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Assessing water ecosystem services for water resource management
Abstract
Ecosystem service concepts can offer a valuable approach for linking human and nature, and arguments
for the conservation and restoration of natural ecosystems. Despite an increasing interest in the topic, the
application of these concepts for water resource management has been hampered by the lack of practical
definitions and methodologies. In this study we review and analyse the current literature and propose an
approach for assessing and valuing ecosystem services in the context of water management. In particular,
to study the link between multiple pressures, ecological status and delivery of ecosystem services in
aquatic ecosystems under different scenarios of measures or future changes. This is of interest for the
development of River Basin Management Plans under the EU Water Framework Directive. We provide a
list of proxies/indicators of natural capacity, actual
flow and social benefit for the biophysical assessment
of the ecosystem services. We advocate the use of indicators of sustainability, combining information on
capacity and
flow of services. We also suggest methods for economic valuation of aquatic ecosystem for
each service and spatial scale of application. We argue that biophysical assessment and economic
valuation should be conducted jointly to account for the different values of ecosystem services (ecologic,
social and economic) and to strengthen the recognition of human dependency on nature. The proposed
approach can be used for assessing the benefits of conservation and restoration of aquatic ecosystems in
the implementation of the EU water policy.
Water and other resources are becoming scarcer every day, and developing countries are the neediest for an immediate intervention. Water, as a national need, is considered to be one of the main causes for conflicts in the 21st century. Peer-to-peer trading is one of the most convenient, scalable and sustainable solutions but faces organization challenges such as: the absence of suitable business models motivating normal users to sell their generated resources, currency and financial settlement complexities, and single utility markets. We propose a multi-utility trading platform, based on blockchain technology which can address the challenges faced by peer-to-peer trading. This platform meets the needs of developing countries in particular as well as rural areas of developed countries. The open nature of our proposed design makes it suitable for adoption and use by various stakeholders.
In this study we assess multiple benefits (environmental, social and economic) provided by a multi-purpose green infrastructure (a series of constructed wetlands surrounded by a park) in a peri-urban area, and compare it with the alternative grey infrastructure and with the previous situation (a poplar plantation). We apply a multi-criteria analysis as a basis for integrated valuation. We address specific policy needs (strategic objectives) for the local territorial planning in the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive. The analysis is used retrospectively (ex post evaluation) but our results could also be used prospectively to appraise new proposals of constructed wetlands under similar circumstances.
Riparian land supports multiple ecosystem services that are essential for good water quality and aquatic biodiversity, providing habitat and hydrological connectivity, and retaining pollutants and sediments. Riparian land reduces sediment fluxes in the freshwater systems by trapping sediments generated on the hillslopes before they reach the stream network, and by stabilizing stream banks. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of current riparian land in reducing sediment fluxes in the stream network of the Danube River Basin. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was used to assess sediment yields across the Basin and quantify sediment retention by riparian vegetation. Europe-wide spatial information on riparian land type and extent was used to set up agricultural to riparian land ratio and the streambank reach vegetation cover. SWAT sediment simulations for current conditions, i.e. including riparian land parameterization, were calibrated and validated for the period 1995-2009. The impact of riparian land was quantified by analyzing differences in mean annual specific sediment yields between scenarios without riparian land and current conditions. Sediment yield reductions and efficiency of riparian land were quantified at several spatial scales across the Basin, considering hillslopes, stream order, and administrative regions. The impact of riparian filtering in reducing sediment fluxes to the stream network at the hillslope scale was always positive, with median efficiency of 50%. Efficiency was higher where incoming sediment and water yields per unit of area were larger, and in smaller HRUs (areas lower than 10 km²). Sediment filtering in riparian buffers was more efficient in smaller reaches, and decreased from about 17% to 5% with Strahler’s order. Streambank protection was important locally in about 8% of reaches characterized by high stream power, where current streambank protection reduced potential sediment yields by more than 5 t/km²/y, and in large reaches, like in the Sava and Danube Rivers. At the Danube outlet to the Black Sea, the reduction in sediment yield attributable to current riparian land was estimated at 480 kt/y. Although riparian efficiency declined with spatial scale in terms of sediment yield reduction, filtering of sediments in riparian buffers abated in-stream sedimentation substantially. While occupying only about 2% of the Basin, current riparian land in the Danube Basin reduces sediment fluxes in river networks by about 8% regionally, and contributes to the improvement of the ecological conditions of freshwater ecosystems.
