Assessing landscape services as foundation for Green Infrastructure functionality: the case of the Wienerwald Biosphere Reserve.

Mita Drius; Katharina Theresa Sams; Friedrich Knopper; Christa Hainz-Renetzeder; Christiane Brandenburg; Thomas Wrbka

doi:10.3097/LO.202084

Authors

Mita Drius Division of Conservation Biology, Vegetation Ecology and Landscape Ecology, Dept. of Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3823-5628
Katharina Theresa Sams Institute of Landscape Development, Recreation and Conservation Planning, Dept. of Landscape, Spatial and Infrastructure Sciences, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Austria https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3389-3434
Friedrich Knopper Institute of Landscape Development, Recreation and Conservation Planning, Dept. of Landscape, Spatial and Infrastructure Sciences, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Austria
Christa Hainz-Renetzeder Institute of Landscape Development, Recreation and Conservation Planning, Dept. of Landscape, Spatial and Infrastructure Sciences, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Austria https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4363-011X
Christiane Brandenburg Institute of Landscape Development, Recreation and Conservation Planning, Dept. of Landscape, Spatial and Infrastructure Sciences, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Austria https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7221-1451
Thomas Wrbka Division of Conservation Biology, Vegetation Ecology and Landscape Ecology, Dept. of Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Austria https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1451-9108

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3097/LO.202084

Keywords:

Wienerwald Biosphere Reserve, landscape services, ecosystem services, green infrastructure, capacity matrix

Abstract

Biosphere Reserves are considered as means for the people who live and work within them to attain a balanced relationship with the natural and semi-natural environment. Moreover, they contribute to the needs of society by showing a way to a more sustainable future. The Wienerwald Biosphere Reserve partly surrounds the city of Vienna and other minor settlements, representing a well-developed example of Green Infrastructure (GI) of great cultural and natural value. Its heterogeneous landscape offers a variety of landscape services (LS).

In this work we quantified and mapped the capacity of LS offered by the open land elements of Wienerwald. Starting from a high-resolution dataset, we selected suitable indicator classes, and scored each ecological and socio-cultural service through an expert-based capacity matrix. The subsequent GIS analyses focused on the intensity and density of LS capacities by developing an index useful for mapping GI functionality.

The work provides an effective monitoring tool for the Reserve’s both ecological and socio-cultural sustainability performance. It also allows detecting resilient areas, by considering both the spatial distribution and the abundance of landscape elements.

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