Earth Observations of Human-Nature Interactions from a Cultural Ecosystem Service Perspective

Abstract

Reconciling nature conservation and cultural ecosystem services (CES) has become fundamental to manage mountain protected areas. The timely monitoring of CES opportunities at large scales is therefore a pressing need. We combined social media data and Earth observations (EO) into a multi model inference framework to assess CES opportunities in two contrasting mountain Biosphere Reserves in Southern Europe: Peneda-Gerês (Portugal) and Sierra Nevada (Spain). EO indicators expressing people’s accessibility to leisure elements and landscape visual-sensory characteristics appear to be effective candidates for the monitoring of attributes underlying CES. Our findings recognise EO as complementary tools to socio-cultural approaches for the evaluation of CES, aiding stakeholders in their management decisions focused on the resilience and sustainability of mountain protected areas.