Our researcher Manuel Pacheco-Romero, currently on a postdoctoral stay at the Social-Ecological Systems Institute of the Leuphana University of Lüneburg (Germany), has just published an article entitled "A data-driven methodological routine to identify key indicators for social-ecological system archetype mapping" in the journal Environmental Research Letters, together with the researchers María Vallejos (INIA-Uruguay), José Paruelo (University of Buenos Aires), Domingo Alcaraz-Segura (UGR), M. Trinidad Torres-García, María J. Salinas-Bonillo and Javier Cabello (CAESCG-UAL).
The mapping of typologies (or archetypes) of social-ecological systems makes it possible to identify areas that share social, ecological and human-nature interaction characteristics. It is a fundamental approach in sustainability sciences that aims to guide a more integrated territorial management that considers the interdependence between human and natural systems.
Through this study, Pacheco and collaborators propose a methodology that facilitates a more objective identification of relevant indicators for mapping social-ecological systems.
As a proof of concept, they applied this methodology in Andalusia, where they identified 29 key indicators that allowed them to delimit and characterize 15 social-ecological systems. Overall, this approach contributes to producing more comparable and generalizable empirical knowledge on the factors that determine the distribution and dynamics of social-ecological systems across different contexts and scales.
Congratulations Manuel Pacheco and authors for this enriching work.
The article is open access and can be accessed at the following link.