In the EU, the mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their services, abbreviated to MAES, is seen as a key action for the advancement of biodiversity objectives, and also to inform the development and implementation of related policies on water, climate, agriculture, forest, marine and regional planning. In this study, we present the development of an analytical framework which ensures that consistent approaches are used throughout the EU. It is framed by a broad set of key policy questions and structured around a conceptual framework that links human societies and their well-being with the environment. Next, this framework is tested through four thematic pilot studies, including stakeholders and experts working at different scales and governance levels, which contributed indicators to assess the state of ecosystem services. Indicators were scored according to different criteria and assorted per ecosystem type and ecosystem services using the common international classification of ecosystem services (CICES) as typology. We concluded that there is potential to develop a first EU wide ecosystem assessment on the basis of existing data if they are combined in a creative way. However, substantial data gaps remain to be filled before a fully integrated and complete ecosystem assessment can be carried out.
Identifying, promoting and preserving a strategically planned green infrastructure (GI) network can provide ecological, economic and social benefits. It has also become a priority for the planning and decision-making process in sectors such as conservation, (land) resource efficiency, agriculture, forestry or urban development.
In this paper we propose a methodology that can be used to identify and map GI elements at landscape level based on the notions of ecological connectivity, multi-functionality of ecosystems and maximisation of benefits both for humans and for natural conservation. Our approach implies, first, the quantification and mapping of the natural capacity to deliver ecosystem services and, secondly, the identification of core habitats and wildlife corridors for biota. All this information is integrated and finally classified in a two-level GI network. The methodology is replicable and flexible (it can be tailored to the objectives and priorities of the practitioners); and it can be used at different spatial scales for research, planning or policy implementation.
The method is applied in a continental scale analysis covering the EU-27 territory, taking into account the delivery of eight regulating and maintenance ecosystem services and the requirements of large mammals’ populations. The best performing areas for ecosystem services and/or natural habitat provision cover 23% of Europe and are classified as the core GI network. Another 16% of the study area with relatively good ecological performance is classified as the subsidiary GI network. There are large differences in the coverage of the GI network among countries ranging from 73% of the territory in Estonia to 6% in Cyprus. A potential application of these results is the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy, assuming that the core GI network might be crucial to maintain biodiversity and natural capital and, thus, should be conserved; while the subsidiary network could be restored to increase both the ecological and social resilience. This kind of GI analysis could be also included in the negotiations of the European Regional Development Funds or the Rural Development Programmes.
Keywords: The ecosystem–water–food–energy nexus Freshwater ecosystems services Mapping SWAT modeling European Union Danube river basin a b s t r a c t Water, food and energy are at the core of human needs and there is a boundless complex cycle among these three basic human needs. Ecosystems are in the center of this nexus, since they contribute to the provision of each component, making it imperative to understand the role of ecosystems in securing food, water and energy for human well-being. In this study we aimed to map and assess water provi-sioning services and associated benefits to support the ecosystem–water–food–energy nexus by taking into account environmental flow requirements for riverine ecosystems using the hydrological model Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). We developed a framework that includes indicators of renewable water (capacity of ecosystem to provide water) and water use (service flow) and we applied it in the Danube river basin over the period 1995–2004. Water scarcity indicators were used to map the possible water scarcity in the subbasins, and analyze the spatial match of water availability and water use. The results show that modelling is instrumental to perform the integrated analysis of the ecosystem–water– food–energy nexus; and that spatial mapping is a powerful tool to display environmental availability of water provisioning and regulatory services delivered by ecosystems, and can support the nexus analysis.
The development of the Water Framework Directive aimed to establish an integrated framework of water management at European level. This framework revolves around inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and ground waters. In the process of achieving the environment and ecological objectives set from the Directive, the role of economics is put in the core of the water management. An important feature of the Directive is the recovery of total economic cost of water services by all users. The total cost of water services can be disaggregated into environmental, financial and resource costs. Another important aspect of the directive is the identification of major drivers and pressures in each River Basin District. We describe a methodology that is aiming to achieve sustainable and environmental and socioeconomic management of freshwater ecosystem services. The Ecosystem Services Approach is in the core of the suggested methodology for the implementation of a more sustainable and efficient water management. This approach consists of the following three steps: (i) socio-economic characterization of the River Basin area, (ii) assessment of the current recovery of water use cost, and (iii) identification and suggestion of appropriate programs of measures for sustainable water management over space and time. This methodology is consistent with a) the economic principles adopted explicitly by the Water Framework Directive (WFD), b) the three-step WFD implementation approach adopted in the WATECO document, c) the Ecosystem Services Approach to valuing freshwater goods and services to humans. Furthermore, we analyze how the effects of multiple stressors and socio-economic development can be quantified in the context of freshwater resources management. We also attempt to estimate the value of four ecosystem services using the benefit transfer approach for the Anglian River Basin, which showed the significance of such services.
