News
Participation in IGU International Workshop on Geography and Sustainability 2021
On November 23-24, 2021, Linesam research team participated in International Workshop on Geography and Sustainability 2021: "Geography of the Anthropocene: Transforming our world for sustainable development". The event was organized in Beijing, China. During the conference Linesam research team members presented project results and made new connections for future collaborations. Prof. dr. Paulo Pereira was invited to give a key speech. Dr. Eduardo Gomez and dr. Marius Kalinauskas were awarded as best presenters in their sections.
Major ecosystem service layers update
The major ecosystem service layers update has been implemented on the 6th of September of 2021. Newly uploaded services visualize drivers of change scenarios: land use change (historical scenarios and future models), habitat quality change (historical scenarios and future models), landscape aesthetic quality of Lithuania. All service layers can be accessed through "Layer" menu feature (under "Data") or directly from the main page. For full methodological description of required service, please click on "Metadata Detail" button in each layer individually. Additionally, for more detailed methodological support, you can check published articles of LINESAM team on current ecosystem services. The list of the articles can be found in “Publications” section of Linesam geoportal.
Stakeholder meeting on ecosystems services
The stakeholder meeting was organized by LINESAM team on the 6th of September 2021. During the event the progress in Lithuanian ecosystem service assessment and mapping was presented. Prof. dr. Paulo Pereira, dr. Miguel Ignacio, dr. Eduardo Gomez, and dr. Katažyna Bogzdevič were presenting the currently mapped ecosystem services, drivers of change, ecosystem service relevant case studies, and future directions in the field. Dr. Marius Kalinauskas presented updates of the LINESAM geoportal and highlighted the guidelines for content management and future for the website after the project is over. After the session event participants were leading a discussion and reflection on presented ecosystem services.
Annual meeting with the stakeholders from The Ministry of Environment
On 1st of July 2021 annual meeting with the representatives of the Ministry of Environment was organized. During the meeting LINESAM project group presented currently mapped ecosystem services and briefed on the status of currently ongoing mapping of case study-based ecosystem services. Future collaboration opportunities were discussed between LINESAM project group and Ministry of Environment to secure the results of ecosystem mapping and assessment progress in Lithuania.
International conference organized by LINESAM project team
International Conference named “Mapping and assessment of ecosystem services: Challenges in a global environmental context” was organized by LINESAM project team on May 20th and 21st, 2021. The event was previously postponed in 2020 because of pandemic situation but was later rearranged via virtual measures. During the first day of the conference scientists from Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Finland, Spain, The Netherlands, China, and other countries presented their newest research on ecosystem services. On the second day of the event a young scientist’s section took place where research projects done by PhD students were presented. Experienced scientists exchanged ideas with PhD students and provided constructive feedback on the research and gave guidance on how to improve the works.
New paper published in the Environmental Research
The paper “Future scenarios impact on land-use change and habitat quality in Lithuania” was published by the LINESAM team in the Environmental Research Journal. In this paper, we aimed to study the impacts of land-use changes under different scenarios, namely business-as-usual, urbanisation, land abandonment and afforestation and agriculture intensification in 2050. The result revealed that was registered an increase in urban areas and forest and woodlands in the business-as-usual scenario. In the urbanisation scenario, there was an increase in the urban areas of 4628 ha from 2018 to 2050. In the land abandonment and afforestation scenario, there was an increase of 375,820 ha of woodland and forest (this scenario showed the highest habitat quality). Lastly, under the scenario agriculture intensification, a large growth in cropland area of 884,030 ha was identified (this scenario registered the lowest habitat quality). This paper can contribute to support policy-makers by evaluating the impact of future land-use changes in Lithuania. You can access the paper here.
