Incorporating expert knowledge for development spatial modeling in assessing ecosystem services provided by coral reefs: A tool for decision-making

Coral reefs provide coastal populations with valuable ecosystem services but few studies explore the spatial context in which those services are provided. This study presents a spatial modeling approach to assess ecosystem services provided by coral reefs. Our approach integrates spatial analysis tools and multi-criteria evaluation techniques to develop spatial models for assessing ecosystem services in the Parque Nacional Sistema Arrecifal Veracruzano (Veracruz Reef System National Park), incorporating local users´ knowledge. We compared the resulting models with both records of activities provided by park authorities, and information on distribution of fishing zones obtained from a workshop with fishermen. We found the models consistent with the actual uses within the system. This indicates that incorporating local users´ knowledge is useful in identifying, grouping, and evaluating ecosystem services in complex environments lacking hard data. This approach is an important contribution for the generation of zoning proposals and other management strategies in coral reef areas.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Reyna-González,Pedro C., Bello-Pineda,Javier, Ortíz-Lozano,Leonardo, Pérez-España,Horacio, Arceo,Patricia, Brenner,Jorge
Format:	Digital revista
Language:	English
Published:	Universidad de Valparaíso. Facultad de Ciencias del Mar 2014
Online Access:	http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0718-19572014000200008
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!