Monetary Valuation of Flood Protection Ecosystem Service Based on Hydrological Modelling and Avoided Damage Costs. An Example from the Čierny Hron River Basin, Slovakia

Abstract

Flood protection is considered one of the crucial regulating ecosystem services due to climate change and extreme weather events. As an ecosystem service, it combines the results of hydrological and ecosystem research and their implementation into land management and/or planning processes including several formally separated economic sectors. As managerial and economic interests often diverge, successful decision-making requires a common denominator in form of monetary valuation of competing trade-offs. In this paper, a methodical approach based on the monetary value of the ecosystem service provided by the ecosystem corresponding to its actual share in flood regulating processes and the value of the property protected by this service was developed and demonstrated based on an example of a medium size mountain basin (290 ha). Hydrological modelling methods (SWAT, HEC-RAS) were applied for assessing the extent of floods with different rainfalls and land uses. The rainfall threshold value that would cause flooding with the current land use but that would be safely drained if the basin was covered completely by forest was estimated. The cost of the flood protection ecosystem service was assessed by the method of non-market monetary value for estimating avoided damage costs of endangered infrastructure and calculated both for the current and hypothetical land use. The results identify areas that are crucial for water retention and that deserve greater attention in management. In addition, the monetary valuation of flood protection provided by the current but also by hypothetical land uses enables competent and well-formulated decision-making processes.

A GIS-Based Spatial Analysis Model Approach for Identification of Optimal Hydrotechnical Solutions for Gully Erosion Stabilization. Case Study

“…The decision to implement the hydro-amelioration work included in simulation 3 is supported by the comparative analysis of all implemented simulations, being the most viable in terms of implementation-operation costs, as well as in terms of ameliorating impact on the studied ravine [50][51][52].…”

Using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to quantify the economic value of ecosystem services

“…This is explained by the large variability in the size of the basins of the reviewed studies (standard deviation = 227,709.18). The largest modeled basin was the Danube with 802,500 km 2 (Karabulut et al, 2016), and the smallest was the Cierny Hron River basin in Slovakia, with only 2.92 km 2 (Gallay et al, 2021). Based on these size values, the basins were categorized as large, medium, and small, based on the percentiles 1/3 and 2/3.…”

Flood Management Issues in Hilly Regions of Uttarakhand (India) under Changing Climatic Conditions

“…Additionally, the roots of the wetland vegetations stabilise the riverbanks and hill slopes by holding the soils. The runoff fraction reduces the vegetated buffer zones, and other natural processes such as infiltration, evapotranspiration, water storage in aquifers, etc., reduce the runoff fraction [69,70]. Thus, a large-scale NBS is ideal in extreme events due to its ability to make more space for water, hence reducing the risk through retention, slowdown, and infiltration [71].…”