A review paper on ecosystem services
A new paper has been published in "Science of The Total Environment", entitled: "Future land-use changes and its impacts on terrestrial ecosystem services: A review". This paper aimed to do a bibliographic review about future land-use change and their implications on ecosystem services supply (provisioning, regulating, and cultural services). The results showed that (I) the studies have been mainly focused on Asia (55.70%) and Europe (17,72%); (II) the works were mainly focused on measuring future impacts on provisioning (44.11%) and regulating services (43.59%); and that (III) they lack external validation. You can reach the article by pressing on this link.
New paper on landscape aesthetic quality published
LINESAM team successfully published the paper analyzing landscape aesthetic quality (LAQ) in Lithuania. The article analyzes multiple sub-indicators like landscape diversity, naturalness, and uniqueness and summarized the analysis in generating LAQ map at national scale. Additionally we performed a viewshed analysis to measure LAQ accessibility, and LAQ hotspot / coldspot analysis at eldership level. The paper is important in understanding the current LAQ condition at national scale, and contributes to better understanding of cultural ES. The paper can be accessed following this link.
Conference on soil ES
On behalf of LINESAM project prof. dr. Paulo Pereira organized a conference focused on Soil function, ecosystem services and the Sustainable Development Goals agenda at European Geosciences Union. Soil ecosystem services are vital components to all aspects of life and support the production of ecosystem goods and services, such as food and fiber production, water storage as well as climate and natural hazards regulation, among many others. The event will attract the experts in the field to share the latest knowledge on soil-related ecosystem services. Conference will have participants from United Kingdom, Australia, and China. You can reach the conference webpage by pressing on this link.
New paper published
New paper has been published in "Geography and Sustainability". The paper is called Ecosystem services of the Baltic Sea: An assessment and mapping perspective. The Baltic Sea is considered one of the busiest and most polluted regional seas in Europe. This perspective paper analyses the status of assessment and mapping methodologies in the Baltic Sea. The results showed that most of the studies were focused on qualitative assessments, with limited validation and reliability. You can reach the article by pressing on this link.
Geography and Sustainability 2020 Workshop
IGU Commission on Geography for Future Earth Coupled Human Earth Systems for Sustainability was organizing Geography and Sustainability 2020 Workshop on 30th November, 2020 (online). The workshop aimed to promote discussion and collaboration on the strategies to mitigate pressures on terrestrial ecosystems from multiple stressors. The workshop covered topics such as: a) mapping the pressures and drivers on ecosystems; b) effects of multiple stressors on ecosystem quality and ecosystem services; c) strategies to mitigate cumulative effects and improve the human wellbeing; d) how to promote ecosystem services for Sustainable development goals.
Honorary award from Clarative Analytics
Projects are being funded in order to produce meaningful scientific results. However, these results are being generated by people who are engaged in project implementation. Sometimes the contributions to the project create an additional value and lay ground for awards recognized by international scientific community. During the implementation of LINESAM project, the head of the project prof. dr. Paulo Pereira was recognized by Clarivate Analytics as scientist who was cited among top 1% of its peers in the Cross-Field for the year 2020. We would like to congratulate the colleague and wish him to keep up the persistent pursuit of scientific knowledge.
New article published in Geography and Sustainability
A paper analysing ecosystem services and legal protection of private property was published in journal Geography and Sustainability. The operationalization and implementation of provisional ES concept may collide with legal property rights. Therefore, it is essential to find constructive mechanisms to engage and encourage private owners to implement sustainable land uses to reduce the onsite and offsite impacts of their activities. This paper aims to identify if ES delivery can be constrained by legal private land and how it can be tackled. Private owners' active participation in implementing sustainable practices or a determined land-use in their properties is vital to achieving global targets such as sustainable development goals. The paper can be accessed here.
Special issue in the journal Science of the Total Environment
Prof. dr. Paulo Pereira (leader of LINESAM project), Dr. Yang Yu (Beijing Forest University, China) Prof. dr. Wenwu Zhao (Beijing Normal University, China) and Dr. Juan Martinez-Murillo (University of Malaga, Spain) organized a special issue focused on Loess Plateau: from degradation to restoration in the journal Science of the Total Environment. In total 17 papers were published, some of them focused on the ecosystem services provided by this fragile region. For more information, please see the introductory paper here.
