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Optimization of Landscape Services under Uncoordinated Management by Multiple Landowners

Landscapes are often patchworks of private properties, where composition and configuration patterns result from cumulative effects of the actions of multiple landowners. Securing the delivery of services in such multi-ownership landscapes is challenging, because it is difficult to assure tight compl...

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Autores principales: Porto, Miguel, Correia, Otília, Beja, Pedro
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3895036/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24465833
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0086001
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author Porto, Miguel
Correia, Otília
Beja, Pedro
author_facet Porto, Miguel
Correia, Otília
Beja, Pedro
author_sort Porto, Miguel
collection PubMed
description Landscapes are often patchworks of private properties, where composition and configuration patterns result from cumulative effects of the actions of multiple landowners. Securing the delivery of services in such multi-ownership landscapes is challenging, because it is difficult to assure tight compliance to spatially explicit management rules at the level of individual properties, which may hinder the conservation of critical landscape features. To deal with these constraints, a multi-objective simulation-optimization procedure was developed to select non-spatial management regimes that best meet landscape-level objectives, while accounting for uncoordinated and uncertain response of individual landowners to management rules. Optimization approximates the non-dominated Pareto frontier, combining a multi-objective genetic algorithm and a simulator that forecasts trends in landscape pattern as a function of management rules implemented annually by individual landowners. The procedure was demonstrated with a case study for the optimum scheduling of fuel treatments in cork oak forest landscapes, involving six objectives related to reducing management costs (1), reducing fire risk (3), and protecting biodiversity associated with mid- and late-successional understories (2). There was a trade-off between cost, fire risk and biodiversity objectives, that could be minimized by selecting management regimes involving ca. 60% of landowners clearing the understory at short intervals (around 5 years), and the remaining managing at long intervals (ca. 75 years) or not managing. The optimal management regimes produces a mosaic landscape dominated by stands with herbaceous and low shrub understories, but also with a satisfactory representation of old understories, that was favorable in terms of both fire risk and biodiversity. The simulation-optimization procedure presented can be extended to incorporate a wide range of landscape dynamic processes, management rules and quantifiable objectives. It may thus be adapted to other socio-ecological systems, particularly where specific patterns of landscape heterogeneity are to be maintained despite imperfect management by multiple landowners.
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spelling pubmed-38950362014-01-24 Optimization of Landscape Services under Uncoordinated Management by Multiple Landowners Porto, Miguel Correia, Otília Beja, Pedro PLoS One Research Article Landscapes are often patchworks of private properties, where composition and configuration patterns result from cumulative effects of the actions of multiple landowners. Securing the delivery of services in such multi-ownership landscapes is challenging, because it is difficult to assure tight compliance to spatially explicit management rules at the level of individual properties, which may hinder the conservation of critical landscape features. To deal with these constraints, a multi-objective simulation-optimization procedure was developed to select non-spatial management regimes that best meet landscape-level objectives, while accounting for uncoordinated and uncertain response of individual landowners to management rules. Optimization approximates the non-dominated Pareto frontier, combining a multi-objective genetic algorithm and a simulator that forecasts trends in landscape pattern as a function of management rules implemented annually by individual landowners. The procedure was demonstrated with a case study for the optimum scheduling of fuel treatments in cork oak forest landscapes, involving six objectives related to reducing management costs (1), reducing fire risk (3), and protecting biodiversity associated with mid- and late-successional understories (2). There was a trade-off between cost, fire risk and biodiversity objectives, that could be minimized by selecting management regimes involving ca. 60% of landowners clearing the understory at short intervals (around 5 years), and the remaining managing at long intervals (ca. 75 years) or not managing. The optimal management regimes produces a mosaic landscape dominated by stands with herbaceous and low shrub understories, but also with a satisfactory representation of old understories, that was favorable in terms of both fire risk and biodiversity. The simulation-optimization procedure presented can be extended to incorporate a wide range of landscape dynamic processes, management rules and quantifiable objectives. It may thus be adapted to other socio-ecological systems, particularly where specific patterns of landscape heterogeneity are to be maintained despite imperfect management by multiple landowners. Public Library of Science 2014-01-17 /pmc/articles/PMC3895036/ /pubmed/24465833 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0086001 Text en © 2014 Porto et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Porto, Miguel
Correia, Otília
Beja, Pedro
Optimization of Landscape Services under Uncoordinated Management by Multiple Landowners
title Optimization of Landscape Services under Uncoordinated Management by Multiple Landowners
title_full Optimization of Landscape Services under Uncoordinated Management by Multiple Landowners
title_fullStr Optimization of Landscape Services under Uncoordinated Management by Multiple Landowners
title_full_unstemmed Optimization of Landscape Services under Uncoordinated Management by Multiple Landowners
title_short Optimization of Landscape Services under Uncoordinated Management by Multiple Landowners
title_sort optimization of landscape services under uncoordinated management by multiple landowners
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3895036/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24465833
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0086001
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