Abstract
This article shows how to restore Central European natural capital effectively. Water in the landscape is primarily sustained by vegetation and soil, most effectively by natural forests and only secondarily by artificial reservoirs. The authors document these facts using a case study from the Želivka River basin (Švihov reservoir), which collects surface water for the metropolitan region of Prague and Central Bohemia. With the Energy-Water-Vegetation Method, the authors demonstrate that the cultural human-changed landscape of the Želivka river basin is able to utilize only about 60% of its solar energy potential. In 1.5% of the territory of the Czech Republic, society annually loses supporting ecosystem services at a level higher than 25% of the annual GDP of the CR 2015. Water retention in the landscape needs to be re-evaluated and addressed in accordance with the thermodynamic principles of life and ecosystem functioning in the biosphere. It is necessary to begin restoring the most efficient natural capital in the landscapes and to return the broad-leaved deciduous forests by intelligent forestation methods to the cultural landscape to the extent justified; this is especially true of the Želivka River basin, which is Czechia’s biggest surface drinking-water collecting area.
Highlights
IntroductionThe first purpose of this paper is to compare the monetary value of four supporting and regulating ecosystem services provided by the current landscape structure of the Želivka river basin (Czech Republic) with that provided by a hypothetical (simulated), fully natural (not influenced by human activities) Želivka watershed land-cover
The first purpose of this paper is to compare the monetary value of four supporting and regulating ecosystem services provided by the current landscape structure of the Želivka river basin (Czech Republic) with that provided by a hypothetical, fully natural Želivka watershed land-cover
This paper presents the results of assessing the loss of four lifesupporting and regulating ecosystem services caused by degrading anthropogenic land-use changes from natural land-cover on the territory of the Želivka river basin
Summary
The first purpose of this paper is to compare the monetary value of four supporting and regulating ecosystem services provided by the current landscape structure of the Želivka river basin (Czech Republic) with that provided by a hypothetical (simulated), fully natural (not influenced by human activities) Želivka watershed land-cover. The map of potential natural vegetation in the Czech Republic [1] was used to simulate the watershed’s natural landscape structure without human influence, while the current landscape structure was assessed using CORINE Land Cover 2018 data; the four main ecosystem services were valued in monetary terms using the Energy-Water-Vegetation Method (EWVM) [2]. The. EWVM evaluates ecosystems according to their different efficiencies in transforming solar energy into main supporting and regulating ecosystem services.
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