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Activities and Outputs TWG 4

The organisation of Workshops/Thematic Working group meetings at the ESP conferences is one main activity of the working group:

> Submit your abstracts for our Thematic Working Group Session at the 9th ESP Conference 2017 through the conference website!

Several members of the Thematic Work group were contributing to the new Mapping Ecosystem Services book:

Several Special Issues related to mapping and quantification of ecosystem services have been edited in scientific journals by working group members:

Further activities include the development and support of project proposals, networking and the exchange of methods, ideas and data.

Related initiatives:
The blueprint for mapping and modelling ecosystem services
One further major activity and product of the thematic working group on mapping ecosystem services is to develop and to test a blueprint to give guidance on modelling and mapping ecosystem services. The primary purpose of the blueprint is to provide a template and checklist of information needed for ecosystem service modelling and mapping studies. Another purpose is the development of the ESP Visualization tool (ESP-VT; see below)  based on the information on methods and data used in previous modelling and mapping studies as reported in respectively completed blueprints. Although each study modeling and mapping ecosystem services has certain characteristics, the blueprint will help to reduce uncertainties related to ecosystem service assessments, helping to close the gaps between science, policy and practice. The blueprint has been developed by the thematic working group together with the “Modelling and Mapping Ecosystem Services” working group participants at the 5th Ecosystem Services Partnership Conference in Portland 2012. The results of the workshop and the analysis of the first worked out examples of the blueprint will be presented here soon, as well as the ecosystem service mapping studies data base.
Publication:  Crossman, N.D., B. Burkhard, S. Nedkov, L. Willemen, K.  Petz, I. Palomo, E.G. Drakou, B. Martín-Lopez, T.McPhearson, K. Boyanova, R. Alkemade, B. Egoh, M. Dunbar, J. Maes (2013): A blueprint for mapping and modelling ecosystem services. Ecosystem Services.

The ESP Visualization tool (ESP-VT)
The ESP-VT is an interactive knowledge platform that allows users to share information on ecosystem services maps, data and mapping methods. It is a joint initiative of the ESP Thematic Working Groups on Mapping and Modelling ES, developed and supported by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC-EC) and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) of Australia.