Local perception of ecosystem service bundles in the Kushiro watershed, Northern Japan - Application of a public participation GIS tool

The sociocultural approach attempts to compensate for values that tend to be obscured by economic valuations of ecosystem services. GIS-based public participation tools are expected to be useful to include public perception into the ecosystem assessments, but there are still problems transforming qualitative information into quantitative values in practical use. This study evaluated stakeholders' subjective valuations of ecosystem service bundles in relation to biophysical and socioeconomic factors in a subject-applicable study area. A mail-based survey was conducted by sending questionnaires to communities in the Kushiro watershed, northern Japan. The respondents were asked to allocate a virtual fund to 10 individual ecosystem services for potential land management and indicate the locations corresponding to their preferred management measures on a provided map. Respondents highly valued provisioning and cultural services, followed by regulating and supporting services. The results of Tobit models indicated the correlational influence of respondents' characteristics and familiarity with the surrounding environment. In addition, the results of a spatial analysis depicted a considerable degree of spatial heterogeneity in the distribution of the perceived values in relation to landscape structures. Thus, social values of ecosystem service bundles should be analyzed from the perspectives of diverse stakeholders representing a variety of socioecological contexts.