Progress in ecosystem service science has been rapid, and there is now a healthy appetite among key public and private sector decision makers for this science. However, changing policy and management is a long-term project, one that raises a number of specific practical challenges. One impediment to broad adoption of ecosystem service information is the lack of standards that define terminology, acceptable data and methods, and reporting requirements. Ecosystem service standards should be tailored to specific use contexts, such as national income and wealth accounts, corporate sustainability reporting, land-use planning, and environmental impact assessments. Many standard-setting organizations already exist, and the research community will make the most headway toward rapid uptake of ecosystem service science by working directly with these organizations. Progress has been made in aligning with existing organizations in areas such as product certification and sustainability reporting, but a major challenge remains in mainstreaming ecosystem service information into core public and private use contexts, such as agricultural and energy subsidy design, national income accounts, and corporate accounts.
The central challenge of the 21st century is to develop economic, social, and governance systems capable of ending poverty and achieving sustainable levels of population and consumption while securing the life-support systems underpinning current and future human well-being. Essential to meeting this challenge is the incorporation of natural capital and the ecosystem services it provides into decision-making. We explore progress and crucial gaps at this frontier, reflecting upon the 10 y since the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. We focus on three key dimensions of progress and ongoing challenges: raising awareness of the interdependence of ecosystems and human well-being, advancing the fundamental interdisciplinary science of ecosystem services, and implementing this science in decisions to restore natural capital and use it sustainably. Awareness of human dependence on nature is at an all-time high, the science of ecosystem services is rapidly advancing, and talk of natural capital is now common from governments to corporate boardrooms. However, successful implementation is still in early stages. We explore why ecosystem service information has yet to fundamentally change decision-making and suggest a path forward that emphasizes: (i) developing solid evidence linking decisions to impacts on natural capital and ecosystem services, and then to human well-being; (ii) working closely with leaders in government, business, and civil society to develop the knowledge, tools, and practices necessary to integrate natural capital and ecosystem services into everyday decision-making; and (iii) reforming institutions to change policy and practices to better align private short-term goals with societal long-term goals.
What can ecological science contribute to the sustainable management and conservation of the natural systems that underpin human well-being? Bridging the natural, physical and social sciences, this book shows how ecosystem ecology can inform the ecosystem services approach to environmental management. The authors recognise that ecosystems are rich in linkages between biophysical and social elements that generate powerful intrinsic dynamics. Unlike traditional reductionist approaches, the holistic perspective adopted here is able to explain the increasing range of scientific studies that have highlighted unexpected consequences of human activity, such as the lack of recovery of cod populations on the Grand Banks despite nearly two decades of fishery closures, or the degradation of Australia's fertile land through salt intrusion. Written primarily for researchers and graduate students in ecology and environmental management, it provides an accessible discussion of some of the most important aspects of ecosystem ecology and the potential relationships between them.
Ecosystem characteristics and processes provide significant value to human health and well-being, and there is growing interest in quantifying those values. Of particular interest are water-related ecosystem services and the incorporation of their value into local and regional decision-making. This presents multiple challenges and opportunities to the hydrologic modeling community. To motivate advances in water-resources research, we first present three common decision contexts that draw upon an ecosystem-service framework: scenario analysis, payments for watershed services, and spatial planning. Within these contexts, we highlight the particular challenges to hydrologic modeling, and then present a set of opportunities that arise from ecosystem-service decisions. The paper concludes with a set of recommendations regarding how we can prioritize our work to support decisions based on ecosystem-service valuation.
The second MAES report presents indicators that can be used at European and
Member State's level to map and assess biodiversity, ecosystem condition and
ecosystem services according to the Common International Classification of
Ecosystem Services (CICES v4.3).
This work is based on a review of data and indicators available at national and
European level and is applying the MAES analytical framework adopted in 2013.
Riparian zones, transitional environments between terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems, have been historically threatened in Europe by land reclamation and exploitation of their natural resources. These fragile environments deliver a large number of ecological and societal services, while simultaneously playing a key role in the maintenance of biodiversity in fragmented landscapes. At large scales, one of the clearest and most informative indicators of alteration of state and characteristics of ecological systems is land-cover change. A newly available European riparian zone distribution dataset and continental land-cover change information, allowed us to obtain an unprecedented continental overview of riparian land conversion and associated drivers, as well as a broad indication of their loss of capacity to provide ecosystem services. The analysis shows that only 1.8% of riparian zones experienced land-cover changes in the period 2000–2006. The majority of riparian changes involved forest loss and forest regrowth due to forestry activities and, to a lesser extent, to fires. Approximately 9% of land-cover changes involved conversion to artificial and agricultural surface, with trajectories largely affecting their ecological integrity. Using land-cover proxy-based indicators we show that the loss of riparian zones’ capacity to support ecological integrity and ecosystem services was overall significantly higher than the proportion of converted surface. The methodological approach can be used to support the assessment of environmental policy targets, and for regional planning and management of riparian zones.
