Ecological and economic valuation of managed realignment sites, Humber Estuary, UK : benefits for society

The valuation of ecosystem services through economic methods has exponentially increased in last twenty years. However these studies seldom incorporate the specific influence of the study sites’ ecological development on the local populations’ economic valuation. The primary aim of this thesis is to ecologically and economically value the societal benefits provided by four managed realignment sites on the Humber estuary, UK. Choice experiment and contingent valuation interview surveys were conducted with local residents, eliciting their willingness to pay (WTP) values for both maintenance of their closest site, and access to it. Results from the economic valuation for each site were then related to their ecological status, to see whether these two aspects were interconnected. Generalised Linear Modelling and Decision Tree Analysis, as well as exploratory techniques such as Pearsons Chi-square, coplot analysis and principal component analysis, were employed to determine which explanatory variables, such as socio-demographic details or details regarding the participants’ interaction with the site, were significant influences on their WTP values. The main influencing explanatory variables proved to influence both WTP maintenance values and WTP access values in a similar manner. These included the distance that the participant lived from the site, the frequency which they visited, whether they had knowledge of the site prior to completing the survey, and their annual household income. Average WTP for maintenance values for the four sites were: £7.32, £3.13, £9.29 and £6.96. Average WTP for access values were: £4.64, £0.28, £6.20 and £4.43, suggesting that participants are willing to pay more for the non-use values that maintenance of the site provides, rather than use-values provided by access to the site. In addition, the sites with higher WTP values are also the sites which have a more developed ecological status, such as a wider area of vegetation coverage and higher diversity and abundance of fauna. Furthermore, the sites which offered supplementary facilities such as easier admittance for visitors through designated footpaths and disabled access, specialised apparatus for interaction with the fauna (such as bird hides), information boards or car parking areas; received a higher valuation from the local population than the sites which were difficult to access or had no facilities. These additional facilities are provided to enhance the participants’ ability to appreciate the ecology of the site, therefore results show that the sites with a more developed and diverse ecological system will have a higher economic value than those which have a less developed ecology. The findings have implications for policy makers in terms of future managed realignment site creation. The results suggest that public involvement at conception through to implementation ultimately results in a higher ecological and economic value of the site. This also encourages a higher visit frequency through creating a site which is not only effective in its management purpose but also has a complex ecological status and is ‘visitor friendly’

Indicators of scientific value: An under-recognised ecosystem service of coastal and marine habitats

Coastal ecosystems provide a broad range of ecosystem services, which can be used to justify habitat conservation. The cultural ecosystem services of coastal ecosystems are generally underappreciated, and this is particularly the case when quantifying their scientific value. We created a tiered set of indicators to quantify scientific value spatially, and tested them using the case study of the island nation of Singapore. We conducted a systematic review of research papers, book chapters, conference reports and academic theses produced across 10 coastal ecosystems in Singapore, including mangroves, seagrasses, coral reefs, beaches and artificial coastal structures. At least 656 articles have been produced on Singapore’s coastal zone, with 2201 unique observations, showing that scientific value is spatially variable along Singapore’s coastline. Novel indicators such as the Site Impact Factor are able to differentiate scientific value between sites. This method has shed light on an under-recognised, but important cultural ecosystem service, and is applicable to other spatially-bounded coastal, marine and terrestrial landscapes

"you just look at rocks, and have beards" Perceptions of geology from the UK: a qualitative analysis from an online survey.

In the last few decades, Geology courses, particularly in the Global North, have seen a decline in student enrolment. Geologists have linked this downturn to a lack of exposure to the subject at school and college level. This work seeks to understand the public's relationship with Geology and draws on over 5000 open-ended question responses to a survey disseminated in 2021. The survey asked both those who had, and had not, studied geology as a subject a series of questions in order to explore their perceptions of the discipline. Our findings indicate that individuals 'outside' of geology see the subject as old fashioned, boring, and environmentally damaging; simply the study of rock samples with nothing new to be discovered from; and with poor job prospects outside of the oil and gas industry. Geologists who responded to the survey paint a picture of a broad, interdisciplinary subject, with vibrant employability opportunities yet struggle to coherently and collectively describe this when asked, 'what is geology?'. In addition to the identified perception of geology as boring, and notions of poor employability being a barrier to prospective students, diversity and inclusivity issues are highlighted as significant barriers by those who study geology. Our findings indicate that both geologists and the geology curriculum need to coherently describe what geology is more effectively. We need to develop and better communicate the subject's interdisciplinary nature and links to critical societal issues, such as the role of responsible mineral extraction in the energy transition and the importance of geology in vital areas such as climate change science, water resource management, environmental conservation, and sustainable urban/built development. Finding new ways to show that, far from being boring, geology is a subject that can fundamentally change the way you see and interact with the world around you is of central importance to achieving this. Efforts to make the subject more equitable are also highlighted as being critical in creating a more inclusive and accessible discipline

