An approach to mapping the potential of cultural agroecosystem services

A system for evaluating outdoor recreation as a cultural agroecosystem service is presented. Every agroecosystem presumably has the potential for providing some kind of outdoor recreation. Two approaches to mapping the recreation potential were used and compared - the Social Values for Ecosystem Services (SolVES) model and the regional model (RegMOD). From the possibilities of recreation activities, hiking, biking, and cross-country skiing were chosen. The comparison of the two approaches showed that the RegMOD incorporates a wider range of categories than the SolVES model, particularly for hiking. The robust character of the SolVES model is reflected by narrowing the spectrum of categories of this recreation activity. The differences in the map view are marked in the case of biking and cross-country skiing. Overall, the grasslands of the study area in Slovakia offer mainly medium relevant capacity (53.90% by the results of the SolVES, 64.90% by the results of the RegMOD) for providing selected outdoor recreation activities. The less productive (53.88% of all non-productive grasslands by the results of the SolVES, 48.00% by the results of the RegMOD) and non-productive grasslands represent a higher relevant capacity (41.18% of all non-productive grasslands by the results of the SolVES, 54.40% by the results of the RegMOD) for providing outdoor recreation activities. This brings about a new view of their management as well as use. The RegMOD developed in this paper is replicable and could be applied by managers mainly at the regional level on condition of their proficiency in geographical information systems.