To enter widespread use, ecosystem service assessments need to be quantifiable, replicable, credible, flexible, and affordable. With recent growth in the field of ecosystem services, a variety of decision-support tools has emerged to support more systematic ecosystem services assessment. Despite the growing complexity of the tool landscape, thorough reviews of tools for identifying, assessing, modeling and in some cases monetarily valuing ecosystem services have generally been lacking. In this study, we describe 17 ecosystem services tools and rate their performance against eight evaluative criteria that gauge their readiness for widespread application in public- and private-sector decision making. We describe each of the tools′ intended uses, services modeled, analytical approaches, data requirements, and outputs, as well time requirements to run seven tools in a first comparative concurrent application of multiple tools to a common location – the San Pedro River watershed in southeast Arizona, USA, and northern Sonora, Mexico. Based on this work, we offer conclusions about these tools′ current ‘readiness’ for widespread application within both public- and private-sector decision making processes. Finally, we describe potential pathways forward to reduce the resource requirements for running ecosystem services models, which are essential to facilitate their more widespread use in environmental decision making.
This TEEB for Water and Wetlands report underlines the fundamental importance of wetlands in the water cycle and in addressing water objectives reflected in the Rio+20 agreement, the Millennium Development Goals and forthcoming post 2015 Sustainable Development Goals. The report presents insights on both critical water-related ecosystem services and also on the wider ecosystem services from wetlands, in order to encourage additional policy momentum, business commitment, and investment in the conservation,
restoration, and wise use of wetlands.
While technological progress has fostered the conception of an urban society that is increasingly decoupled from ecosystems, demands on natural capital and ecosystem services keep increasing steadily in our urbanized planet. Decoupling of cities from ecological systems can only occur locally and partially, thanks to the appropriation of vast areas of ecosystem services provision beyond the city boundaries. Conserving and restoring ecosystem services in urban areas can reduce the ecological footprints and the ecological debts of cities while enhancing resilience, health, and quality of life for their inhabitants. In this paper we synthesize knowledge and methods to classify and value ecosystem services for urban planning. First, we categorize important ecosystem services and disservices in urban areas. Second, we describe valuation languages (economic costs, socio‐cultural values, resilience) that capture distinct value dimensions of urban ecosystem services. Third, we identify analytical challenges for valuation to inform urban planning in the face of high heterogeneity and fragmentation characterizing urban ecosystems. The paper discusses various ways through which urban ecosystems services can enhance resilience and quality of life in cities and identifies a range of economic costs and socio‐cultural impacts that can derive from their loss. We conclude by identifying knowledge gaps and challenges for the research agenda on ecosystem services provided in urban areas.
The Portugal Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (ptMA) (http://ecossistemas.org) is analyzing the condition of ecosystem services in Portugal, recent trends in those services, available policy responses, and scenarios for the next fifty years, following the conceptual framework of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2003). It is a multiscale assessment, carried out at the national, basin, and local scales. The assessment started in 2003, published a status report after two years (Pereira, Domingos, and Vicente 2004), and will publish the final results in 2006. Of the thirty MA subglobal assessments, ptMA and the Southern African Millennium Ecosystem Assessment are the only two comprehensive multiscale assessments. As illustrated elsewhere in this volume, multiscale assessments allow the evaluation of the robustness and persistence of findings across scales and provide information benefits: more and better data, ground-truthing of data, and better analysis of the causes of change (Zermoglio et al. 2005). Here we present the findings that resulted from conducting ptMA as a mul- tiscale assessment and from itself being nested in the global MA. We start by describing how the different scales were analyzed in ptMA and how the MA framework was adapted. Next, we discuss how epistemologies were bridged within the assessment, including what barriers existed in the communication among experts in different fields, how the users interacted with the scientists, and how the scientists interacted with the local population in one of the case Chapter 4
Research on ecosystem services has grown exponentially during the last decade. Most of the studies have focused on assessing and mapping terrestrial ecosystem services highlighting a knowledge gap on marine and coastal ecosystem services (MCES) and an urgent need to assess them.
We reviewed and summarized existing scientific literature related to MCES with the aim of extracting and classifying indicators used to assess and map them. We found 145 papers that specifically assessed marine and coastal ecosystem services from which we extracted 476 indicators. Food provision, in particular fisheries, was the most extensively analyzed MCES while water purification and coastal protection were the most frequently studied regulating and maintenance services. Also recreation and tourism under the cultural services was relatively well assessed. We highlight knowledge gaps regarding the availability of indicators that measure the capacity, flow or benefit derived from each ecosystem service. The majority of the case studies was found in mangroves and coastal wetlands and was mainly concentrated in Europe and North America. Our systematic review highlighted the need of an improved ecosystem service classification for marine and coastal systems, which is herein proposed with definitions and links to previous classifications.
