Geography Engaged: Spatial and Temporal Dimensions of the Land Tenure-Ecosystem Services Feedback Loop

Geography Engaged: Spatial and Temporal Dimensions of the Land Tenure-Ecosystem Services Feedback Loop

This article is a nominally edited transcript of the conference presentation of the same name from the IGCT-GSCT Joint Conference 2020 held in Taipei on November 17, 2020. The goal was to link ideals that resulted from the 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) Project to field-based human-environment geographic research. Using a case study of land use/land cover (LU/LC) change in the Jiangning District of Nanjing, China during the years from 2000 to 2015, this article highlights the potential application of commonly used geographic techniques such as geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing for ecosystem assessment research. Developing effective assessment methods, at appropriate scales of analysis, is foundational to progress in applications of these cascading (nested) Ecosystem Services Assessment (ESA) or Millennium Assessment (MA) models. The ESA paradigm is dynamic over both time and space and underscores the potential of combining spatial-temporal GIS and remotely-sensed data with developing ESA models such as those imagined by the United Nations Millennium Assessment program. The article emphasizes the important contributions that can be made by linking GIScience to ecosystem services assessment research, while also illustrating the disconnects between available data, and the inadequate use of data, to generate holistic studies required for comprehensive MA model development.