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Ecosystem Services and Climate Change: Concepts, Methods and Their Application to Utilize Ecosystem Services to Respond to Climate Change

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Ecosystem Services and Climate Change: Concepts, Methods and Their Application to Utilize Ecosystem Services to Respond to Climate Change Ecosystem services and climate change: Concepts, methods and their application to utilize ecosystem services to respond to climate change Dissertation by Christin Haida Submitted to the Faculty of Geo- and Atmospheric Sciences At the University of Innsbruck for the Degree of Doctor Philosophiae (PhD) supervised by Assoz. Univ. Prof. Dr. Clemens Geitner and Univ. Prof. Dr. Johann Stötter Institute of Geography, University of Innsbruck Innsbruck, January 2016 Acknowledgement This dissertation would have never been realised without the contribution of many people in different ways. First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Assoz. Univ. Prof. Dr. Clemens Geitner for his unceasing encouragement, professional guidance and the innumerable time he spent in endless discussions about work- related and other topics. I really enjoyed working with you. I am very grateful to Univ. Prof. Dr. Ulrike Tappeiner for her invaluable input and the new insights she gave me to ecosystem services research and to Univ. Prof. Dr. Johann Stötter for helping me to take a step back and be able to see the bigger picture. Many thanks go to my work colleagues to discuss practical questions in day to day research and in particular to Dr. Katrin Schneider and Dr. Christian Georges who were always there to give me helpful advice and feedback. I would also like to thank all the project collaborators and trainees who helped carrying out the practical implementation of this work, as well as all the stakeholders who were involved , such as interviewees, teachers and students. I appreciate the feedback from the reviewers of this thesis Dr. habil. Karsten Grunewald and Prof. Dr. Ariane Walz and from the anonymous reviewers of the included articles. Nevertheless, I am most grateful to my partner Andrew Greenbank and to my family Gisela, Siegfried and Isabel Haida. You were always there for me, believed in me, listened to me when I was in doubt, encouraged me to carry on when I was about to give up, distracted me when I needed a break and supported me in so many different ways. Without you I would have never been able to finish this work. Thank you so much! A large part of this dissertation has been accomplished during my employment at the alpS GmbH - Centre for Climate Change Adaptation. It was set within the scope of the project “SHIFT - Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Shifting Altitudinal Zones of Environmental Systems in Mountain Regions”, funded by the COMET Programme - Competence Centers for Excellent Technologies, administered by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) and the project “Urban_WFTP - Introduction of Water Footprint (WFTP) approach in urban areas to monitor, evaluate and improve the water use”, funded by Central Europe Programme and the European Regional Development Fund by the European Union. i ii Abstract Understanding and solving the challenge of climate change requires a broad view and the combination of multiple disciplines and perspectives. The ecosystem services concept provides a suitable framework to respond to the threat climate change poses for society. Ecosystem services (ES) are natural goods and services, which are used directly or indirectly by society and hence contribute to human well- being. But this supply is threatened, as climate change affects the properties, structures and functions of ecosystems. At the same time, ES facilitate responding to climate change through mitigation and adaption. In order to protect and maintain the supply of ES and to secure human well-being for future generations, society urgently needs applicable and broadly accepted concepts, methods and tools to evaluate and if needed, adjust current practices which affect ES supply and demand. This requires understanding the interactive process and mutual influ ence of ES with responding to climate change and knowing how to best utilize ES for adaptation and mitigation. For this, three research objectives were defined: RESEARCH OBJECTIVE 1: Developing an approach for adaptation assessment of multiple ES RESEARCH OBJECTIVE 2: Application of this approach RESEARCH OBJECTIVE 3: Elaborating the mutual influence of ES and mitigation The developed approach for adaptation assessment in RESEARCH OBJECTIVE 1 consisted of a cycle with six sequential phases: (I) assessing ES relevance, (II) assessing ES sensitivity to climate change and developing ES impact storylines, (III) identifying “hotspot ES”, (IV) assessing adaptation options, (V) adaptation in practice and (VI) monitoring and evaluation. For RESEARCH OBJECTIVE 2 these phases were implemented and