IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i3p1470-d490478.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

aquaZone: An Integrative Tool for Sustainable Fish Farm Zoning

Author

Listed:
  • Carina Seliger

    (Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystem Management, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, 1180 Vienna, Austria)

  • Melanie Haslauer

    (Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystem Management, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, 1180 Vienna, Austria
    Lower Austrian Chamber of Agriculture, 3100 St. Pölten, Austria)

  • Günther Unfer

    (Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystem Management, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, 1180 Vienna, Austria)

  • Stefan Schmutz

    (Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystem Management, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, 1180 Vienna, Austria)

Abstract

Aquaculture is the fastest-growing animal food production sector and is expected to become increasingly important to meet future food demands. As a landlocked country, Austria’s self-sufficiency rate for fish is rather low with 6% in total and 48% for freshwater fish. Therefore, and in order to enable sustainable growth of the sector while avoiding negative impacts on the aquatic ecosystem and other uses, we developed aquaZone, a decision support tool for sustainable trout farm zoning. Thereby, 30 spatially explicit criteria related to environmental prerequisites, land use, legal constraints and water quality/quantity were defined, collected and classified according to their suitability for sustainable trout production. Criteria were combined in an integrative GIS-based modelling approach in order to perform the first countrywide and spatially-explicit zonation of suitable areas for aquaculture in Austria. Thereby, 7920 suitable areas with a mean size of 8.2 ha located in 1129 out of 5011 sub-basins (23%) were identified. The decision tree assigned the highest variable importance to water temperature, slope, agricultural unit, geology, nitrate retention capacity, fish region, minimum flow and pollution risk. These results should support decision making of investors and authorities in order to avoid conflicts and stranded investments at an early stage.

Suggested Citation

  • Carina Seliger & Melanie Haslauer & Günther Unfer & Stefan Schmutz, 2021. "aquaZone: An Integrative Tool for Sustainable Fish Farm Zoning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-25, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:3:p:1470-:d:490478
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/3/1470/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/3/1470/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Schmidt, Heiko & Radinger, Johannes & Teschlade, Daniel & Stoll, Stefan, 2020. "The role of spatial units in modelling freshwater fish distributions: Comparing a subcatchment and river network approach using MaxEnt," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 418(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Schartel, Tyler E. & Cao, Yong, 2024. "Background selection complexity influences Maxent predictive performance in freshwater systems," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 488(C).
    2. Ping He & Yu Gao & Longfei Guo & Tongtong Huo & Yuxin Li & Xingren Zhang & Yunfeng Li & Cheng Peng & Fanyun Meng, 2021. "Evaluating the Disaster Risk of the COVID-19 Pandemic Using an Ecological Niche Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-23, October.
    3. Keretz, Shay S. & Woolnough, Daelyn A. & Morris, Todd J. & Roseman, Edward F. & Zanatta, David T., 2024. "Habitat modelling of native freshwater mussels distinguishes river specific differences in the Detroit and St. Clair rivers of the Laurentian Great Lakes," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 487(C).
    4. Arayaselassie Abebe Semu & Tamrat Bekele & Ermias Lulekal & Paloma Cariñanos & Sileshi Nemomissa, 2021. "Projected Impact of Climate Change on Habitat Suitability of a Vulnerable Endemic Vachellia negrii (pic.serm.) kyal. & Boatwr (Fabaceae) in Ethiopia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-16, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:3:p:1470-:d:490478. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.