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Ecoregions and ecodistricts: Ecological regionalizations for the Netherlands' environmental policy

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Abstract

For communicating data on the state of the environment to policy makers, various integrative frameworks are used, including regional integration. For this kind of integration we have developed two related ecological regionalizations, ecoregions and ecodistricts, which are two levels in a series of classifications for hierarchically nested ecosystems at different spatial scale levels. We explain the compilation of the maps from existing geographical data, demonstrating the relatively holistic, a priori integrated approach. The resulting maps are submitted to discriminant analysis to test the consistancy of the use of mapping characteristics, using data on individual abiotic ecosystem components from a national database on a 1-km2 grid. This reveals that the spatial patterns of soil, groundwater, and geomorphology correspond with the ecoregion and ecodistrict maps. Differences between the original maps and maps formed by automatically reclassifying 1-km2 cells with these discriminant components are found to be few. These differences are discussed against the background of the principal dilemma between deductive, a priori integrated, and inductive, a posteriori, classification.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre of Environmental Science, Leiden University (CML-RUL), P.O. Box 9518, NL-2300 RA, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Frans Klijn

  2. Winand Staring Centre for Integrated Land, Soil and Water Research (SC-DLO), P.O. Box 125, NL-6700 AC, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Rein W. de Waal

  3. Agricultural Mathematics Group (GLW-DLO), P.O. Box 100, NL-6700 AC, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Jan H. Oude Voshaar

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  1. Frans Klijn
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Klijn, F., de Waal, R.W. & Oude Voshaar, J.H. Ecoregions and ecodistricts: Ecological regionalizations for the Netherlands' environmental policy. Environmental Management 19, 797–813 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02471933

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