Mountains are sources of multiple ecosystem services, benefiting the welfare of
human populations. We performed a temporal analysis of the well-being in the
municipalities of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, comparing the welfare at two
points in time: before the declaration of the protected area (20 years ago) and at the
present. For this, we used data from 22 socioeconomic indicators belonging to eight
dimensions of well-being according to Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. For
each municipality we computed a synthetic indicator of well-being, using an
approach based on compound weighted indices (Bonet et al. 2015). The index
shows a significant increase in well-being for 94% of the municipalities analysed
(Fig. 16.9). These results agree with those found for an analysis performed at the
regional scale, where the increment in well-being was higher for municipalities in
protected areas than outside of them (Bonet-García et al. 2015). This indicates that
protected areas, in addition to acting as instruments for the conservation of biodiversity and ecological processes, generate ecosystem services valuables for human
populations.
16.10 From Monitoring to Action in a Changing World
16.10.1 Cross-Scale Interaction: Think Globally,
Act Locally
Long-term monitoring, data analysis, and policy-making can be put into practice at
different spatial scales. Cross-scale interactions arise when the driver and response
variables in cause–effect relationships operate at different spatial and temporal scales
(Soranno et al. 2014). Understanding these spatial and temporal scales requires the
creation of a “network of networks” (Peters et al. 2008) for observation, experimentation, modelling, and policy-making. Thus, we have devoted effort to establishing links between our monitoring programme and other similar initiatives. First,
Sierra Nevada is part of the Spanish LTER (Long-Term Ecological Research) network (http://www.lter-spain.net). This network provides access to analytical tools,
harmonized protocols, ecoinformatics procedures to manage the information and it is
also a network of networks working on ecological monitoring. Moreover, our site is
connected to regional (Andalusian Network of Global Change Observatories) as
well as national (Monitoring Global Change in National Parks) initiatives that share
this long-term philosophy. Finally, our site has participated in several EU projects
such as eLTER (H2020 project aiming to vertebrate the European LTER network
http://www.lter-europe.net/projects/eLTER), ECOPOTENTIAL (H2020 project
aiming to quantify ecosystem services using remote sensing http://www.
ecopotential-project.eu/), and ADAPTAMED (Life project) aiming to implement
real managerial activities to improve resilience in Sierra Nevada ecosystems.
406
R. Zamora et al.
human populations. We performed a temporal analysis of the well-being in the
municipalities of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, comparing the welfare at two
points in time: before the declaration of the protected area (20 years ago) and at the
present. For this, we used data from 22 socioeconomic indicators belonging to eight
dimensions of well-being according to Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. For
each municipality we computed a synthetic indicator of well-being, using an
approach based on compound weighted indices (Bonet et al. 2015). The index
shows a significant increase in well-being for 94% of the municipalities analysed
(Fig. 16.9). These results agree with those found for an analysis performed at the
regional scale, where the increment in well-being was higher for municipalities in
protected areas than outside of them (Bonet-García et al. 2015). This indicates that
protected areas, in addition to acting as instruments for the conservation of biodiversity and ecological processes, generate ecosystem services valuables for human
populations.
16.10 From Monitoring to Action in a Changing World
16.10.1 Cross-Scale Interaction: Think Globally,
Act Locally
Long-term monitoring, data analysis, and policy-making can be put into practice at
different spatial scales. Cross-scale interactions arise when the driver and response
variables in cause–effect relationships operate at different spatial and temporal scales
(Soranno et al. 2014). Understanding these spatial and temporal scales requires the
creation of a “network of networks” (Peters et al. 2008) for observation, experimentation, modelling, and policy-making. Thus, we have devoted effort to establishing links between our monitoring programme and other similar initiatives. First,
Sierra Nevada is part of the Spanish LTER (Long-Term Ecological Research) network (http://www.lter-spain.net). This network provides access to analytical tools,
harmonized protocols, ecoinformatics procedures to manage the information and it is
also a network of networks working on ecological monitoring. Moreover, our site is
connected to regional (Andalusian Network of Global Change Observatories) as
well as national (Monitoring Global Change in National Parks) initiatives that share
this long-term philosophy. Finally, our site has participated in several EU projects
such as eLTER (H2020 project aiming to vertebrate the European LTER network
http://www.lter-europe.net/projects/eLTER), ECOPOTENTIAL (H2020 project
aiming to quantify ecosystem services using remote sensing http://www.
ecopotential-project.eu/), and ADAPTAMED (Life project) aiming to implement
real managerial activities to improve resilience in Sierra Nevada ecosystems.
406
R. Zamora et al.