Important academic achievements
Scientific projects are producing knowledge but they are being carried out by dedicated scientists. LINESAM project has some important milestones to celebrate, related with the academic achievements of it's scientific staff. It is important to recognize that the newest member of LINESAM team - Dr. Eduardo Jonas Da Costa Gomes was awarded with the Portuguese National Geography Award for the best PhD thesis of the last 3 years. We would also like to stress that the recent paper "Implementation of the European Union Floods Directive - Requirements and national transposition and practical application: Lithuanian case-study" was the 100th scientific publication by Prof. Dr. Paulo Pereira in a highly esteemed academic journals (Q1).
New publication in Land Use Policy
LINESAM research group published a paper focused on Flood Directive implementation in Lithuania. It analyses the requirements set in the EU law for the correct and effective implementation of the directive. Paper also addresses the implementation of the Flood Directive in the national law of Lithuania and the practical application of it, particularly in regard to the amendments of the land use regulations. The paper is accessible through here.
European Geoscience Assembly (EGU) 2020
LINESAM team together with researchers from Australia (UNSW Sydney) and China (China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research and Beijing Normal University) will organize a scientific session with the title Soil function and ecosystem services in a changing global environment. The session will participants from Europe, South and North America, China, and Australia. The objective of the session is to show the importance of soils in regulating and providing Ecosystem services in a global change context. For more information about the session please follow the link.
Positive evaluation on the mid-term report
We are excited to announce a positive evaluation provided by the reviewers to the LINESAM project mid-term report. A mid-term report closely describes all the activities and results of the project. It includes description of the implementation of the project, methodological criteria, as well as first results related to mapping and assessing ecosystems services in Lithuania. The reviewer positively evaluated the achievements of the LINESAM team and provided valuable comments on how to improve the future outcomes. Scientific questions raised by the reviewer are important for the upcoming case-studies and work on the future publications.
Special issue of the journal Environmental Research
Prof. dr. Paulo Pereira (leader of LINESAM project), Prof. dr. Damia Barcelo (Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICRA), Barcelona, Spain) and Dr. Panos Panagos (European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), edited a special issue in the journal Environmental Research (Elsevier) with the title “Soil and water threats in a changing environment“. In total 12 papers were published (including some review papers). Several aspects were considered, including the impacts of drivers of change in ecosystem services. For more information, please see the introductory paper here.
Message in commemoration of Earth Day
We live in the times when environmental degradation is being stressed as one of the major concerns in public and political levels. Prof. dr. Paulo Pereira, the head of Environmental management lab at Mykolas Romeris University (Lithuania), and the leader of LINESAM project, talks about the challenges to environment in commemoration of Earth Day. The interview can be found in LINESAM Youtube channel. Video produced and directed by dr. Marius Kalinauskas.
International conference on Mapping and assessment of ecosystem services: Challenges in a global environmental context postponed due to COVID-19
LINESAM team has observed and analyzed the situation regarding the outbreak of Covid-19 thoroughly. We hoped that the global efforts to fight the pandemic would bring prompt positive results and the forthcoming LINESAM conference could take place. However, due to the measures taken by the states in order to protect people’s life and health have made the holding on LINESAM conference on 1-3 July 2020 impossible. There are no guarantees that official ban on events, closing of national frontiers and disruption of international transportation will be revoked. It has been a hard decision. However, the safety of the participants is the most important. Therefore, we have decided to move the conference to calmer times. The new dates for the conference are 9-11 June 2021. The new circular will be released in October-November, and the registration will be reopened. However, we keep the presentations that we have already received in the program unless the participants inform us otherwise.
