Expanding Wetland Assessment Procedures: Linking Indices of Wetland Function with Services and Values

Abstract

As sessing Wet land Ser vices and Values Ex panding Wet land As sess ment Pro ce dures: Linking In di ces of Wet land Func tion with Ser vices and Values (ERDC/EL TR-00-17) IS SUE: The eval u a tion of Sec tion 404 per mit ap plica tions un der the Reg u la tory Pro gram of the U.S. Army Corps of En gi neers of ten re quires con sid eration of wet land func tions and the value of those func tions to peo ple. The Hydrogeomorphic (HGM) Ap proach pro vides a method for as sess ing the functional ca pac ity of a tar get wet land, but no sim ple, objec tive method ex ists for in cor po rat ing in for ma tion on eco nomic val ues into per mit de ci sions. RE SEARCH: Wet land func tions (e.g., sur face water stor age, nu tri ent and con tam i nant re moval, wildlife hab i tat sup port) pro vide use ful ser vices to so ciety (e.g., flood dam age avoid ance, wa ter qual ity improve ment, aes thetic and rec re ational ser vices). These ser vices, in turn, have value that can be expressed in ei ther mon e tary or rel a tive terms. This research is an at tempt to de velop in di ces of wet land ser vices and val ues that can be used to sup ple ment an as sess ment of wet land func tions. SUM MARY: This re port de scribes a gen eral approach, us ing readily avail able pub lic and pri vate da ta bases, to ex pand in di ces of wet land func tion to re flect hu man ser vices and val ues. It is in tended as a first step in the de vel op ment of a prac ti cal tool for as sess ing wet land trades based on ac cepted economic prin ci ples.

Review of valuation methods for mangrove ecosystem services

“…(Díaz et al, 2006;MA, 2005a, b;Layke et al, 2012;van Oudenhoven et al, 2012). This includes goods such as food-crops, seafood, forage, timber, biomass fuels, natural fiber, pharmaceuticals, geologic resources, and industrial products, services such as the maintenance of biodiversity and life-support functions, including waste assimilation, cleansing, recycling and renewal (Table 1) (Costanza and Folke, 1997;Costanza et al, 1998;Daily, 1997;Norberg, 1999, Eisfelder et al, 2011Busch et al, 2011), and intangible aesthetic and cultural benefits (Bengtsson, 1997;King et al, 2000;De Groot et al, 2002). According to the MA (2005a), ES are indispensable for both the natural environment and human beings.…”

Clear Creek Watershed Flood Risk Management Habitat Assessments Using Habitat Evaluation Procedures (HEP): Analyses, Results and Documentation

“…In the case of ecosystem values, the important risk factors are those that affect the possibility of service flow disruptions and the reversibility of service flow disruptions. These are associated with controllable and uncontrollable on-site risk factors (e.g., invasive plants, overuse, or restoration failure) and landscape risk factors (e.g., changes in adjacent land uses, water diversions) (King et al 2000).…”

Evaluating the ecosystem services and benefits of wetland restoration by use of the rapid benefit indicators approach

“…While there are many existing wetland functional assessment tools, they typically do not estimate ESs and benefits explicitly (for reviews, see Carletti et al [] and King and Price []). Some consider social benefits or values (Mitsch and Gosselink ; Turner et al ), in the form of a judgment regarding the “social significance” of each function, but these typically are not well‐developed measures and do not address wetland values in ways consistent with accepted economic concepts or practices (King et al ; Wainger et al ; King and Price ; Wainger et al ).…”

“…Recognizing the limitations of monetary economic valuation, indicator‐based studies have been used to assess the benefits and values of mitigation trades or compensatory restoration, in situations where wetlands are restored to compensate for losses due to development or environmental damage (King et al ; Wainger et al ; King and Price ; Wainger et al ; Wainger et al ). It is possible to use economic principles to capture important aspects of value without calculating monetary values.…”

“…In this study, we have outlined a systematic approach to compiling nonmonetary indicators of wetlands restoration benefits: the Rapid Benefit Indicators (RBI) approach. Existing work (King et al ; King and Mazzotta ; Wainger et al ; Boyd and Wainger ; Boyd and Wainger ; Boyd ; King and Price ; Wainger et al ; Wainger and Boyd ; Wainger et al ; Wainger and Mazzotta ; Olander et al ; Boyd et al ; Olander et al ) provided benefit indicator concepts and applications that we drew upon in developing the RBI approach. The RBI approach is intended to be used in conjunction with functional or ecological production function assessments and is designed to use widely available data and to be flexible in its data requirements and transferable to other ES and types of ecosystems.…”