Simone Quatrini


Last Name

Quatrini

First Name

Simone

ORCID

0000-0002-5036-5708

Organisational unit

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Publications 1 - 10 of 19
  • Developing a conceptual framework for interdisciplinary communication, collaboration, and integration: A structured approach
    Item type: Journal Article
    Zhang, Jialin; Salomon, Hanna; Huber, Martin; et al. (2025)
    Ambio
    Interdisciplinary research is essential to address the complex environmental challenges faced by social-ecological systems (SES). However, it is often hindered by difficulties in integrating diverse knowledge and perspectives. Conceptual Frameworks (CFs) can act as boundary objects, facilitating integration in contexts with incomplete knowledge, nonlinearity, and divergent interests. Yet, guidance on developing CFs remains limited. To address this gap, we develop a structured approach and apply it within a research project focused on enhancing the resilience of Swiss Alpine ecosystems. Our approach includes three phases: (1) defining boundary concepts, (2) developing a CF as a boundary object, and (3) using the CF as a boundary object. The resulting CF supports communication, collaboration, and integration across disciplines, advancing SES research that addresses ecological resilience and sustainability. Our approach can be used by other interdisciplinary teams aiming to develop adaptable CFs that facilitate knowledge integration across disciplines.
  • Identifying ecosystem service hotspots for targeting land degradation neutrality investments in south-eastern Africa
    Item type: Journal Article
    Willemen, Louise; Crossman, Neville D.; Quatrini, Simone; et al. (2018)
    Journal of Arid Environments
  • Challenges and opportunities to scale up the application of sustainability guidelines and voluntary standards
    Item type: Conference Paper
    Quatrini, Simone (2019)
    Proceedings of the Global Symposium on Soil Erosion 2019 (GSER19)
  • Promoting sustainable permanent grassland systems in Switzerland: lessons learnt from 20 years of policy-driven restoration efforts
    Item type: Other Conference Item
    Quatrini, Simone; Lieberherr, Eva (2019)
    SER 2019 Book of Abstracts
  • Policy Gaps and Diverging Perceptions of Effectiveness: An Assessment of Sustainable Permanent Grassland Management in Switzerland
    Item type: Journal Article
    Quatrini, Simone; Hunter, Erik; Tindale, Sophie; et al. (2024)
    Agronomy
    This article focuses on the effectiveness of the Swiss policy mix promoting sustainable permanent grassland (PG) management in the country. We used the Cascade Framework and stakeholder’s sentiment analysis to qualitatively assess propagation pathways for generating policy effectiveness in terms of PGs’ deliverance of ecosystem services (ESs), to ultimately enable sustainable PG management. We employed a mixed-method approach combining a review of governmental documents, formal policies and policy evaluations with semi-structured interviews with Swiss stakeholders. Through this analysis, we identified 16 policy instruments influencing PG management, including 3 regulatory instruments, 11 incentive instruments, and 2 informational instruments. Results showed that these instruments primarily aim to promote sustainable PG management by employing measures targeting the very structure and composition of the landscape. As such, we found gaps in the types of instruments employed, particularly in terms of demand-side policies, which can explain the poor policy outcomes in relation to a number of environmental quality objectives. In parallel, we found that most of the interviewed stakeholders considered Swiss grassland policy as generally effective, mainly because it was perceived as democratic. While this study focuses on Switzerland, its novel conceptual and methodological approach of using the cascade-framework for policy analysis can be applied to other biogeographical regions and socio-economic contexts. Our findings can improve the calibration of future policy instruments to enable land managers and grassland landscape users to restore or maintain PGs in good ecological condition, by targeting mechanisms that can ensure achieving environmental quality objectives while remaining democratically legitimate.
  • Initiating a standardization process to improve ecosystem services governance
    Item type: Other Conference Item
    Quatrini, Simone (2019)
  • Science integration and a participatory scenario process
    Item type: Journal Article
    Lieberherr, Eva; Dölker, Julie; Salomon, Hanna; et al. (2025)
    GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society
