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of the total value of the regulation services. The provisioning services in the warm
subhumid landscapes have lower value because the hornbeam-oak forests there have
lower timber quality and the forest fragmentation is higher. On the other hand, the
non-tree forest resources there are bigger, which reduce the difference. The artifi-
cial forest landscapes have lower values, because they are mainly coniferous with
lower timber quality, lower regulation capacity and lack of non-forest resources.
The anthropogenic landscapes have relatively high value compared with their area,
which is due to their high cultural value and the assessment method, which takes
into account the replacement costs for the building of equipment producing this ser-
vice. As the cost of the land for building in the urban areas is high, the value also
increases (Zevurdakis et al., 2007 ).
8.5 Conclusion
The most important ecosystem services of the Etropole municipality are provided
by the forest landscapes. Only 27% of their total value belongs to the provisioning
service, which is the most used at present. The importance of their regulation ser-
vices, especially the regulation of the flood-risk will increase in the future because
of the climate change (Nikolova et al., 2008 ). This necessitates prevention activi-
ties directed to the preservation of the regulation function of the forest ecosystems
in the critical areas of the basin. Such measures would have positive effect also on
the genetic and regulation services and the total economic value as well (Nedkov,
2008 ). The use of landscape approach gives opportunity for more precise valuation
than using pure land cover data (i.e. CORINE). The quality of the spatial data is
very important factor for the preciseness of the valuation. CORINE land cover is a
good source for broad and middle scale research but for small municipalities, inves-
tigated in finer scale, it is necessary to involve satellite images with high resolution.
ASTER Terra images provide satisfactory quality (15 m resolution) at reasonable
cost for that purpose.
The valuation of ecosystem services of the municipality is important and useful
activity for the achievement of sustainable development. It gives the opportu-
nity to involve some resources and services, which are usually ignored in the
process of regional planning. Although, this valuation is “certainly difficult and
fraught of uncertainties” (Costanza et al., 1997 ) and criticized by many authors,
its contribution for the sustainable development can be very useful. Further
progress of the valuation and assessment methods will improve its preciseness and
reliability.
References
Barclay E, Batker D (2004) Untold value: nature's services in Washington state. Asia Pacific
environmental exchange
Costanza R, d'Arge R, de Groot R, Farbel S, Grasso M, Hannon B, et al (1997) The value of world
ecosystem services and natural capital. Nature 387:253-260
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