This review summarizes the state of available information related to ecosystem services associated with marine and coastal ecosystems. The cataloging of MCES indicators and the integrated classification of MCES provided in this paper establish a background that can facilitate the planning and integration of future assessments. The final goal is to establish a consistent structure and populate it with information able to support the implementation of biodiversity conservation policies.
A major strength of the ecosystem services (ESS) concept is that it allows a succinct description of how human well-being depends on nature, showing that the neglect of such dependencies has negative consequences on human well-being and the economy. As ESS refer to human needs and interests, values are to be considered when dealing with the concept in practice. As a result we argue that in using the concept there is a need to be clear about what different dimensions of value are involved, and be aware of ethical issues that might be associated with the concept. A systematic analysis of the ethical implications associated to the ESS concept is still lacking. We address this deficiency by scrutinising value dimensions associated with the concept, and use this to explore the associated ethical implications. We then highlight how improved transparency in the use of the ESS concept can contribute to using its strengths without succumbing to possible drawbacks arising from ethical problems. These problems concern the dangers that some uses of the concept have in obscuring certain types of value, and in masking unevenness in the distribution of costs and benefits that can arise in the management of ESS.
Global stressors, including climate change, are a major threat to ecosystems, but they cannot be halted by local actions. Ecosystem management is thus attempting to compensate for the impacts of global stressors by reducing local stressors, such as overfishing. This approach assumes that stressors interact additively or synergistically, whereby the combined effect of two stressors is at least the sum of their isolated effects. It is not clear, however, how management should proceed for antagonistic interactions among stressors, where multiple stressors do not have an additive or greater impact. Research to date has focussed on identifying synergisms among stressors, but antagonisms may be just as common. We examined the effectiveness of management when faced with different types of interactions in two systems - seagrass and fish communities - where the global stressor was climate change but the local stressors were different. When there were synergisms, mitigating local stressors delivered greater gains, whereas when there were antagonisms, management of local stressors was ineffective or even degraded ecosystems. These results suggest that reducing a local stressor can compensate for climate change impacts if there is a synergistic interaction. Conversely, if there is an antagonistic interaction, management of local stressors will have the greatest benefits in areas of refuge from climate change. A balanced research agenda, investigating both antagonistic and synergistic interaction types, is needed to inform management priorities.
The transfer of environmental values in time and space has increased rapidly with the widespread use of cost benefit analysis in project evaluation and regulatory assessments over the last three decades. The purpose of this volume is to take a snapshot of the research that is ongoing in the area of value transfer (benefit transfer). It includes papers by some of the most influential authors in the area, and covers the latest developments in the field. It will be useful for academics conducting research in this area and for practitioners in government agencies and ministries, as well as consulting firms.
Water resources globally are affected by a complex mixture of stressors resulting from a range of drivers, including urban and agricultural land use, hydropower generation and climate change. Understanding how stressors interfere and impact upon ecological status and ecosystem services is essential for developing effective River Basin Management Plans and shaping future environmental policy. This paper details the nature of these problems for Europe's water resources and the need to find solutions at a range of spatial scales. In terms of the latter, we describe the aims and approaches of the EU-funded project MARS (Managing Aquatic ecosystems and water Resources under multiple Stress) and the conceptual and analytical framework that it is adopting to provide this knowledge, understanding and tools needed to address multiple stressors. MARS is operating at three scales: At the water body scale, the mechanistic understanding of stressor interactions and their impact upon water resources, ecological status and ecosystem services will be examined through multi-factorial experiments and the analysis of long time-series. At the river basin scale, modelling and empirical approaches will be adopted to characterise relationships between multiple stressors and ecological responses, functions, services and water resources. The effects of future land use and mitigation scenarios in 16 European river basins will be assessed. At the European scale, large-scale spatial analysis will be carried out to identify the relationships amongst stress intensity, ecological status and service provision, with a special focus on large transboundary rivers, lakes and fish. The project will support managers and policy makers in the practical implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD), of related legislation and of the Blueprint to Safeguard Europe's Water Resources by advising the 3rd River Basin Management Planning cycle, the revision of the WFD and by developing new tools for diagnosing and predicting multiple stressors.
