Publications (FIS)

Assessing land use and flood management impacts on ecosystem services in a river landscape (Upper Danube, Germany)

authored by: Barbara Stammel, Christine Fischer, Bernd Cyffka, Christian Albert, Christian Damm, Alexandra Dehnhardt, Helmut Fischer, Francis Foeckler, Lars Gerstner, Tim G. Hoffmann, Janette Iwanowski, Hans D. Kasperidus, Kathrin Linnemann, Dietmar Mehl, Simone A. Podschun, Marin Rayanov, Stephanie Ritz, Andrea Rumm, Mathias Scholz, Christiane Schulz-Zunkel, Julia Thiele, Markus Venohr, Christina von Haaren, Martin T. Pusch, Marion Gelhaus
Abstract: Rivers and floodplains provide many regulating, provisioning and cultural ecosystem services (ES) such as flood risk regulation, crop production or recreation. Intensive use of resources such as hydropower production, construction of detention basins and intensive agriculture substantially change ecosystems and may affect their capacity to provide ES. Legal frameworks such as the European Water Framework Directive, Bird and Habitats Directive and Floods Directive already address various uses and interests. However, management is still sectoral and often potential synergies or trade-offs between sectors are not considered. The ES concept could support a joint and holistic evaluation of impacts and proactively suggest advantageous options. The river ecosystem service index (RESI) method evaluates the capacity of floodplains to provide ES by using a standardized five-point scale for 1 km-floodplain segments based on available spatial data. This scaling allows consistent scoring of all ES and their integration into a single index. The aim of this article is to assess ES impacts of different flood prevention scenarios on a 75 km section of the Danube river corridor in Germany. The RESI method was applied to evaluate scenario effects on 13 ES with the standardized five-point scale. Synergies and trade-offs were identified as well as ES bundles and dependencies on land use and connectivity. The ratio of actual and former floodplain has the strongest influence on the total ES provision: the higher the percentage and area of an active floodplain, the higher the sum of ES. The RESI method proved useful to support decision-making in regional planning.
Organisation(s): Institute of Environmental Planning
External Organisation(s): Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ)
Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Technische Universität Berlin
Institute for Environmental Economics Research (IÖW)
German Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG)
ÖKON Gesellschaft für Landschaftsökologie, Gewässerbiologie und Umweltplanung mbH
biota – Institut für ökologische Forschung und Planung GmbH
Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB)
Type: Article
Journal: River Research and Applications
Volume: 37
Pages: 209-220
No. of pages: 12
ISSN: 1535-1459
Publication date: 07.02.2021
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Water Science and Technology, General Environmental Science, Environmental Chemistry
Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 15 - Life on Land
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1002/rra.3669 (Access: Open)
https://doi.org/10.15488/11031 (Access: Open)

BibTeX

@article{630ccc821d094e70ad405d55da874250,
title = "Assessing land use and flood management impacts on ecosystem services in a river landscape (Upper Danube, Germany)",
abstract = "Rivers and floodplains provide many regulating, provisioning and cultural ecosystem services (ES) such as flood risk regulation, crop production or recreation. Intensive use of resources such as hydropower production, construction of detention basins and intensive agriculture substantially change ecosystems and may affect their capacity to provide ES. Legal frameworks such as the European Water Framework Directive, Bird and Habitats Directive and Floods Directive already address various uses and interests. However, management is still sectoral and often potential synergies or trade-offs between sectors are not considered. The ES concept could support a joint and holistic evaluation of impacts and proactively suggest advantageous options. The river ecosystem service index (RESI) method evaluates the capacity of floodplains to provide ES by using a standardized five-point scale for 1 km-floodplain segments based on available spatial data. This scaling allows consistent scoring of all ES and their integration into a single index. The aim of this article is to assess ES impacts of different flood prevention scenarios on a 75 km section of the Danube river corridor in Germany. The RESI method was applied to evaluate scenario effects on 13 ES with the standardized five-point scale. Synergies and trade-offs were identified as well as ES bundles and dependencies on land use and connectivity. The ratio of actual and former floodplain has the strongest influence on the total ES provision: the higher the percentage and area of an active floodplain, the higher the sum of ES. The RESI method proved useful to support decision-making in regional planning.",
keywords = "assessment, cultural, floodplains, index, inter-sectoral management, regulating and provisioning ecosystem services, stakeholders",
author = "Barbara Stammel and Christine Fischer and Bernd Cyffka and Christian Albert and Christian Damm and Alexandra Dehnhardt and Helmut Fischer and Francis Foeckler and Lars Gerstner and Hoffmann, {Tim G.} and Janette Iwanowski and Kasperidus, {Hans D.} and Kathrin Linnemann and Dietmar Mehl and Podschun, {Simone A.} and Marin Rayanov and Stephanie Ritz and Andrea Rumm and Mathias Scholz and Christiane Schulz-Zunkel and Julia Thiele and Markus Venohr and {von Haaren}, Christina and Pusch, {Martin T.} and Marion Gelhaus",
note = "Funding information: The RESI project was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the funding program Regional Water Resources Management for Sustainable Protection of Waters in Germany (ReWaM) in the BMBF funding priority NaWaM in the program FONA3 [Grant 033W024A-K]. It benefitted from fruitful discussions with the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), Bonn, the German Environment Agency (UBA), Dessau-Ro{\ss}lau, as well as the German Working Group on Water Issues of the Federal States (LAWA), which helped to improve the methods. The Bavarian State Office for the Environment (LfU) and the responsible Water management authority Donauw{\"o}rth (namely Marion Keil and Viola Mettin) provided data and helped developing the scenarios. The RESI project was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the funding program Regional Water Resources Management for Sustainable Protection of Waters in Germany (ReWaM) in the BMBF funding priority NaWaM in the program FONA [Grant 033W024A?K]. It benefitted from fruitful discussions with the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), Bonn, the German Environment Agency (UBA), Dessau?Ro{\ss}lau, as well as the German Working Group on Water Issues of the Federal States (LAWA), which helped to improve the methods. The Bavarian State Office for the Environment (LfU) and the responsible Water management authority Donauw{\"o}rth (namely Marion Keil and Viola Mettin) provided data and helped developing the scenarios. 3",
year = "2021",
month = feb,
day = "7",
doi = "10.1002/rra.3669",
language = "English",
volume = "37",
pages = "209--220",
journal = "River Research and Applications",
issn = "1535-1459",
publisher = "John Wiley and Sons Ltd",
number = "2",
}