Agri-ecological dataset from vegetation surveys on organic legume fields in Tuscany, Italy.

Legumes are becoming increasingly important regarding the transformation of food consumption and production systems towards more sustainability. Apart from supporting and production services, legumes can also enhance biodiversity in agroecosystems. In this dataset, we present results from vegetation surveys of 244 samplings on 32 lentil and chickpea fields of five organic farms in Tuscany, Italy. Centre and edge zones of the fields were surveyed separately. Additionally, the dataset provides a comprehensive summary of the associated management practices applied to the respective fields as well as a characterisation of the site conditions through soil texture, organic matter, local weather data during the legume growing period and the diversity of the field's landscape contexts. This additional extensive characterisation of the management system and environment allows the data to be used for a variety of multivariate analysis on biodiversity and agroecosystems.

Participation 3.0 in the implementation of the energy transition-Components and effectiveness of an interactive dialogue tool (Vision:En 2040).

The allocation of renewable energy plants, especially wind turbines, is stagnating in Germany. Although the citizens approve of the energy transition, they resist concrete local projects. In recent years, research has shown that interactive map applications support participatory planning through motivation, social interaction, and knowledge transfer. We aim to reduce biases against renewable energy (RE) and support informed decision making while accepting local responsibility. We hypothesized that finding a new gamified participation format, based on behavioral mechanisms, would strengthen the empowerment of people. To this end, we designed a dialogue tool and participation format, 'Vision:En 2040', which combines: (i) a precise target electricity yield, (ii) an interactive map showing results of people's actions, information about environmental impacts, and (iii) game rules which foster cooperation. In facilitated workshops, participants simulate the allocation of wind and photovoltaic power plants in their municipality to achieve a target electricity yield. The developed tool is based on methods of environmental planning and geoinformatics. 'Vision:En 2040' was systematically tested with a technical test and a pre-test. In addition, its impact on participants was assessed through surveys and qualitative content analysis. The evaluation results show that the tool can influence the acceptance of the energy transition in terms of attitude. Through 'Vision:En 2040', participants became aware of the community's responsibility in the energy transition and expanded their knowledge. In addition, decision makers used the workshop results to plan RE sites. Our results indicate that 'Vision:En 2040' is helpful for informal citizen participation in accelerating the energy transition.

Mapping and assessing natural soundscape quality: An indicator-based model for landscape planning.

Natural soundscape quality (NSQ) has been recognized as an essential cultural ecosystem service that contributes significantly to human health and well-being. It also stands as an indispensable component of environmental quality, especially for landscape aesthetic quality. However, an assessment tool for NSQ in landscape planning and environmental impact assessments is still absent. Therefore, this paper aims to address this gap by proposing an indicator-based model for assessing and quantifying NSQ in the Geographic Information System. The model characterizes NSQ based on Calmness and Vibrancy, and employs several indicators, sub-indicators, and respective metrics as proxies to quantify and map them spatially. The evaluation criteria of the model correspond to the general public's preferences for soundscape features. The case study results in Springe municipality, Germany, show that the relative values of NSQ are high in green spaces, including forests, grasslands, and shrublands, whereas they are low in open farmlands. The multiple natural sounds yield higher NSQ scores than the individual ones. The same soundscape compositions in forests and in urban parks exhibit higher NSQ scores than in other land cover types. In addition, the shares of relative values show similar distribution patterns among Calmness, Vibrancy, and NSQ according to land cover types and soundscape compositions. The evaluation results align with public values and preferences for soundscape features. Unlike subjectivist approaches, our user-independent methodology is easily transferable and reproducible. The results are comparable and communicable among the assessed areas. These endow the indicator-based model with the potential to be applied at various planning and management scales. The findings can help to incorporate soundscape evaluation into landscape planning and management systems, supporting sustainable landscape development, and providing valuable information for policy-, plan- and decision-making.

Ecological Sustainability Assessment of Water Distribution for the Maintenance of Ecosystems, their Services and Biodiversity.

Water provision and distribution are subject to conflicts between users worldwide, with agriculture as a major driver of discords. Water sensitive ecosystems and their services are often impaired by man-made water shortage. Nevertheless, they are not sufficiently included in sustainability or risk assessments and neglected when it comes to distribution of available water resources. The herein presented contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG 6) and Life on Land (SDG 15) is the Ecological Sustainability Assessment of Water distribution (ESAW-tool). The ESAW-tool introduces a watershed sustainability assessment that evaluates the sustainability of the water supply-demand ratio on basin level, where domestic water use and the water requirements of ecosystems are considered as most important water users. An ecological risk assessment estimates potential impacts of agricultural depletion of renewable water resources on (ground)water-dependent ecosystems. The ESAW-tool works in standard GIS applications and is applicable in basins worldwide with a set of broadly available input data. The ESAW-tool is tested in the Danube river basin through combination of high-resolution hydro-agroecological model data (hydrological land surface process model PROMET and groundwater model OpenGeoSys) and further freely available data (water use, biodiversity and wetlands maps). Based on the results, measures for more sustainable water management can be deduced, such as increase of rainfed agriculture near vulnerable ecosystems or change of certain crops. The tool can support decision making of authorities from local to national level as well as private enterprises who want to improve the sustainability of their supply chains.

