A New Framework of 17 Hydrological Ecosystem Services (HESS17) for Supporting River Basin Planning and Environmental Monitoring

Abstract

Hydrological ecosystem services (HESS) describe the benefits of water for multiple purposes with an emphasis on environmental values. The value of HESS is often not realized because primary benefits (e.g., food production, water withdrawals) get the most attention. Secondary benefits such as water storage, purification or midday temperature cooling are often overlooked. This results in an incorrect evaluation of beneficial water usage in urban and rural resettlements and misunderstandings when land use changes are introduced. The objective of this paper is to propose a standard list of 17 HESS indicators that are in line with the policy and philosophy of the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and that are measurable with earth observation technologies in conjunction with GIS and hydrological models. The HESS17 framework considered indicators that can be directly related to water flows, water fluxes and water stocks; they have a natural characteristic with minimal anthropogenic influence and must be quantifiable by means of earth observation models in combination with GIS and hydrological models. The introduction of a HESS framework is less meaningful without proper quantification procedures in place. Because of the widely diverging management options, the role of water should be categorized as (i) consumptive use (i.e., evapotranspiration and dry matter production) and (ii) non-consumptive use (stream flow, recharge, water storage). Governments and responsible agencies for integrated water management should recognize the need to include HESS17 in water allocation policies, water foot-printing, water accounting, transboundary water management, food security purposes and spatial land-use planning processes. The proposed HESS17 framework and associated methods can be used to evaluate land, soil and water conservation programs. This paper presents a framework that is non-exhaustive but can be realistically computed and applicable across spatial scales.

Determination of Spatially-Distributed Hydrological Ecosystem Services (HESS) in the Red River Delta Using a Calibrated SWAT Model

“…Often these studies are, however, restricted to solving a few elements only, and they are applied in a local context where supporting input data are available. Ha et al [12] established a HESS framework presenting 18 HESS that can be measured to support river basin plans and environmental monitoring, categorized into Provisioning services (four HESS such as total runoff, inland capture fishery, natural livestock feed production, fuelwood from natural forest), Regulating services (eleven HESS such as dry season flow, total groundwater recharge, surface water storage, root zone water storage, sustaining rainfall, peak flow attenuation, carbon sequestration, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, microclimate cooling, natural reduction of eutrophication in water, natural reduction of (agro-) chemical in water, reduction of soil erosion), Supporting services (one HESS on meeting environmental flow requirements), Cultural services (one HESS on leisure). This paper touches base with 11 HESS indicators, which provides a more comprehensive picture than many other studies.…”

“…There are different analytical solutions to quantify the remaining HESS indicators. Ha et al [12] presented a framework of 17 HESS that could be measured to support river basin plans and environmental monitoring. Within this framework, HESS is categorized into Provisioning services (HESS1: Total runoff, HESS2: Inland capture fishery, HESS3: Natural livestock feed production, HESS4: Fuelwood from natural forest), Regulating services (HESS5: Dry season flow ("baseflow"), HESS6: Total groundwater recharge, HESS7: Surface water storage, HESS8: Root zone water storage, HESS9: Sustaining rainfall, HESS10: Peak flow attenuation, HESS11: Carbon sequestration, HESS12: Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions, HESS13: Micro-climate cooling, HESS14: Natural reduction of eutrophication in water, HESS15: Reduction of soil erosion), Supporting services (HESS16: Meeting environmental flow requirements), Cultural services (HESS17: Leisure).…”

“…While [12] defined a standard set of HESS indicators and pleaded for determination by means of earth observation data, not all of them can be determined from remote sensing measurements. Certain hydrological processes, such as base flow, environmental flow, and peak flow mitigation, need to be derived from a hydrological model.…”

“…This is the novelty of the paper as it demonstrated a methodology to assess terrestrial eco-hydrological processes and the translation into ecosystem services that are benefiting human beings in the Day River Basin, such as total runoff, natural livestock feed production, fuelwood from natural forests, dry season flow, groundwater recharge, root zone storage for carrying over water from wet to dry season, sustaining rainfall, peak flow attenuation, carbon sequestration, microclimate cooling, and meeting environmental flow requirements. It is shown that eleven selected HESS from [12] can be computed from a SWAT model that is calibrated with remote sensing data and that this methodology could become a routine effort to support the preparation of longer-term water resource plans.…”

Serviços hidrológicos em região de transição Cerrado-Mata Atlântica

“…Foram analisados três serviços hidrológicos a partir dos processos hidrológicos medidos em campo e os respectivos indicadores de funções adotados. Os indicadores de serviços selecionados foram utilizados em estudos semelhantes com diferentes tipos de medição (Brogna et al, 2017;Casagrande et al, 2021;Ha et al, 2023;Togbévi et al, 2020;van Meerveld et al, 2021). A diferença entre a precipitação (P) e a evapotranspiração (ET) pode indicar a regulação do fluxo de água pela floresta e, portanto, a quantidade de água superficial e subterrânea disponível para uso humano (provisão de água), direto ou indireto, e a sazonalidade da disponibilidade de água ao longo do ano (regulação hídrica).…”