LINESAM project results overview with the ecosystem service stakeholders
On February 27th, 2020, LINESAM team presented the overview of the project results - mapped and assessed ecosystem services in Lithuania at national scale. The stakeholders from higher education institutions, and governmental sector discussed the progress in the field and talked about future perspectives for the ecosystem service theoretical and practical nuances. During the event prof. dr. Paulo Pereira presented majority of the services, such as groundwater recharge capacity, solar energy supply, crop supply and demand, landscape aesthetic quality, climate regulation, and others. Dr. Miguel Inácio presented his newest results in mapping and assessing wild seafood in Lithuania. Dr. Eduardo Gomes discussed the methodological nuances of mapping and assessing prediction models for drivers of change. Finally, dr. Katažyna Mikša gave a speach about ecosystem service legislative aspects and their implementation in practice at European scale. LINESAM team would like to express gratitude to Kristina Simonaitytė and other stakeholders from The Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania for organizing the event and providing forum for the wider discussion about ecosystem services.
Mapping and assessing wild seafood in Lithuania: New article from LINESAM project
A new article has been published from LINESAM project focused on the mapping and assessment of wild seafood provision in Lithuania. The work aimed at developing a quantitative framework to assess and map the potential, supply, flow and demand in Lithuania. The results identify coastal areas with a high potential for wild seafood provision, while the central part of the Exclusive Economic Zone is the area with the highest supply. The flow of wild seafood is higher in urban agglomerations and in the coastal areas, coinciding with the areas of higher demand for this ecosystem service. The results allow the spatial identification of high and low provisioning areas of wild seafood for all the ecosystem services components, which can be relevant for planners and decision-makers. The full version of the paper can be consulted here.
LINESAM project results presentation in the LIFE Ecosystem Services project conference “Value of Nature - practices and experiences in use of ecosystem services assessment”
On January 15th, 2020, prof. dr Paulo Pereira, the leader of the LINESAM project, presented the project results in a conference organized by association “Baltic Coasts” in Riga, Latvia. The conference was organized under the LIFE project “Ecosystem Services”. For more details see here. The status of Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystem Services was presented by different countries of Baltic region, such as Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The meeting was followed by a discussion with the participants that represented different stakeholders (NGO’s, government, researchers).
New article in collaboration with LINESAM project
A new article has been published with LINESAM project collaboration focused on integrating preferences and social values in local ecological management in China. The study was based on a Public Participatory Geographic Information System (PPGIS) approach and aimed to understand the ecosystem services perceptions of different stakeholders (e.g., Farmers, Government Managers/Experts, Company Employes) after a mega ecological restoration project in Xiaojiang Basin. The results showed that Farmers and company employees valued more Landscape beauty, while Government managers/Experts had a high preference for climate change regulation service. The full version of the paper can be consulted here.
Popular science article release on Ecosystem Services
The popular science publication was released on the basis of extended video interviews with the LINESAM project partners and stakeholders. The article discusses broad variety of topics that cover the concept of Ecosystem Service, its value to policy makers and general population, project resources presentation and more. The press release can be found in LINESAM website under “Documents” section. It is originally posted online in Mykolas Romeris University website.
Third Meeting at The Ministry of Environment
On 8th of November, 2019, LINESAM research team participated in the third meeting with the main project stakeholder – The Ministry of Environment. Project participants presented new and updated ecosystem service layers and discussed them with the representatives of The Ministry. Stakeholders provided valuable insights on how to improve some of the services with additional data. Also, a discussion took place about the accessibility of the data regarding future services. This was the first meeting with the stakeholders after a major layer update in LINESAM website. Related with that a broad variety of services was presented, including: Cultural and Natural ES supply, Outdoor recreation supply, Recreation demand, Carbon sequestration, Groundwater recharge, Landscape fragmentation (condition), Climate regulation, Weathering, Noise reduction demand and supply, Drivers of change, Wild seafood supply, demand, and potential.
