Making Intangibles Tangible: Identifying Manifestations of Cultural Ecosystem Services in a Cultural Landscape

Wei Jiang,Rainer Marggraf

doi:10.3390/land11010026

Abstract

The assessment of cultural ecosystem services (CES) has proved challenging due to their intangible, non-material and invisible characteristics. A number of methods for evaluating CES have been developed, which depend mostly on subjective perceptions and behavior. An objective direction for considering CES is proposed based on the assumption that making use of CES leaves visible manifestations in the physical landscape and human society. The approach developed in this paper attempts to follow this direction by identifying a large amount of manifestations that reflect a wider range of CES types. This approach is applied to a case study of the Weser River in Germany, showing that the local people along the river have benefited from multiple CES of the Weser and created various manifestations of those CES. In the future researches, the identification and documentation of manifestations can be used to map the delivery of CES, to develop indicator systems for CES, to assess heritage value and identity, to indicate spatially explicit preferences on ecosystem characteristics and visual aesthetic qualities, to estimate the economic value of educational and inspirational service, to investigate sense of place, as well as to make better informed landscape management and nature protection.

Highlights

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) are defined as the non-material benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic experience [1]
In this paper, we focus on river ecosystems and attempt to identify more manifestations in the physical landscape or human society that reflect a wider range of CES provided by rivers
The frequently used methods for the assessment of CES depend significantly on the subjective perceptions, actions and responses of participants. Another objective direction for considering CES is developed based on the assumption that making use of CES leaves visible manifestations in the physical landscape and human society

Summary

Introduction

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) are defined as the non-material benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic experience [1]. Studies on CES are still confronted with intangible, non-material and invisible challenges, a number of evaluation methods that employ different procedures, start from different theoretical backgrounds and apply different techniques are identified [3]. These methods are divided into two main categories, monetary methods and non-monetary methods. The non-monetary methods category can be classified into revealed preference, including observation method [10], document method [11], social media-based method [12], and stated preference, including interview method [13], questionnaire method [14], narrative method [15], focus group method [16], expert based method [17], Q-method [18], participatory mapping method [19], participatory

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion