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Bullock, Craig
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Bullock, Craig
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Bullock, Craig
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Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
- PublicationChallenges in using hydrology and water quality models for assessing freshwater ecosystem services: A review(MDPI, 2018-02)
; ; ; ; Freshwater ecosystems contribute to many ecosystem services, many of which are being threatened by human activities such as land use change, river morphological changes, and climate change. Many disciplines have studied the processes underlying freshwater ecosystem functions, ranging from hydrology to ecology, including water quality, and a panoply of models are available to simulate their behaviour. This understanding is useful for the prediction of ecosystem services, but the model outputs must go beyond the production of time-series of biophysical variables, and must facilitate the beneficial use of the information it contains about the ecosystem services it describes. This article analyses the literature of ad hoc approaches that aim at quantifying one or more freshwater ecosystem services. It identifies the strategies adopted to use disciplinary-specific models for the prediction of the services. This review identifies that hydrological, water quality, and ecological models form a valuable knowledge base to predict changes in ecosystem conditions, but challenges remain to make proper and fruitful use of these models. In particular, considerations of temporal and spatial scales could be given more attention in order to provide better justifications for the choice of a particular model over another, including the uncertainty in their predictions.456Scopus© Citations 21 - PublicationWhen the public good conflicts with an apparent preference for unsustainable behaviourThe example of peatlands is used to demonstrate the challenges facing the sustainable management of natural resources in situations where the fragility of an environment is not appreciated by all stakeholders. We reveal, through the use of a survey applying both contingent valuation and discrete choice experiments, that many local people and others within the wider population, value peatlands as an example of a cultural landscape. However, there is a reluctance to stop extracting peat for domestic fuel even though the activity is undermining the ecological sustainability of this same landscape. This resistance is shown to arise because the cutting of peat is a well-established land use and a cessation of peat cutting is perceived to require the abandonment of traditional rights. In addition, the activity is widely regarded as more benign than industrial scale cutting for energy. The value attached to the landscape is an opportunity for conservation policy, but for this to succeed there must be an acknowledgement of local interests.
656Scopus© Citations 21 - PublicationPeatlands, their public good value and priorities for their future management - the example of IrelandThe threat of climate change has focused attention on those environments with high capacity for carbon storage. Peatlands are one such environment in that they both sequester CO2 from the atmosphere and are also a major store of carbon. However, the world's peatlands are everywhere under threat. This includes in Ireland where, while still a feature of many rural areas, less than third of the country's original area of peatland remains intact. The sustainable management of the remaining peatland necessitates an action plan including the evidence by which to evaluate choices. It also requires an articulation of a vision for peatland in the decades to come. In this respect, peatlands are an environmental asset, but also a social and economic resource. Any framework for their management and restoration must be able to deal with the social and political decision making process and demonstrate a respect for the diverse range of public and private goods that peatlands provide.
3218Scopus© Citations 58