Indicators for biodiversity and ecosystem services: towards an improved framework for ecosystems assessment

Abstract

Ecosystem assessment and monitoring requires the development and application of suitable indicators, i.e. they need to be (i) reliable and capable of simplifying complex relationships, (ii) quantifiable and transparent in order to enable an easy communication, and (iii) fit for the purpose of indication. These requirements are scarcely fulfilled in current ecosystem assessment and monitoring efforts to address the requirements of international biodiversity conventions. Here we present and test a set of seven criteria towards an improved framework for ecosystems indication with particular emphasis on the indication of biodiversity and ecosystem services: purpose of indication, indicator type according to the EEA's Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response scheme, direct/indirect linkages to biodiversity and ecosystem services, spatial scale and scalability across scales, applicability of benchmarks/reference values, availability of data and protocols, and applicability of remote sensing. The criteria are tested using 24 indicators of ecosystem assessment and monitoring at the global, continental and regional scale. Based on the general trends revealed by our evaluation, we present recommendations to streamline and improve ecosystem indication with respect to international biodiversity conventions. The implementation of our recommendations does require concerted international effort, comparable, for instance, to the implementation of the Water Framework Directive in Europe.

Sustainable Development in China’s Coastal Area: Based on the Driver-Pressure-State-Welfare-Response Framework and the Data Envelopment Analysis Model

“…The DPSIR framework has been widely applied to structure information and identifying important relationships [28], due to its ability to capture the cause-effect relationships among the sectors of social, economic, and environmental systems [29][30][31][32][33]. Although the DPSIR framework has been applied to many parameters, defects have gradually emerged.…”

The role of remote sensing in the development of SMART indicators for ecosystem services assessment

“…Scientists often discover that certain ecosystem services are provided by a small number of species or a functional group of species rather than by the whole diversity present in that ecosystem (Luck et al 2009). Feld et al (2010) have defined seven criteria to assess the general suitability of existing indicators of biodiversity and ecosystem services (Table 2). These criteria provide a checklist for indicator development and testing, which, if applied consistently, can help assist the development and application of indicators of biological relevance across multiple spatial scales.…”

“…As a result, it remains difficult to assess and quantify the extent and abundance of species or habitat type necessary to maintain sufficient levels of ecosystem services to support human well-being in a sustainable manner (Luck et al, 2009). It is crucial, therefore, to develop a suite of indicators of the health and status of ecosystems, to monitor and quantify services delivery and to facilitate policy responses to stop and reverse negative trends (Feld et al, 2010). An effective framework to facilitate the development of suitable indicators is through using the SMART approach, which defines five criteria that could be applied to set management goals, which are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-sensitive (Shahin and Mahbod, 2007).…”

Coupling Intensive Land Use and Landscape Ecological Security for Urban Sustainability: An Integrated Socioeconomic Data and Spatial Metrics Analysis in Hangzhou City

“…The PSR framework could be highly capable of showing information to end users in a causal way by differentiating between causes, effects, and human responses to control the extent of anthropogenic impacts on nature [43][44][45][46], which contributes linkages among human activities (the Pressure), the state of the environment (the State), and the societal and economic responses (the Response) to environmental changes [47]. The framework is a hierarchical and holistic model in which indicators of social, economic, environmental, and ecological characteristics can be adopted.…”