Good hygienic quality of surface waters is essential for drinking water production, irrigation of crops and recreation. Predictions of how and when microbes are transported by rivers are needed to protect downstream water users. In this study we tested the new process-based INCA-Pathogens model in the agricultural Loimijoki River basin (3138km(2)) in Finland, and we quantified ecosystem services of water purification and water provisioning for drinking and recreation purposes under different scenarios. INCA is a catchment scale process based model to calculate pollutant transfer from terrestrial environment and point sources to the catchment outlet. A clear gradient was observed in the numbers of faecal coliforms along the River Loimijoki. The highest bacterial counts were detected in the middle part of the main stream immediately after small industries and municipal sewage treatment plants. In terms of model performance, the INCA-Pathogen model was able to produce faecal coliform counts and seasonality both in the low pollution level sampling points and in the high pollution level sampling points. The model was sensitive to the parameters defining light decay in river water and in soil compartment, as well as to the amount of faecal coliforms in the manure spread on the fields. The modeling results showed that the number of faecal coliforms repeatedly exceeded 1000 bacteria 100ml(-1). Moreover, results lead to the following conclusions: 1) Climate change does not cause a major threat to hygienic water quality as higher precipitation increases runoff and causes diluting effect in the river, 2) Intensification of agriculture is not a threat as long as animal density remains relatively low and environmental legislation is followed, 3) More intensive agriculture without environmental legislation causes a threat especially in tributaries with high field percentage and animal density, and 4) Hygienic water quality in the River Loimijoki can best be improved by improving sewage treatment. We conclude that this catchment scale model is a useful tool for addressing catchment management and water treatment planning issues.
Estuaries are subjected to multiple anthropogenic stressors, which have additive, antagonistic or synergistic effects. Current challenges include the use of large databases of biological monitoring surveys (e.g. the European Water Framework Directive) to help environmental managers prioritizing restoration measures. This study investigated the impact of nine stressor categories on the fish ecological status derived from 90 estuaries of the North East Atlantic countries. We used a random forest model to: 1) detect the dominant stressors and their non-linear effects; 2) evaluate the ecological benefits expected from reducing pressure from stressors; and 3) investigate the interactions among stressors. Results showed that largest restoration benefits were expected when mitigating water pollution and oxygen depletion. Non-additive effects represented half of pairwise interactions among stressors, and antagonisms were the most common. Dredged sediments, flow changes and oxygen depletion were predominantly implicated in non-additive interactions, whereas the remainder stressors often showed additive impacts. The prevalence of interactive impacts reflects a complex scenario for estuaries management; hence, we proposed a step-by-step restoration scheme focusing on the mitigation of stressors providing the maximum of restoration benefits under a multi-stress context.
The dominance of “ecosystem services” as a guiding concept for environmental management – where it appears as a neutral, obvious, taken-for-granted concept – hides the fact that there are choices implicit in its framing and in its application. In other words, it is a highly political concept, and its utility depends on the arena in which it is used and what it is used for. Following a political ecology framework, and based on a literature review, bibliometric analyses, and brief examples from two tropical rainforest countries, this review investigates four moments in the construction and application of the ecosystem services idea: socio-historical (the emergence of the discourse), ontological (what knowledge does the concept allow?), scientific (difficulties in its practical application), and political (who wins, who loses?). We show how the concept is a boundary object with widespread appeal, trace the discursive and institutional context within which it gained traction, and argue that choices of scale, definition, and method in measuring ecosystem services frustrate its straightforward application. As a result, it is used in diverse ways by different interests to justify different kinds of interventions that at times might be totally opposed. In Madagascar, the ecosystem services idea is mainly used to justify forest conservation in ways open to critique for its neoliberalization of nature or disempowerment of communities. In contrast, in the Brazilian Amazon, the discourse of ecosystem services has served the agendas of traditional populations and family farm lobbies. Ecosystem services, as an idea and tool, are mobilized by diverse actors in real-life situations that lead to complex, regionally particular and fundamentally political outcomes.
Global sustainability challenges, from maintaining biodiversity to providing clean air and water, are closely interconnected yet often separately studied and managed. Systems integration—holistic approaches to integrating various components of coupled human and natural systems—is critical to understand socioeconomic and environmental interconnections and to create sustainability solutions. Recent advances include the development and quantification of integrated frameworks that incorporate ecosystem services, environmental footprints, planetary boundaries, human-nature nexuses, and telecoupling. Although systems integration has led to fundamental discoveries and practical applications, further efforts are needed to incorporate more human and natural components simultaneously, quantify spillover systems and feedbacks, integrate multiple spatial and temporal scales, develop new tools, and translate findings into policy and practice. Such efforts can help address important knowledge gaps, link seemingly unconnected challenges, and inform policy and management decisions.
Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Seagrass provides many ecosystem services that are of considerable value to humans, including the provision of nursery habitat for commercial fish stock. Yet few studies have sought to quantify these benefits. As seagrass habitat continues to suffer a high rate of loss globally and with the growing emphasis on compensatory restoration, valuation of the ecosystem services associated with seagrass habitat is increasingly important. We undertook a meta-analysis of juvenile fish abundance at seagrass and control sites to derive a quantitative estimate of the enhancement of juvenile fish by seagrass habitats in southern Australia. Thirteen fish of commercial importance were identified as being recruitment enhanced in seagrass habitat, twelve of which were associated with sufficient life history data to allow for estimation of total biomass enhancement. We applied von Bertalanffy growth models and species-specific mortality rates to the determined values of juvenile enhancement to estimate the contribution of seagrass to commercial fish biomass. The identified species were enhanced in seagrass by 0.98 kg m-2 y-1, equivalent to ∼A10,000 ha-1 have a potential payback time of less than five years, and that restoration costing $A629,000 ha-1 can be justified on the basis of enhanced commercial fish recruitment where these twelve fish species are present.
Costs and benefits of water restoration projects are not necessarily evenly spread out over the entire area affected by the project. The physical distribution of benefits is, therefore, an important parameter when conducting economic analyses of water restoration projects. Two particularly relevant spatial issues relate to 1) the location of the population relative to the location of the waterbody, and 2) the availability and characteristics of substitute water bodies.Based on a contingent valuation (CV) study of the demand for restoring Odense River in Denmark a spatial demand model which accounts for travel time both to the river subject for valuation and to potential substitute sites is estimated. It is concluded that the spatial distribution of benefits is unlikely to be homogeneously determined by a one-dimensional spatial model. Moreover, the results suggest that the effect of spatial issues on preferences varies between users and non-users. For non-users the spatial impacts from potential substitutes significantly reduce demand for improvements in Odense River. This indicates that focus on estimation of distance decay effects may be an important tool in relation to ensuring proper geographical delimitation of the population in a given context.
Many studies in the stated preference literature on environmental valuation do not include the effects of substitutes and distance in willingness-to-pay (WTP) models, in spite of the relevance of these effects in aggregation and benefit transfer. Heterogeneity in the availability of substitutes over space may cause multidirectional distance effects in WTP. As a result, disregarding this spatial heterogeneity may lead to biased estimators of the distance effect and associated WTP values (Cameron, 2006). In this paper, we demonstrate that distance decay is subject to significant directional effects which tend to be related to differences in the availability of substitutes across the study area. We apply a straightforward methodology to account for such spatial heterogeneity in choice experiments and assess the effect on WTP for improvements in ecosystem services in a lake district. We model distance-decay effects, whilst controlling for heterogeneity between users and non-users and non-use related WTP reasons. The directional effects result in significantly different WTP estimates, different market sizes reflecting the population with positive WTP, and differences in total WTP up to 32%.
There is growing interests among policy-makers in applying ecosystem services concepts to inform strategies that provide for peoples’ needs while sustaining ecosystems and maintaining biodiversity. Since many policy dialogs and decisions rely on metrics and indicators to communicate concise and relevant information, an assessment of ecosystem service indicators can help identify gaps hindering policy-makers from more fully adopting ecosystem service approaches. In this study, we present an evaluation of ecosystem service indicators compiled from over 20 ecosystem assessments conducted at multiple scales and many countries. Based on criteria used to assess the compiled indicators, the strengths and weaknesses of indicators for different ecosystem services are explored, and possible reasons for these patterns examined. We then outline some priority steps for identifying and applying indicators to improve the ability of policy-makers to more fully mainstream ecosystem service approaches.
Multiple activities affect the marine environment in concert, yet current management primarily considers activities in isolation. A shift towards a more comprehensive management of these activities, as with recent emphasis on ecosystem-based approaches to management, requires a means for evaluating their interactive and cumulative impacts. Here we develop a framework for this evaluation, focusing on five core concepts: (1) activities have interactive and cumulative impacts, (2) management decisions require consideration of, and tradeoffs among, all ecosystem services, (3) not all stressors are equal or have impacts that increase linearly, (4) management must account for the different scales of activities and impacts, and (5) some externalities cannot be controlled locally but must be accounted for in marine spatial planning. Comprehensive ocean zoning provides a powerful tool with which these key concepts are collectively addressed.