LINESAM Special Issue focused on ecosystem services in a changing environment published in the Journal Science of the Total Environment
Prof. dr. Paulo Pereira, the leader of LINESAM project edited a special issue in the Journal Science of the Total Environment (STOTEN) with the title “Ecosystem services in a changing environment”. In total, 25 papers focused on terrestrial (e.g. freshwater, urban, agricultural, grassland) and marine ecosystem services at different scales were published within the issue. The editorial and the papers published in the special issue can be consulted in ScienceDirect website .
Ecosystem services in film. Spreading ideas to raise awareness.
Four short educational/informational films about the concept and importance of ecosystems services are accessible online in special LINESAM Youtube channel. First three films discuss different nuances of ecosystem services potential in national and regional scale, forest ecosystem services in Čepkeliai – Dzūkija PAN park, and urban ecosystem services in Vilnius city. The fourth film incorporates all of the topics into one narrative that explains the concept of ecosystem services, importance of marine services, exclusivity of forest and urban ecosystem services. All of the films are shot as interviews with the experts in the field and are purposed to spreading awareness about the concept of ecosystem services, and LINESAM project in general. The links to each film can be found in Media section of LINESAM website.
LINESAM contribution to the organization of thematic session in ESP world conference in Hannover
Prof. dr. Paulo Pereira, the leader of LINESAM project, participated in the organization of the session "Times are changing: temporal mapping of dynamic ecosystem services". The session was organized in cooperation with researchers from Estonia, The Netherlands, Germany, and Spain. The objective of the session was focused on how mapping approaches are able to identify temporal changes in ecosystem services. Additionally, services modeled by LINESAM project team were presented to international scientific community. More information about ESP 10 could be found in the conference website .
Major ecosystem service layer update
The major ecosystem service layer update has been launched during the September of 2019. Newly uploaded services visualize groundwater recharge capacity, cultural and natural supply, recreation demand, outdoor recreation supply, solar energy supply, landscape fragmentation, climate regulation, carbon sequestration, weathering, and others. All service layers can be accessed through "Layer" menu feature (under "Data") or directly from the main page. For full methodological description of required service, please click on "Metadata Detail" button in each layer individually.
New article has been published in collaboration with LINESAM project
New article has been published with LINESAM project collaboration focused on the urban and rural perception on provisioning, regulating and cultural ecosystem services (ES) and human wellbeing (HW) indicators in Yanhe basin, China. Overall, urban and rural communities valued very differently ecosystem services and wellbeing. For rural residents regulating ES are the most important, while for urban population provisioning are the most important. In relation to HW, inhabitants of rural areas valued more security and health and urban residents attributed a high importance to basic materials.
Internal meeting for future guidelines of the project
On 19th of June, 2019 an internal meeting was held by LINESAM research team. Project leader prof. dr. Paulo Pereira presented the progress on project activities and future objectives, as well as deliverables, that needs to be covered during the next phase of the LINESAM project. It was agreed that a major ecosystem service layer update is going to be made during the first half of autumn. Plans for conferences, publications and methodological choices for ecosystem service mapping were discussed and approved for the upcoming six months.
Second Meeting at The Ministry of Environment
On Tuesday 11 June LINESAM team held a meeting with the main project stakeholder – The Ministry of Environment. LINESAM team presented some evaluated ecosystem services: recreation, landscape aesthetics, weathering, flood protection supply and demand, solar, marine fisheries, mineral extraction (marine). LINESAM research team and the representatives form The Ministry have discussed data availability and quality issues, as well as future cooperation prospects.
Ecosystem services. Beijing Normal University - China
From April 16 to 30 of 2019, prof. dr. Paulo Pereira was an invited professor at Beijing Normal University (China) to give a course about ecosystem services. Approximately 100 students from all China attended to the course. The lectures included an overview of different ecosystem service assessment methods, tools and case studies, basic elements and principles of ecosystem services indicators, soil ecosystem services, sustainability, valuation and management, application of some ecosystem service assessment methods and tools and Mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their services enhancing ecosystem services mapping for policy and decision making. The results obtained and the methodology used in LINESAM project were shown in the lectures and discussed with the participants.
