Physical landscape associations with mapped ecosystem values with implications for spatial value transfer: An empirical study from Norway

The identification of spatial associations between perceived ecosystem values and physical landscapes is confronted by a diversity of mapping methods, heterogeneous human populations, and variability in physical landscape classification systems. This study reviews previous research on spatial associations and reports new empirical findings from Norway to describe the potential for spatial “value transfer” methods that extrapolate ecosystem values to other locations. Public participation GIS (PPGIS) survey methods were implemented in two separate study areas in Norway to identify ecosystem values and to analyze their spatial association with land cover data. The ecosystem value associations with land cover were generally consistent with global findings reported elsewhere, with forested areas providing multiple ecosystem “bundles” supporting both recreation-related and provisioning values. Alternative value transfer methods were demonstrated using recreation value to compare actual with predicted distributions using land cover indices derived from value proportions, deviations from expected distribution, and correlation coefficients with ecosystem value bundles. The use of simple ecosystem value percentages located within land cover classes provided the best predictive results for value transfer in this study. The limitations and potential for value transfer methods based on spatial associations between mapped ecosystem values and physical landscape characteristics are discussed.