Uncertainties in land use data may have substantial effects on environmental planning recommendations: A plea for careful consideration.

A key challenge of environmental planning is to craft recommendations for future sustainable spatial development amid ubiquitous uncertainties. This paper aims to explore how different data uncertainties, usually unknown to the planner, may influence environmental planning recommendations. We apply a case study-based approach, in which we provide three illustrative examples of how data with different kinds and levels of uncertainty affect environmental assessments and, by that, the decision-support provided by environmental planning. The cases stem from different spatial levels in Germany and consider 'Regional soil-based climate change mitigation' in the region of Hannover, 'State-wide habitat conservation siting' in the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt, and 'National renewable energy planning'. Based on the three examples, we discuss implications for planning practice and derive recommendations for further research. The three cases studies illustrate the substantial effects of data uncertainty on environmental assessments and planning recommendations derived from those results. We identify four problem constellations of dealing with data uncertainty in environmental planning that relate to the severeness of uncertainty impacts, the responsibility of the decision-maker, and the kinds of impacts that wrong decisions may have. We close with recommendations for further research, among others to develop robust and pragmatic methods for identifying the uncertainty levels in environmental data and assessment results.

Optimizing environmental measures for landscape multifunctionality: effectiveness, efficiency and recommendations for agri-environmental programs.

Agri-environmental measures differ in their capacity to simultaneously enhance the provision of multiple ecosystem services. Multifunctional approaches are hampered by funding schemes that are usually administered by individual administrative sectors that each predominantly focus on one single environmental objective. Developing integrative management strategies that exploit synergies from implementing multifunctional measures is challenged by the need to quantify expected management effects on different ecosystem services. The objective of this paper is to compare uncoordinated versus coordinated management strategies in their contribution to multiple environmental objectives. We developed and applied a method for quantifying effectiveness, as well as spatial and cost efficiency with respect to four key landscape functions: erosion prevention, water quality conservation, climate change mitigation and safeguarding biodiversity. The case study area was the county of Verden, Germany. The following findings can be drawn: Measures for safeguarding biodiversity and climate change mitigation have generally high multifunctional effects, which makes them suitable for integrative management strategies. To make use of the added value of potential multifunctional measures, a spatially targeted allocation of agri-environmental measures is necessary. Compared to uncoordinated strategies, coordinated integrative management strategies either allow the optimization of the ratio of costs to environmental effects or an increase in the effects that can be achieved within an area unit. This is however, usually not simultaneous. Future research should seek to refine the assessment and valuation indicators.

The preference and actual use of different types of rural recreation areas by urban dwellers--the Hamburg case study.

In the wake of urbanisation processes and the constitution of metropolitan regions, the role of the city's rural surroundings is receiving more attention from researchers and planners as rural areas offer various (cultural) ecosystem services for the urban population. Urban dwellers increasingly desire recreation and landscape experience. Although this need for recreation is generally recognized, few studies have focused on the question of people's preferences for certain types and characteristics of outdoor recreation areas in relation to the frequency of use. In order to acquire baseline data on this subject, the main objectives of this study were to explore recreation preferences of urban dwellers and the relation between actual use and perceived value of recreation areas in a case study in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region (Germany). In a social survey, Hamburg residents (n = 400) were asked about their preferences and use of four important regional recreation areas with different landscape characteristics in face-to-face interviews in different locations in the city. We found that both outdoor recreation within and outside of the city were fairly or very important for more than 70% of the questioned urban dwellers. Interestingly, the preference for a recreation area outside of the city did not depend on the frequency of use, which indicates that certain recreation areas had a symbolic value besides their use value. When people were questioned on the characteristics of recreation areas, perceived naturalness was found to be strongly related to preference. Respondents considered the diversity, uniqueness, and naturalness of the landscape to be far more important than the accessibility of the recreation areas and the provision of service facilities.

Assessing biodiversity on the farm scale as basis for ecosystem service payments.

Ecosystem services payments must be based on a standardised transparent assessment of the goods and services provided. This is especially relevant in the context of EU agri-environmental programs, but also for organic-food companies that foster environmental services on their contractor farms. Addressing the farm scale is important because land users/owners are major recipients of payments and they could be more involved in data generation and conservation management. A standardised system for measuring on-farm biodiversity does not yet exist that concentrates on performance indicators and includes farmers in generating information. A method is required that produces ordinal or metric scaled assessment results as well as management measures. Another requirement is the ease of application, which includes the ease of gathering input data and understandability. In order to respond to this need, we developed a method which is designed for automated application in an open source farm assessment system named MANUELA. The method produces an ordinal scale assessment of biodiversity that includes biotopes, species, biotope connectivity and the influence of land use. In addition, specific measures for biotope types are proposed. The open source geographical information system OpenJump is used for the implementation of MANUELA. The results of the trial applications and robustness tests show that the assessment can be implemented, for the most part, using existing information as well as data available from farmers or advisors. The results are more sensitive for showing on-farm achievements and changes than existing biotope-type classifications. Such a differentiated classification is needed as a basis for ecosystem service payments and for designing effective measures. The robustness of the results with respect to biotope connectivity is comparable to that of complex models, but it should be further improved. Interviews with the test farmers substantiate that the assessment methods can be implemented on farms and they are understood by farmers.