ecosystem services assesment

​Characterizing and quantifying the value of clean water, recreational opportunities, aesthetics, climate change mitigation, and more

Purpose

Ecosystem services are benefits that humans derive from nature. Among the most highly valued ecosystem benefits are clean water, protection from flooding and other extreme events, aesthetics, and nature-based recreation.

These benefits are typically discounted or missed in environmental decision making and in underlying policies because their value is less visible than the prices of market goods like raw materials, energy, or land for development.
We make ecosystem service values visible, leveling the playing field with market values, and enabling stakeholders to connect the health of the natural world around them to the well- being of people and regional economies.

applications and outcomes

We have completed ecosystem service assessments in a variety of contexts. Our methods typically include mapping and quantifying ecosystem service flows in biophysical and/or monetary terms, as well as estimating how those flows could change due to changes in land use, land management, or environmental quality.

places and projects

Eastern U.S.

Effects of the Chesapeake Bay TMDL
Natural Gas Pipelines in the Mid-Atlantic, and Natural Gas Extraction in Maryland
National Forests in North Carolina
Roanoke River Basin (Coming Soon)
Laurel Highlands (Coming Soon)
Delaware Estuary (Coming Soon)

U.S. Midwest

Impacts of sulfide-ore mining in the Boundary Waters
Indiana's State Forests (coming soon)

U.S. West Including Alaska

 

South and Southeast Asia

Keep Hanoi Clean (Coming Soon) 

Cross-cutting

Case study: Ecosystem Water-based ecosystem service value of U.S. Wilderness Areas
A User's Guide to Ecosystem Services: Moving from Understanding to Action 
Payments for Ecosystem Services: Cases from the Experience of U.S. Communities ​

Resources

EcoValuator. We created  this QGIS plugin to help others estimate ES value for a region of their choice. (Currently we cover the conterminous United States. Full North American coverage is coming soon.) 
The National Ecosystem Services Partnership offers an excellent guidebook for U.S. federal agencies and others who want to put these concepts to use in their planning, evaluation, and resource management decisions.

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