LINESAM course Mapping and modelling the environment at different scales
Monday, 08 April, 2019 between 08:30–10:15 am, LINESAM team organized the short course "Mapping and modeling the environment at different scales" at the European Geosciences Assembly (Vienna), with the participation of recognized researchers in the field of mapping and ecosystem services assessment. Approximately 40 students from all over the world attended to the course, and the room was full. Prof. David Lindbo (USA) from USDA talked about mapping soils at different scales and the need of technological advances. Dr. Panos Panagos (Greece) from the European Commission, gave some insights about the current practices and future research on mapping soil erosion in Europe and the associated services and disservices. Finally, Miguel Villoslada (Spain) from Estonian University of Life Sciences gave a speech about the methods used for mapping and assessment ecosystem services. The LINESAM team was very grateful for the excellent talks and the participation of the students.
Meeting at the Ministry of Environment
On 25th of February the LINESAM research team held a meeting with the representatives of Ministry of Environment and other stakeholders, in order to present the current progress in mapping and assessing of ecosystem services. Kristina Simonaitytė from the Ministry of Environment presented the concept of LINESAM project to the stakeholders. Head of the LINESAM project team – prof. dr. Paulo Pereira, discussed the first results of the project. He also demonstrated the original maps related with the project outcomes. Dr. Ieva Misiūnė presented the final list of the ecosystem services and summarized the comments of the experts from previous meeting. Dr. Katažyna Mikša referred to the ecosystem services of flood demand and supply, and suggested improvements of relevant legal acts. Dr. Marius Kalinauskas demonstrated the updated features of LINESAM geoportal and upcoming public announcement material. During the meeting the methods of ecosystems service mapping and assessing were discussed among the stakeholders. The LINESAM research team would like to express their gratitude towards participants of the meeting for their valuable contributions and to thank the Ministry of Environment for warm welcome.
European Geoscience Assembly (EGU) 2019
LINESAM team will organize a short course focused on "Mapping and modeling the environment at different scales" in the next EGU assembly in Vienna, Austria (7-12 April 2019). The objective of the short course is to present the most actual techniques of mapping and modeling the environment, including ecosystem services supply and demand. For more information follow this link.
Official launch of LINESAM geoportal
We would like to announce that the Lithuanian National Ecosystem Services Assessment and Mapping (LINESAM) geoportal is officially open for public use. This project is funded by the Lithuanian Research Council (No. 09.3.3-LMT-K-712-01-0104). The results of LINESAM (national and case studies) will be disseminated in the geoportal. The information will be available for public, researchers, stakeholders, policy makers consultation. LINESAM geoportal contains information about some base layers of Lithuanian territory and will be populated with ecosystem services and drivers of change layers during the project time. Information about meta-data, people, project, news, media, publications and other outcomes will be also provided in the nearest future. The geoportal users will be able to create maps with the layers available. We would like to remind that all geospatial layers and maps should be used with respect to copyright laws and regulations applicable to each data segment individually.
LINESAM first workshop on Ecosystems and Drivers of Change
The first experts workshop "Ecosystems and drivers of change" was held at Mykolas Romeris University on November 9, 2018. This workshop was organized under the project "Lithuanian National Ecosystem Services Assessment and Mapping", funded by Lithuanian Research Council (No. 09.3.3-LMT-K-712-01-0104). The event was organized by the Environmental Management Laboratory (MRU) and the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania. Experts from several Lithuanian institutions such as Klaipëda University, Dzukija National Park, Vytautas Magnus University, Nature Research Centre and Aleksandras Stulginskis University contributed to the evaluation and validation of the ecosystem services and drivers of change lists to be mapped and assessed in the LINESAM project. More information about the event available in MRU website.