INtegrated Spatial PlannIng across REalms

Project title: INSPIRE: INtegrated Spatial PlannIng across REalms for biodiversity conservation and human development in a context of change Project description: European biodiversity is in decline, with can impact important natural services, such as pollinat ion, water provisioning or climate mitigation. Our best chance to halt and reverse biodiversity loss are the expansion and more effective management of protected areas and our natural resources, as also stated by European and Austrian policy goals. Existing protection efforts have largely been insufficient to halt biodiversity loss. There is increasing recognition that an implementation of the biodiversity policies needs adequate planning in an informed decision making process to identify which areas are best to conserve, improved in management or be restored. However, identifying suitable conservation management options requires navigating complex decision spaces, and most solutions have synergies and tradeoffs with other objectives. For example, while afforestation can be beneficial to certain forest-dependent species and provide benefits for climate and human health, it can also affect the ground water balance, be costly in terms of management and displaces other habitats that might equally or more suitable for an area (such as extensive grasslands). Management decisions should also be evaluated in terms of how they affect species, habitats and ecosystem services across realms (terrestrial, freshwater, marine) and in the context of anticipated future changes (in land use, economy and climate). Here, techniques and tools developed within the area of systematic conservation planning can assist in resolving such challenges and are able to highlight opportunities for different actions in a spatial-explicit manner. In the INSPIRE project we aim to develop a novel decision-support framework for prioritis ing management efforts across realms (terrestrial, freshwater, marine), while accounting for synergies and trade-offs in multifunctional and changing environmental conditions. Innovatively the project will consider diverse drivers across socioeconomic sectors to reconcile conservation and the sustainable use of nature at landscape scale. The INSPIRE project is a multi-national project with three case studies across Europe, each of which covers at least two different realms and trans-national borders, and which are also facing future challenges in terms of resource demand and climate change. Within Austria, we will spatial-explicitly explore different management options for the broader Neusiedl lake and Seewinkel catchment area up to 2050. The lake and surrounding area provide a variety of important services particular with regards to tourism and recreational value, agriculture and water provisioning. Neusiedl is also among the largest freshwater lakes in Europe, and in particular the Seewinkel Salz lacken provide critical habitat for many rare species and regularly harbour the largest concentrations of migrating bird species in Austria. Together with stakeholders from the region we aim to design a set of possible management scenarios for the region up to 2050 that aligns with the European Biodiversity Strategy and maximizes conservation and other sectoral benefits in the light of climate change. The result will be a series of spatial prioritization maps highlight ing opportunities for which areas could be best managed in what way to maximize future environmental and human benefits.