A comparative assessment of decision-support tools for ecosystem services quantification and valuation

Bagstad, Kenneth J.; Semmens, Darius J.; Waage, Sissel; Winthrop, Robert

doi:10.1016/j.ecoser.2013.07.004

Cited by 600 publications

(446 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Ecosystems with their structures, processes, and functions provide different potentials for ES. The real value of ES for the welfare of the people is defined through the use of these services, i.e., by the presence of users in the appropriate scale (Costanza 2008;Fisher et al 2009;Syrbe and Walz 2012;Bagstad et al 2013). Consequently, the determination of the spatial scales of ES is important for ES management, for compensation mechanisms, and for the integration of values into the economy.…”

Section: Problems Of Scale Of Es In Russia and Estimation Of Providedmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As stated above, the conversion of ecosystem potentials to ES occurs through the presence of consumers at the appropriate scale: global functions are always current and relevant; interregional ES are realized when the population or economy of a neighboring region (e.g., at a lower altitude) avails itself of such a service; and local ES are only used by local people (Costanza 2008;Fisher et al 2009;Syrbe and Walz 2012;Bagstad et al 2013). Figure 4 shows the great heterogeneity of natural and socio-economic conditions of the territory of Russia.…”

Section: Problems Of Scale Of Es In Russia and Estimation Of Providedmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The current state of knowledge of ecosystems and ecosystem services in Russia: A status report

Bukvareva

Grunewald

Бобылев

et al. 2015

Ambio

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This paper focusses on a conceptual overview of ways to address a comprehensive analysis of ecosystem services (ES) in a country as large and heterogeneous as Russia. As a first step, a methodology for assessing the services for the federal subjects of Russia was chosen, i.e., its constituent provinces and similar entities, in physical terms. Russia harbors a great diversity of natural conditions and ecosystems which are suppliers of ES, and likewise a variety of the socio-economic conditions that shape the demand for these services and their consumption. The methodological approach described permits several important tasks to be addressed: the evaluation of the degree of satisfaction of people's needs for ES, the identification of ecological donor and acceptor regions, and zoning of the country's territory for ES assessment. The next step is to prepare a prototype of a National Report on ES in Russia, for which we are presenting the planned structure.

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Section: Problems Of Scale Of Es In Russia and Estimation Of Providedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Problems Of Scale Of Es In Russia and Estimation Of Providedmentioning

confidence: 99%

The current state of knowledge of ecosystems and ecosystem services in Russia: A status report

Bukvareva

Grunewald

Бобылев

et al. 2015

Ambio

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“…Consistent and transparent methods are vital so that, for example, all parties in a contentious permit evaluation process receive the same results and are able to see exactly how results were generated [19]. Flexibility and adaptability allow a decision-support system to remain relevant by allowing future incorporation of new water-management assets, scenarios, and locations for ecological assessment [51]. Translation of water-management decisions into ecological predictions is critical because, as described above, flow predictions alone are insufficient to evaluate water-management impacts on aquatic biodiversity.…”

Section: Toward a Useful And Ecologically Relevant Decision-support Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Putting Flow–Ecology Relationships into Practice: A Decision-Support System to Assess Fish Community Response to Water-Management Scenarios

Cartwright

Caldwell

Nebiker

et al. 2017

Water

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This paper presents a conceptual framework to operationalize flow-ecology relationships into decision-support systems of practical use to water-resource managers, who are commonly tasked with balancing multiple competing socioeconomic and environmental priorities. We illustrate this framework with a case study, whereby fish community responses to various water-management scenarios were predicted in a partially regulated river system at a local watershed scale. This case study simulates management scenarios based on interactive effects of dam operation protocols, withdrawals for municipal water supply, effluent discharges from wastewater treatment, and inter-basin water transfers. Modeled streamflow was integrated with flow-ecology relationships relating hydrologic departure from reference conditions to fish species richness, stratified by trophic, reproductive, and habitat characteristics. Adding a hypothetical new water-withdrawal site was predicted to increase the frequency of low-flow conditions with adverse effects for several fish groups. Imposition of new reservoir release requirements was predicted to enhance flow and fish species richness immediately downstream of the reservoir, but these effects were dissipated further downstream. The framework presented here can be used to translate flow-ecology relationships into evidence-based management by developing decision-support systems for conservation of riverine biodiversity while optimizing water availability for human use.

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“…Such methods, following the principles of open and scalable data, are also recommended for the research infrastructure development of environmental applications (Hardisty et al 2013;Dick et al 2014). Bagstad et al (2013b) reviewed a variety of available tools for the quantification of ES and found that many tools are not ready to be used for widespread decision making. One of their recommendations was that the data needed for the ES models should be better organized and more easily accessible.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

ESLab application to a boreal watershed in southern Finland: preparing for a virtual research environment of ecosystem services

et al. 2014

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We report on preparatory work to develop a virtual laboratory for ecosystem services, ESLab, and demonstrate its pilot application in southern Finland. The themes included in the pilot are related to biodiversity conservation, climate mitigation and eutrophication mitigation. ESLab is a research environment for ecosystem services (ES), which considers ES indicators at different landscape scales: habitats, catchments and municipalities and shares the results by a service that utilizes machine readable interfaces. The study area of the pilot application is situated in the boreal region of southern Finland and covers 14 municipalities and ten catchments including forested, agricultural and nature conservation areas. We present case studies including: present carbon budgets of natural ecosystems; future carbon budgets with and without the removal of harvest residues for bioenergy production; and total phosphorus and nitrogen future loads under climate and agricultural yield and price scenarios. The ESLab allows researchers to present and share the results as visual maps, statistics and graphs. Our further aim is to provide a toolbox of easily accessible virtual services for ES researchers, to illustrate the comprehensive societal consequences of multiple decisions (e.g. concerning land use, fertilisation or harvesting) in a changing environment (climate, deposition).

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A comparative assessment of decision-support tools for ecosystem services quantification and valuation

Cited by 600 publications

References 29 publications

The current state of knowledge of ecosystems and ecosystem services in Russia: A status report

The current state of knowledge of ecosystems and ecosystem services in Russia: A status report

Putting Flow–Ecology Relationships into Practice: A Decision-Support System to Assess Fish Community Response to Water-Management Scenarios

ESLab application to a boreal watershed in southern Finland: preparing for a virtual research environment of ecosystem services

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