Assessment of ecosystem services perception in coastal agricultural landscapes: case study from "la plana de l'emporda" girona (catalonia)
This PhD thesis research has been developed between May 2012 and Desembre 2015 with the objective of exploring perceptions around agrarian landscapes by different social groups, under the ecosystem services framework. For the study of this topic, the research used a pilot study in an agricultural area in the coast of the Girona province, in Catalonia, called La Plana de l'Emporda. This study area was selected given it represents a socially diverse territory, where agriculture, conservation, tourism and residential uses coexist, and as an example of Mediterranean agricultural landscapes undergoing an intensification of land uses, agriculture practices inclusive. Four exercises are at the core of the research, in which five ecosystem services assessment methodologies and techniques have been applied, by interviewing people that live (farmers and residents) or visit the area (tourists) Results show a general trend in regards to the perception of ecosystem services of agrarian landscapes: a balance between preference for provisioning and other kinds of services (regulation, supporting and cultural) However, differences on perceptions emerge between the studied groups; whereas farmers become the group with a more productivist vision of agrarian landscapes, tourists are the group with a more bucolic view. Moreover, a rural urban gradient is identified in regards to the residents' perceptions, indicating that place of residence characteristics have an influence in the perception of the aforementioned landscape; in this sense, locals from the more rural areas perceive more accutely productive functions of landscape, in comparison to locals from more urban areas. In the four exercises developed, the thesis identifies a high perception of cultural ecosystem services of the analyzed landscapes, mainly aesthetical and leisure. Results show great aesthetical appreciation for field margins and, in general, multifunctional landscapes in which crops and natural elements are in balance. The diversity of urban and landscape features are important for the delivery of varied cultural ecosystem services. Some conclusions of the PhD address that for an integrated assessment of ecosystem services, monetary and nonmonetary valuation methods should be combined, given the inclusion of socio cultural valuation is relevant for identifying non marketed ecosystem services. Those services identified and key to community wellbeing and resilience (for instance, cultural ecosystem services) must be valued and integrated in landscape planning and decision making processes. The thesis claims that agricultural landscape management must incorporate strategies aiming to enhance multiple ecosystem services and minimize trade offs between farming production and the remainder of services; thereby ensuring well being and resilience of the communities there.