Factors affecting cultural ecosystem services use in Vilnius (Lithuania): A participatory mapping survey approach

Spatial distribution and influencing factors of rural cultural ecosystem services: a case study of Fujian, China

Rural cultural ecosystem services (CES) play a pivotal role in enhancing rural well-being. This paper examines the spatial distribution patterns and influencing factors of rural CES in Fujian Province using the biterm topic model and geodetector. The results reveal that rural CES in Fujian Province comprise five categories: culture, leisure, aesthetic, spirit, and science, among which leisure, culture, and aesthetic categories are the most easily perceived by the public. In terms of spatial distribution, the northwestern regions of Fujian Province exhibit better than the southeastern regions in terms of culture, while the latter excel in terms of leisure. Regarding aesthetics, there is an overall trend of extensive dispersion with localized concentrations, with high-value areas primarily located in the southwestern region and the eastern coastal region of Ningde City. The high value areas in the spirit are concentrated in the central and northern regions of Fujian Province. The spatial distribution of science is relatively scattered, with more high-value areas observed in Sanming City and Fuzhou City. Road density, light index, and per capita disposable income demonstrate strong explanatory power in rural CES. These findings can guide targeted development of regional cultural services and address resource mismatches in rural areas of Fujian Province, thereby enhancing the well-being of rural residents.

A simple method for mapping winter recreational fishing ecosystem services supply in lakes. A contribution to mapping freshwater ecosystem services

Although urban areas negatively impact the environment, they supply a wide range of ecosystem services (ES), mainly cultural ones. Recreation near urban green areas is widespread, including fishing. In northern latitudes, during the winter, lakes are frozen, and several urban dwellers practice ice fishing. Although this activity is well known, no attempts were made to assess and map winter recreational fishery ES supply in lakes. In this work, we developed a methodology to map this ES, taking an urban lake in Vilnius (Lithuania) as an example. A standardized protocol was developed using an unmanned aerial vehicle (proximal sensing), further georeferencing and correcting the gathered images, vectorizing the fishing ice holes, and mapping them using two different methods: Kernel and Point Density. The method developed in this work can be applied in northern areas to identify recreational fishing ES during the winter.•A novel method was developed to map winter recreational fishery ES supply in lakes;•High-resolution images were taken from an unmanned aerial vehicle to identify fishing ice holes in an urban lake.•The method maps a cultural ES, which is trendy in northern latitudes.

Assessing grassland cultural ecosystem services supply and demand for promoting the sustainable realization of grassland cultural values

Grasslands deliver essential provisioning and regulatory ecosystem services, concomitantly with indispensable cultural services that merit profound consideration. However, grassland cultural ecosystem services (GCES) face a conspicuous knowledge lacuna due to the lack of a unified research framework and quantitative methodology. This study endeavors to fill this gap by quantifying the potential supply and actual demand of GCES, concurrently scrutinizing spatial congruencies and disparities between GCES supply and demand in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (IMAR), China. To achieve this, we integrated social survey data, Point of Interest (POI) data, social media data, the Social Values for Ecosystem Services (SolVES) model and GIS Getis-Ord Gi* statistical analysis. Our analysis unveiled grid-scale spatial patterns of GCES supply and demand, furnishing a nuanced high-low ranking of GCES. It transpired that scenic travel holds the highest potential supply of GCES with a high-value area proportion of 46.0 %, while grassland recuperation ranks the lowest. Notably, road accessibility emerged as the most crucial factor influencing GCES patterns. Furthermore, we observed a substantial misalignment in the GCES supply-demand relationship, with 65.99 % of IMAR experiencing excess supply compared to demand and only 20.66 % achieving equilibrium. At a 95 % significance level, hot spots (excess supply) and cold spots (excess demand) accounted for 26.03 % and 22 %, respectively. We propose targeted suggestions that regions with oversupply of GCES should channel efforts toward augmenting road accessibility, whereas regions grappling with excess demand should prioritize the judicious allocation of resources to avert surpassing the environmental carrying capacity. Our study furnished insights for decision-makers to formulate sustainable development plans pertaining to grassland culture.