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Use and Evaluation of FCM as a Tool for Long Term Socio Ecological Research

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Fuzzy Cognitive Maps for Applied Sciences and Engineering

Part of the book series: Intelligent Systems Reference Library ((ISRL,volume 54))

Abstract

A halt in loss of biodiversity is an important issue in conservation management across Europe. As landscapes tend to be perceived as a combination of natural and social elements, and people’s values and attitudes, research supporting conservation management is dealing with landscapes as socio-ecological systems. As part of ALTER-Net, we applied FCM to five cases and subsequently evaluated the approach by means of a SWOT framework. This examined the strengths and weaknesses of, and the opportunities and threats to FCM when applied as a tool in conservation management.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Facilitators = interviewer that conducts a FCM session.

  2. 2.

    DPSIR stands for Driver Pressure State Impact and is a conceptual framework to describe the human impact on biodiversity.

  3. 3.

    These basic modes are: (1) Things, which are concrete natural elements, (2) Cosmic order, which is abstracting a systematic order from the flux of occurrences, (3) Character, which are the natural places related to human traits, (4) Light, which is the sun and its rays, and (5) Temporal rhythms, which are the seasons and time.

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Acknowledgments

The Authors want to thank ALTER-Net for funding the work on FCM and providing the network necessary to conduct this research. We would like to thank Riku Varjopuro, Finnish Environmental Institute, Finland and Ricardo Diaz-Delgado, Do\(\tilde{\mathrm{n}}\)ana Biological Station, Spain for providing information on their FCM case studies and sharing their experiences, and the participants of the Alter-Net FCM workshop, organised by NERI in Denmark, for their inputs and discussions. Furthermore, we would like to thank all the participants who took part in the FCM sessions for interesting input and perspectives

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Umweltforschungsinstitut, GLOBAL 2000, Neustiftgasse 36, 1070 , Vienna, Austria

    Martin Wildenberg

  2. FCMappers.net, Tokyo, Japan

    Michael Bachhofer

  3. NIRAS, Aarhus, Denmark

    Kirsten G. Q. Isak

  4. Department of Wildlife Ecology and Biodiversity, National Environmental Research Institute, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

    Flemming Skov

Authors
  1. Martin Wildenberg
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  2. Michael Bachhofer
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  3. Kirsten G. Q. Isak
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  4. Flemming Skov
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Martin Wildenberg .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Engineering, Technological Educational Institute of Central Greece, Lamia, Greece

    Elpiniki I. Papageorgiou

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Wildenberg, M., Bachhofer, M., Isak, K.G.Q., Skov, F. (2014). Use and Evaluation of FCM as a Tool for Long Term Socio Ecological Research. In: Papageorgiou, E. (eds) Fuzzy Cognitive Maps for Applied Sciences and Engineering. Intelligent Systems Reference Library, vol 54. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39739-4_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39739-4_13

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