Freshwater ecosystems are among the most degraded and threatened globally. A need for systematic assessment of riverine habitats is thus well-documented. Riparian zones are especially important due to the large array of ecosystem and social services they can provide, while also recently gaining a major role in the new European biodiversity policy. In this context, the necessity to gather spatial information on extent, distribution and characteristics of the riparian zones is clear. This paper presents the development of a novel model to derive geographical distribution and basic characteristics of stream riparian zones in Europe, including both river-floodplain systems and the riparian networks of minor and ephemeral streams. A series of relevant descriptive attributes (water boundary, vegetation presence, land-cover, upland boundary and local geomorphology) is initially selected from the existing literature to describe the presence of riparian zones. Spatially explicit estimates of these attributes are obtained using available Earth Observation data and pan-European thematic datasets. Finally, the information layers are combined through an aggregation system that assigns a degree of belonging to the riparian zone class using two fuzzy membership functions to evaluate water influence and presence of natural vegetation, respectively. Riparian zones with no hydrological connection are also incorporated in by the model based on functional considerations. The distribution of stream riparian zones was derived and mapped for the whole of Europe at fine resolution. Modelled riparian zones extend for approximately 91,000 km2, considering the entire range of low to high membership to the riparian class. A characterization of land-cover types was derived based on Corine Land Cover 2000 data, showing that European riparian zones are strongly dominated by forest habitats. Accuracy assessment was performed using independent ecological datasets and visual validation, indicating that producer accuracy is equal to 84.5 ± 1.3% and user accuracy to 72.6 ± 5.8% at 95% confidence level. The proposed model and output can represent valuable information for large-scale research activities of riparian environments and to support national and supra-national conservation programmes.
This paper examines the welfare dimension of the recreational services of coastal ecosystems. First, we construct a global database of primary valuation studies that focus on recreational benefits of coastal ecosystems. Second, the profile of each of the 253 individual observations is enriched with characteristics of the built coastal environment (accessibility, anthropogenic pressure, human development level), natural coastal environment (presence of protected area, ecosystem type, marine biodiversity), geo-climatic factors (temperature, precipitation), and sociopolitical context. We then propose a meta-analytical framework that is built upon a Geographic Information System (GIS) and allow for the exploration of the spatial dimension of the valued ecosystems, including the role of spatial heterogeneity of the selected meta-regression variables as well as the spatial profile of the transferred values. The empirical outcome results in the first global map of the values of coastal recreation, which may play a crucial role in identifying and ranking coastal area conservation priorities from a socio-economic perspective.
During the last decades human activity has altered the natural cycle of nitrogen and phosphorus on a global scale, producing significant emissions to waters. In Europe, the amount of nutrients discharged from rivers to coastal waters as well as the effects of mitigation measures in place are known only partially, with no consistent temporal and spatial cover. In this study, we quantify the loads and concentration of nitrogen and phosphorus discharged in the European seas over the period 1985–2005, and we discuss their impact on coastal ecosystems. To support our analysis, a catchment database covering the whole of Europe was developed together with data layers of nutrients diffuse and point sources, and the statistical model green was used to estimate the annual loads of nitrogen and phosphorus discharged in all European seas. The results of this study show that during the last 20 years, Europe has discharged 4.1–4.8 Tg yr−1 of nitrogen and 0.2–0.3 Tg yr−1 of phosphorus to its coastal waters. We show that beside the North Sea and part of the Baltic Sea, annual nutrient exports have not changed significantly, in spite of the implementation of measures to reduce nutrient sources, and that the N : P ratio has increased steadily, especially in the North, Mediterranean and Atlantic seas. The response of river basins to changes in inputs was not linear, but influenced by climatic variations and nutrients previously accumulated in soils and aquifers. An analysis of the effects of European environmental policies shows that measures to reduce phosphorus were more successful that those tackling nitrogen and that policies aimed at point sources were more effective or more effectively implemented than those controlling pollution from diffuse sources. The increase of the N : P ratio could fuel eutrophication in N‐limited coastal ecosystems, reducing biodiversity and the ecosystem's resilience to future additional anthropogenic stress, such as climate change.
Among the main effects of human activities on the environment are land use and resulting land cover changes. Such changes impact the capacity of ecosystems to provide goods and services to the human society. This supply of multiple goods and services by nature should match the demands of the society, if self-sustaining human–environmental systems and a sustainable utilization of natural capital are to be achieved. To describe respective states and dynamics, appropriate indicators and data for their quantification, including quantitative and qualitative assessments, are needed. By linking land cover information from, e.g. remote sensing, land survey and GIS with data from monitoring, statistics, modeling or interviews, ecosystem service supply and demand can be assessed and transferred to different spatial and temporal scales. The results reveal patterns of human activities over time and space as well as the capacities of different ecosystems to provide ecosystem services under changing land use. Also the locations of respective demands for these services can be determined. As maps are powerful tools, they hold high potentials for visualization of complex phenomena. We present an easy-to-apply concept based on a matrix linking spatially explicit biophysical landscape units to ecological integrity, ecosystem service supply and demand. An exemplary application for energy supply and demand in a central German case study region and respective maps for the years 1990 and 2007 are presented. Based on these data, the concept for an appropriate quantification and related spatial visualization of ecosystem service supply and demand is elaborated and discussed.