A GIS-MCDA approach to map environmental suitability of Posidonia oceanica meadows as blue nature-based solutions in the Mediterranean eco-region.

Autor: Ozkiper O; Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, University Ca' Foscari Venice, I-30170 Venice, Italy; CMCC Foundation - Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, Italy., Allegri E; Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, University Ca' Foscari Venice, I-30170 Venice, Italy; CMCC Foundation - Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, Italy., Bianconi A; Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, University Ca' Foscari Venice, I-30170 Venice, Italy; CMCC Foundation - Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, Italy; University School for Advanced Studies Pavia, Piazza della Vittoria 15, Pavia 27100, Italy., Pham HV; Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, University Ca' Foscari Venice, I-30170 Venice, Italy; CMCC Foundation - Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, Italy., Furlan E; Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, University Ca' Foscari Venice, I-30170 Venice, Italy; CMCC Foundation - Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, Italy. Electronic address: elisa.furlan@cmcc.it., Simide R; Institut Océanographique Paul Ricard, île des Embiez, F 83140 Six-Fours-les-Plages, France., van der Geest M; Wageningen Marine Research, Wageningen University & Research, PO Box 57, 1780 AB Den Helder, the Netherlands., Critto A; Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, University Ca' Foscari Venice, I-30170 Venice, Italy; CMCC Foundation - Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, Italy.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: The Science of the total environment [Sci Total Environ] 2024 Dec 10; Vol. 955, pp. 176803. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Oct 09.
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.176803
Abstrakt: The growing environmental risks induced by interacting climate and human-induced pressures threaten the survival and growth of marine coastal ecosystems (MCEs) and the ecosystem services they provide. Nature-based solutions (NBS), consisting of ecosystem-based approaches, have emerged as vital tools for climate adaptation and mitigation facing biodiversity loss and societal challenges. Identifying suitable environmental conditions for implementing Blue-NBS in marine coastal areas is a key priority to drive robust and cost-effective nature-based adaptation pathways. This study developed a suitability model for Blue-NBS, with a specific focus on Posidonia oceanica meadows in the Mediterranean Sea under a baseline scenario. GIS-based Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) was applied for data integration and prioritization of different environmental variables in geomorphological (e.g., depth), water quality (WQ) (e.g., salinity), and climatic (e.g., thermal stress) sub-groups. Suitability classes and scores for each variable were determined using statistical distributions, ensuring a data-driven approach to defining environmental suitability. Variables' weights were derived from the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) based on expert judgment and then combined with scores to generate suitability maps for managing Blue-NBS on seagrasses. Depth was found to be the most dominant environmental variable, with shallow areas (e.g., Northern Adriatic, Gulf of Gabés) showing higher suitability. The southern part of the Mediterranean (e.g., Egypt) reported relatively low scores for both climate and WQ, while the Northern Adriatic had the lowest WQ scores. This study represents the first attempt to evaluate Blue-NBS suitability for seagrass meadows at the eco-regional scale with geomorphologic, WQ, and climatic variables, providing decision support for the selection and allocation of Blue-NBS in different environmental settings. The resulting environmental suitability maps represent a basis for the integration of socio-economic and governance-related indicators into a more complex, multi-tier approach to support NBS mainstreaming.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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