Jiří Louda

The reflection of ecosystem services in environmental policy has recently become a key aspect in solving environmental problems occurring as a consequence of their overburdening. However, decision makers often pay attention predominantly to results of quantitative (monetary valuation) methods. This article explores a new way of combining quantitative and qualitative methods that has proven to be a useful practice for achieving better environmental governance. We combine the (quantitative) choice experiment method and (qualitative) institutional analysis as full and equal complements. In our approach, the goal of qualitative institutional analysis is not to verify the adequacy of willingness-to-pay results but rather to better address cultural and social perspectives of society representatives. Such an approach increases the robustness of policy recommendations and their acceptance in comparison with isolated applications of both methods. To verify this general premise, both methods were applied in the territory of the Eastern Ore Mountains in the Czech Republic to capture preferences and attitudes of local stakeholders as well as tourists towards small-scale ecosystems. The results confirm that preference calculations regarding aesthetic values of ecosystems need to be complemented with facts about institutional settings and barriers in order to better address locally relevant recommendations for decision makers, such as the introduction of new economic instruments (e.g., local taxes or entrance fees). The findings of this study can also be considered for governance of larger local, common-pool resources such as (public) forests or protected areas.

The quality of life in our cities critically depends on the intelligent planning and shaping of urban living space, in particular urban nature. By providing a wide range of ecosystem services (ES), urban nature essentially contributes to the well-being of city dwellers and plays a major role in avoiding common diseases through its positive impact on physical and mental health. Health is one of the most important factors underlying human welfare and is, thus, vital to sustainable development. The ES of urban green space provide other social-cultural functions alongside public health, for example by fostering environmental justice and citizenship participation. Thus, they should always be considered when searching for solutions to urban problems. The aim of this research was to determine the impact of green areas in three selected cities on the health and well-being of people by self-reporting of green areas’ visitors. To this end, we posed the research question: which types and characteristics of urban green space are most appreciated by city dwellers? Based on our findings, we have drawn up recommendations for practices to promote better living conditions. We have also pinpointed obstacles to and opportunities for leisure time activities as well as ways of supporting the public health of citizens.

Forest ecosystem services (FES) are considered as public or common goods facing diverging individual and societal interests affecting the quality of ecosystems and well-being of the communities. This may result in overuse, degradation or unsustainable behaviour, as well as it can create also barriers for cooperation, economic profit and innovative business initiatives. The paper introduces the methodological approach which is applied within six different innovation regions (conceptualised as social-ecological systems) within the InnoForESt H2020 project. Each region uses innovative approaches in governance of FES and payments schemes. They are situated in Austria, the Czechia and Slovakia, Finland, Germany, Italy and Finland. All are characterised by manifold, sometimes diverging, FES, such as timber, recreation, regulation services or education. In order to get a better understanding of the role and the impact of key innovation factors for the regions, we have designed a behavioural [lab] experiment in the form of a Role board game (RBG). The proposed experimental game builds on Cardenas et al. (2013) and Castillo et al. (2011) as an interactive agent-based model arranging for repeated interaction and learning in real-world situations. It contributes to testing the effectiveness of incentives provision for the sustainable production of FES and the acceptance of such an intervention by FES communities (Kluvankova et al., in press). The game enables the adaptation to the specifics of each innovation region but at the same time it keeps the same internal experimental mechanism which will enable the comparison across the regions. The main question to be addressed by the RBG is: How to create conditions to enable innovations in forest management/governance for sustainable use and well-being in innovation regions under the diverging interest of FES users? We plan to test combinations of key innovation factors as preferred future scenario for sustainable FES provisions in regions, including fundamental policy interventions (e.g. strict regulation vs. payments for ecosystem services scheme), business incentives and external risk factors. RBG will allow testing stakeholders’ specific behaviour for resource use, and innovation activities, to create economic incentive, knowledge and social value. We argue that this will help to set conditions for successful development of policy and business innovations in innovations regions and to foster collaboration on FES provision for sustainability among stakeholders in a long term.

Adaptation to climate change of cities is currently becoming one of the key points in the planning processes. Adaptation contributes to preservation/improvement of the quality of life and human well-being. It should be an integral part of SMART Cities. Implementation of adaptation measures frequently faces numerous problems, including insufficient awareness of manifestations of climate change or importance of different measures. On an example of the urban district Brno-Novy Lískovec, the paper demonstrates possible approaches that play a supporting role in planning and implementation of adaptation measures. To promote further development of nature-based solutions, the paper presents an economic assessment of existing measures, including an assessment of their benefits. The results indicate that the implementation of a park with a wetland in the densely built-up area has brought high social benefits greatly exceeding the costs.