactivate regional development. Remote sensing and Markov chains modeling were used to estimate change trends, together with a value transfer approach for the ecosystem service valuation. The results indicated that the total flow of ecosystem service value tended to increase (18 million dollars (2007 USD)), presumably biased by the highest worldwide value assigned to saltmarsh/unconsolidated bottom, which increased in area by 8% during the study period. The most notable transition probability was observed between natural wetlands, highlighting littoral and saltmarsh as the classes with the highest probability of change over time. The southern part of the study area is the most susceptible to change, where unconsolidated bottom and forested mangrove (saltmarsh) are prevalent. Therefore, we can argue that the conservation of these coastal environments should be a priority in future land use management.

Highlights

The interest in the ecosystem services and the importance they have increased since the publication of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment [1], with the report of global decline of 15 of the 25 listed ecosystem services, which anticipates a large and negative impact on future human welfare
This study focuses on landscape changes, but it contributes an update to the current status and trends of wetlands, making it possible to compare and evaluate the output offered by alternative investments and highlighting the importance of wetlands as natural capital
Once the imagery classification processes were completed, the accuracy of the output maps was validated to define the extent of each land cover category

Summary

Introduction

The interest in the ecosystem services and the importance they have increased since the publication of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment [1], with the report of global decline of 15 of the 25 listed ecosystem services, which anticipates a large and negative impact on future human welfare. The provisioning and quality of ecosystem services depend on the integrity and functioning of ecosystems, but the environment is systematically transformed, sometimes to increase production in agriculture, to increase space for human settlements or for resource extraction, with immediate or short time positive impacts on the local economy. It causes a decline in the provision of ecosystem services, which sooner or later will create a cost that must be paid by the population to compensate for the loss

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