    Given highly engineered Alpine ecosystems with monocultures and channelized streams, this project proposes radical changes to enable increased ecosystem resilience and societal wellbeing. We propose to rethink 1. management by including ecological and socio-economic aspects and 2. research by integrating natural, engineering, and social sciences. In this inter-and transdisciplinary project, we develop qualitative scenarios as storylines for future Alpine watershed and forest management. These scenarios serve as parameters for, on the one hand, the biophysical modelling of ecological quality (biodiversity, ecosystem function, ecological integrity) in Swiss case study regions. On the other, we assess residents' preferences for the scenarios in relation to Nature's Contributions to People and aspects of justice. We thus use science integration and a participatory scenario process to enable integration across disciplines as well as co-create knowledge with stakeholders throughout the research process. While this approach facilitates working across disciplinary boundaries and includes stakeholders from the onset, it also comes with challenges: finding a common language across disciplines and engaging meaningfully with stakeholders takes time and simultaneously does not cater to the traditional metrics in academia.
  • Building on the LCA experience to initiate a standardization process for ecosystem services
    Item type: Other Conference Item
    Quatrini, Simone; Rugani, Benedetto; Inostroza, L. (2019)
    SETAC Europe 29th Annual Meeting - Abstract Book
  • The effectiveness of policies promoting sustainable permanent grasslands across five European countries (representing five biogeographic regions): Mapping, understanding, and key stakeholder perceptions
    Item type: Report
    Hunter, Erik; Johansson, Karl; Nybom, Jozefine; et al. (2020)
    SUPER-G (Sustainable Permanent Grassland Systems and Policies)
    The purpose of this report is to identify, map, and evaluate the most relevant European policies seen to influence permanent grassland (PG) management. To accomplish this, an interdisciplinary, crossnational team from the UK, Switzerland, Spain, Czech Republic, and Sweden reviewed over 50 in-depth policy frameworks. With direction from expert stakeholders and a review of the policy landscape, we identified the most relevant policy instruments influencing PGs across five different biogeographic regions in Europe (Alpine, Atlantic, Boreal, Continental, and Mediterranean). The mapping of each country’s policy mix was guided inter-alia by a ‘cascade framework’ to illustrate the entry points, intermediary actors, mechanisms and pathways through which policies deliver their intended effects on PGs. This entailed an in-depth analysis of publicly available government sources documenting the aims, objectives, targets, monitoring systems, outputs and outcomes of each policy instrument. In total, 24 policies were mapped using 50 different criteria, with 15 of the policies unique to the case study countries. This resulted in an extensive excel database of over 3400 unique cells containing rich qualitative data. The excel data were coded in a consistent manner across the country teams so that they could be compared, synthesized, and used to identify patterns in the policy mix and logic of intervention. We show, for instance, that across Europe, the dominant policy logic uses regulations and incentives to influence farmer adoption of desired landscape compositions. This directly influences, but does not guarantee, the range of ecosystem services (ES) that are possible from the landscape. At the same time, we discovered a lack of policies targeting consumer demand for PG ecosystem services and only a few designed to drive sustainable PG management by directly promoting the value of PGs with beneficiaries. To complement the policy mapping, stakeholders’ assessed the perceived effectiveness of the policy mix in each country. This evaluation included over 50 interviews with key stakeholders across Europe representing government, academia, farmers, and special interests, and covered perceptions of democracy, legitimacy, relevance, efficiency and impact in relation to the effectiveness of policies relevant to the management of PG. Our findings reveal generally positive perceptions of grassland policy effectiveness across Europe, with special interest groups being the least positive and governments the most. The in-depth country case studies reveal striking similarities, as well as differences between countries and stakeholder groups, which are illustrative of the problems, challenges, and barriers confronting policy effectiveness. We conclude this report by offering insights and policy implications. In particular, we suggest that the following four points are taken into consideration to improve the PG policy landscape: 1) Reduce complexity and administrative burden to make policies more understandable and accessible. 2) Require stakeholder involvement when developing strategic plans and assessing policy. 3) Encourage consideration of trade-offs between PG management and ES delivery, by designing policies to explicitly target the interaction between landscape structures and ES (or target them in parallel). 4) Encourage a balance of policy logic, by moving away from targeting farmers with regulation or subsidies to manage the landscape towards targeting consumer demand for ES (through information) and the value of ES (such as direct payments for regulating and cultural services).
Publications 1 - 10 of 19