tested in consecutive case studies. In phase (I) stakeholders ranked several ES according to their regional importance. ES which satisfy basic needs were perceived to be most important, followed by ES related to safety and security needs, and finally cultural ES. In phase (II) stakeholders described the sensitivity of multiple ES to climate change to develop ES impact storylines. In phase (III) the results from (I) and (II) were overlaid and six “hotspot ES” could be identified to be in need for adaptation : “natural hazard regulation”, “fresh water”, “water flow regulation”, “food and fodder”, “energy” and “all year tourism”. Focusing on these six ES in phase (IV) the same stakeholders identified already existing and suggested future options for appropriate adaptation and mitigation. For “fresh water” a discrepancy between adaptation needs and potential adaptation options could be detected. Demand for “fresh water” and water use efficiency was found to be the most pressing issue, iii which is why phase (V) developed and implemented an approach to adjust local water consumption. An innovative approach was developed linking the water footprint concept with bottom -up climate change adaptation and capacity development. A practical implementation of phase (VI) was not possible with in the timeframe of this thesis and therefore the state-of-the-art of monitoring and evaluation was reviewed and summarised. RESEARCH OBJECTIVE 3 elaborated the influence of mitigation on ES, by reviewing the impacts expanding renewable energies might have on the provision of multiple ES. Several conflicting areas could be identified and prioritized, and key recommendations derived to reconcile the expansion of renewable energies with the provision of ES. By bridging different disciplines and target groups, and integrating heterogeneous knowledge forms, this work was able to produce a problem -solving contribution about how to utilize ES to respond to climate change. Thereby, the quality, acceptance and sustainability of climate change responses could be improved. iv Zusammenfassung Um die vielfältigen Konsequenzen des Klimawandels besser zu verstehen, sowie Gegenmaßnahmen und Strategien zur Anpassung zu entwickeln, bedarf es einer breiten Betrachtungsweise und fächerübergreifender Zusammenarbeit. Ecosystem services (ES) bieten dafür ein geeignetes interdisziplinäres Konzept, das der Herausforderung des Klimawandels gerecht wird. ES sind Güter und Leistungen, die von der Natur bereitgestellt und direkt oder indirekt von den Menschen genützt werden. Aber diese Bereitstellung kann durch den Klimawandel beeinträchtigt werden, da sich dieser auf Ökosystemstrukturen und -funktionen auswirkt. Da ES jedoch maßgeblich zu Maßnahmen beitragen, die auf die Minderungen von Klimawandel (Mitigation) und Anpassung an Klimawandelfolgen (Adaptation) abzielen, muss die Bereitstellung von ES auch für zukünftige Generationen geschützt und erhalten werden. Dafür werden dringend anwendbare Ansätze und Vorgehensweisen benötigt, die es ermöglichen gängige Praktiken zu evaluieren und wenn nötig anzupassen. Dabei ist es einerseits erforderlich die gegenseitigen Wechselwirkungen von ES mit Mitigation und Adaptation zu verstehen und andererseits zu wissen, wie man ES bestmöglich nutzen kann, um auf den Klimawandel zu reagieren. Um einen Lösungsansatz für diese Problemstellung zu liefern, wurden drei Forschungsziele definiert: FORSCHUNGSZIEL 1) Konzeptionelle Entwicklung einer Vorgehensweise, um Anpassungsbedarf, -optionen und -durchführung von mehreren ES zu bewerten; FORSCHUNGSZIEL 2) Anwendung dieser Vorgehensweise in der Praxis; FORSCHUNGSZIEL 3) Detaillierte Ausführung der Wechselwirkungen zwischen ES und Mitigation. FORSCHUNGSZIEL 1) beinhaltet einen Kreislauf bestehend aus sechs Phasen: (I) Beurteilung der ES Relevanz, (II) Beurteilung der ES Sensibilität auf den Klimawandel und Entwicklung von ES Storylines, (III) Identifizierung von "Hotspot ES", (IV) Beurteilung von Anpassungsmöglichkeiten, (V) Durchführung von Anpassungsmaßnahmen und (VI) Monitoring und Bewertung. Für FORSCHUNGSZIEL 2) wurden diese sechs Phasen in der Praxis durchgeführt und in aufeinander aufbauenden Fallstudien getestet. In Phase (I) haben Stakeholder mehrerer ES entsprechend ihrer regionalen Bedeutung gereiht. In Phase (II) haben Stakeholder die Sensibilität von ES gegenüber dem Klimawandel beschrieben und ES Storylines entwickelt. In Phase (III) wurden die Ergebnisse aus (I) und (II) miteinander verschnitten und sechs "Hotspot ES" identifiziert: "Regulierung von Naturgefahren", "Frischwasser", "Regulierung des Wasserabflusses", "Nahrungs- und Futtermittel", "Energie" und "Tourismus". Für "Frischwasser" wurde eine Diskrepanz zwischen Anpassungsbedarf und möglichen Anpassungsmaßnahmen erkannt, wobei das dringendste Problem die effiziente Nutzung von Frischwasser v war. Deshalb wurde in Phase (V) ein Konzept entwickelt und angewandt, um den lokalen Wasserverbrauch
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