Mapping and assessing coastal recreation cultural ecosystem services supply, flow, and demand in Lithuania

Miguel Inácio; Eduardo Gomes; Katažyna Bogdzevič; Marius Kalinauskas; Wenwu Zhao; Paulo Pereira

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116175

Mapping and assessing coastal recreation cultural ecosystem services supply, flow, and demand in Lithuania

J Environ Manage. 2022 Dec 1:323:116175. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116175. Epub 2022 Sep 8.

Authors

Miguel Inácio¹, Eduardo Gomes², Katažyna Bogdzevič³, Marius Kalinauskas⁴, Wenwu Zhao⁵, Paulo Pereira⁴

Affiliations

¹ Environmental Management Laboratory, Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania. Electronic address: rinacio.miguel@gmail.com.
² Environmental Management Laboratory, Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania; Centre for Geographical Studies, Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal; Associated Laboratory TERRA, Lithuania.
³ Environmental Management Laboratory, Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania; Institute of International and European Union Law, Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania.
⁴ Environmental Management Laboratory, Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Institute of Land Surface System and Sustainable Development, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.

PMID: 36088764
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116175

Abstract

Coastal recreation as a cultural ecosystem service (CES) is key to human wellbeing. However, anthropogenic impacts at the coast affect CES supply. Mapping and assessing CES can help achieve better coastal planning and management of the coast. Quantitative approaches for assessing and mapping CES are lacking, especially in coastal areas. We develop three quantitative models to assess and map coastal recreation CES supply, flow, and demand. We applied the developed models in the coastal region of Lithuania. The coastal recreation CES supply model comprises natural (e.g., naturalness) and cultural (e.g., points of interest) components. The input variables were (1) analysed for multicollinearity, (2) normalised and (3) overlayed using ArcGIS 10.8. An online survey was undertaken to assess and map CES flow and demand based on locations chosen by respondents where they perform recreation at the coast and the number of activities performed when visiting the coast. The coastal recreation CES supply model results showed that natural recreation is close to the coastline, forest areas, waterlines, and protected areas, while cultural recreation is highest in coastal urban areas. The supply model was validated (r² = 0.11) based on the respondents' chosen coastal locations for recreation. The low validation allowed us to identify the mismatch between model results and respondents' preferences occurring in Klaipėda urban area. When removing respondents' points in Klaipeda urban area, the model validation increased (r² = 0.36). CES flow results highlighted Palanga, Šventoji, and Nida as the prime coastal recreation locations. The results of CES demand show that respondents living in municipalities near the coastline (Baltic Sea and Curonian Lagoon) perform fewer activities when visiting the coast. For other municipalities, a demand pattern was not observed. Our results yielded important spatial information that can be useful for planners and decision-makers in the context of coastal management.

Keywords: Coastal planning; Ecosystem services mapping; Model validation; Online survey; Tourism.

MeSH terms

Conservation of Natural Resources* / methods
Ecosystem*
Forests
Humans
Lithuania
Recreation