Hydrologic ecosystem services: linking ecohydrologic processes to human well‐being in water research and watershed management

Abstract

Ecosystem services, the benefits ecosystems provide to people, and hydrologic services, the subset of terrestrial ecosystem services related to water, appear with increasing frequency in water resources research and watershed management. Linking biophysical function to human well-being is central to the theory of ecosystem services, so distinctive characteristics of research on hydrologic services arise from addressing the way people are affected by ecohydrologic processes. However, based on a rapid scoping of 381 peer-reviewed studies of hydrologic services, I identified only a small fraction that appear to effectively make the link from biophysical processes to people. In their abstracts, many of the reviewed articles use the language of hydrologic services but appear to be essentially disciplinary studies, accounting for either biophysical functioning or specific beneficiaries in their analysis, but not both. In addition to guiding research, the direct link from biophysical processes to human well-being makes hydrologic services an appealing foundation for watershed management. The hydrologic services framework has been used to assess conservation benefits, evaluate management practices, prioritize siting, account for externalities, and perform trade-off or cost-benefit analysis. Hydrologic services hold potential for novel research and effective watershed management, but challenges remain in executing interdisciplinary research and in addressing the idiosyncratic demands of local management.

Comparing two tools for ecosystem service assessments regarding water resources decisions

“…HESs are the goods and services that ecosystems provide to people related to various uses of water, and include water availability for municipal, agricultural, and commercial use, the reduction of the magnitude and frequency of flow peaks to prevent floods, the reduction of sediment and nutrients in water, and the value of natural hydrologic systems for recreation [Brauman et al, 2007; Keeler et al, 2012;Brauman, 2015]. Land managers use HESs to support investments and meet regulatory requirements around water resources in both developing countries [Goldman, 2009] and developed countries [Lautenbach et al, 2010;Logsdon and Chaubey, 2013].…”

Challenges in Using Hydrology and Water Quality Models for Assessing Freshwater Ecosystem Services: A Review

“…Ecosystem services related to water can take three forms: hydrological, aquatic and marine ecosystem services [17] as illustrated in Figure 1. They are provided by terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems, respectively.…”

“…Together, hydrological and aquatic services form the concept of freshwater ecosystem services. [17]. Aquatic ecosystem services are the freshwater ecosystems (rivers, lakes, wetlands) functions benefiting human beings.…”

“…The Hydrological Ecosystem Services are the functions of the terrestrial ecosystems (land) affecting freshwater that benefit human beings [18]. They are a subset of the terrestrial ecosystems services [17]. Aquatic ecosystem services are the freshwater ecosystems (rivers, lakes, wetlands) functions benefiting human beings.…”

Hydrologic Monitoring Plan of the Brazilian Water Producer/PCJ Project

“…On the one hand, ecohydrological processes [10] [11] [12] interact nonlinearly. These processes affect biodiversity and primary production, and define the river regime, environmental flows and hydrologic ecosystem services [13].…”