Abstract:
This chapter outlines the main entry points for integrating ecosystems and their services assessments into a generic decision-making process. It offers reflections on the different approaches to evaluating ecosystems services under future scenarios, presenting some case studies to illustrate the practical integration of ecosystem service concepts in different contexts of public policies at the São Paulo Macrometropolis (SPMM), such as forest recovery and conservation, climate change adaptation, protection of coastal systems, watersheds, and natural environments. It also outlines a range of tools and instruments available to support this integration: biophysical methods to map and model ecosystems; sociocultural tools to understand preferences for ecosystem services or social values; and monetary techniques to estimate economic values. Some tools require software and geographical information systems skills, using maps and geospatial information to identify, assess, and map ecosystem services. However, there is simple and quick-to-use software available as well. The Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) is one of the most used open-source software to represent different ecosystem services’ current and future status, which are related to management practices and choices. The model was used to generate spatially explicit predictions of ecosystem service provision (carbon sequestration, sediment retention, and erosion control) based on mappings of land use and vegetation cover, biophysical attributes, and additional data representing environmental conditions such as climate, soil, and topography in the macrometropolitan context. It was observed that the use of models is helpful to decision-makers and stakeholders in areas of large territorial extensions like the SPMM. It is also essential to associate participatory processes in quantitative simulations by modeling. Some limitations remain, such as the preprocessing of data, the nonlinear dynamics between ecosystem services, the complex relationships at the macrometropolitan scale, and the uncertainties associated with environmental modeling in time and space. Fortunately, new technologies, innovative research, and free databases are increasingly accessible and can help face these challenges. Despite the heterogeneity of the SPMM’s territory, this approach represents a significant contribution to showing the different possibilities and paths that can be traced from the models’ results toward a more sustainable future in the biggest urban agglomeration of Brazil.
Referência:
IKEMATSU, Priscila; PORTES, Bruno César Nascimento; PAVANI, Bruna Fatiche; MARQUES, Mariana Gomes de Abreu; MENDES FILHO, Walter; SOUSA JUNIOR, Wilson Cabral de; SINISGALLI, Paulo Antônio de Almeida; QUINTANILHA, José Alberto. Models, tools, and instruments for ecosystem services assessment and support for decision-making process in a macrometropolitan scale. In: JACOBI, Pedro Roberto; TURRA, Alexander; BERMANN, Célio; FREITAS, Emilson Dias de; FREY, Klaus; GIATTI, Leandro Luiz; TRAVASSOS, Luciana; SINISGALLI, MOMM, Sandra; ZANIRATO, Silva; TORRES, Pedro Henrique Campello. (Eds.) Environmental governance of the São Paulo macrometropolis: perspectives on climate viariability. London: Springer, 2024. p.341-354
Acesso ao capítulo no site da Springer:
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-59611-7_23