Computational methods for predicting and understanding food judgment

People make subjective judgments about the healthiness of different foods every day, which in turn influence their food choices and health outcomes. Despite their importance, there are few quantitative theories about the psychological underpinnings of such judgments. This study introduces a novel computational approach that can approximate people’s knowledge representations for thousands of common foods. We use these representations to predict how both lay decision-makers (general population) and experts judge the healthiness of individual foods. We also apply our method to predict the impact of behavioral interventions such as the provision of front-of-pack nutrient and calorie information. Across multiple studies with data from 846 adults, our models achieve very high accuracy rates (r2 from 0.65 to 0.77), and significantly outperform competing models based on factual nutritional content. These results illustrate how new computational methods applied to established psychological theory can be used to better predict, understand, and influence health behavior

Chapter 3 Ecosystem Services and Disservices of Mangrove Forests and Salt Marshes

Coastal wetlands such as mangrove forests and saltmarshes provide a range of important benefits to people, broadly defined as ecosystem services. These include provisioning services such as fuelwood and food, regulating services such as carbon sequestration and wave attenuation, and various tangible and intangible cultural services. However, strong negative perceptions of coastal wetlands also exist, often driven by the perceived or actual ecosystem disservices that they also produce. These can include odour, a sense of danger, and their real or perceived role in vector and disease transmission (e.g., malaria). This review provides an introduction to the ecosystem services and disservices concepts, and highlights the broad range of services and disservices provided by mangrove forests and saltmarshes. Importantly, we discuss the key implications of ecosystem services and disservices for the management of these important coastal ecosystems. Ultimately, a clear binary does not exist between ecosystem services and disservices; an ecosystem service to one stakeholder can be viewed as a disservice to another, or a service can change seasonally into a disservice, and vice versa. It is not enough to only consider the beneficial ecosystem services that coastal wetlands provide: instead, we need to provide a balanced view of coastal wetlands that incorporates the complexities that exist in how humans relate to and interact with these important coastal ecosystems

Chapter 3 Ecosystem Services and Disservices of Mangrove Forests and Salt Marshes

Coastal wetlands such as mangrove forests and saltmarshes provide a range of important benefits to people, broadly defined as ecosystem services. These include provisioning services such as fuelwood and food, regulating services such as carbon sequestration and wave attenuation, and various tangible and intangible cultural services. However, strong negative perceptions of coastal wetlands also exist, often driven by the perceived or actual ecosystem disservices that they also produce. These can include odour, a sense of danger, and their real or perceived role in vector and disease transmission (e.g., malaria). This review provides an introduction to the ecosystem services and disservices concepts, and highlights the broad range of services and disservices provided by mangrove forests and saltmarshes. Importantly, we discuss the key implications of ecosystem services and disservices for the management of these important coastal ecosystems. Ultimately, a clear binary does not exist between ecosystem services and disservices; an ecosystem service to one stakeholder can be viewed as a disservice to another, or a service can change seasonally into a disservice, and vice versa. It is not enough to only consider the beneficial ecosystem services that coastal wetlands provide: instead, we need to provide a balanced view of coastal wetlands that incorporates the complexities that exist in how humans relate to and interact with these important coastal ecosystems

“you just look at rocks, and have beards” Perceptions of Geology From the United Kingdom: A Qualitative Analysis From an Online Survey

In the last few decades, Geology courses, particularly in the Global North, have seen a decline in student enrolment. Geologists have linked this downturn to a lack of exposure to the subject at school and college level. This work seeks to understand the public’s relationship with Geology and draws on over 5,000 open-ended question responses to a survey disseminated in 2021. The survey asked both those who had, and had not, studied geology as a subject a series of questions in order to explore their perceptions of the discipline. Our findings indicate that individuals “outside” of geology see the subject as old fashioned, boring, and environmentally damaging; simply the study of rock samples with nothing new to be discovered from; and with poor job prospects outside of the oil and gas industry. Geologists who responded to the survey paint a picture of a broad, interdisciplinary subject, with vibrant employability opportunities—yet struggle to coherently and collectively describe this when asked, “what is geology?”. In addition to the identified perception of geology as boring, and notions of poor employability being a barrier to prospective students, diversity and inclusivity issues are highlighted as significant barriers by those who study geology. Our findings indicate that both geologists and the geology curriculum need to coherently describe what geology is more effectively. We need to develop and better communicate the subject’s interdisciplinary nature and links to critical societal issues, such as the role of responsible mineral extraction in the energy transition and the importance of geology in vital areas such as climate change science, water resource management, environmental conservation, and sustainable urban/built development. Finding new ways to show that, far from being boring, geology is a subject that can fundamentally change the way you see and interact with the world around you is of central importance to achieving this. Efforts to make the subject more equitable are also highlighted as being critical in creating a more inclusive and accessible discipline

Ecosystem Services and Disservices of Mangrove Forests and Salt Marshes

Coastal wetlands such as mangrove forests and salt marshes provide a range of important benefits to people, broadly defined as ecosystem services. These include provisioning services such as fuelwood and food, regulating services such as carbon sequestration and wave attenuation, and various tangible and intangible cultural services. However, strong negative perceptions of coastal wetlands also exist, often driven by the perceived or actual ecosystem disservices that they also produce. These can include odour, a sense of danger, and their real or perceived role in vector and disease transmission (e.g. malaria). This review provides an introduction to the ecosystem services and disservices concepts and highlights the broad range of services and disservices provided by mangrove forests and salt marshes. Importantly, we discuss the key implications of ecosystem services and disservices for the management of these coastal ecosystems. Ultimately, a clear binary does not exist between ecosystem services and disservices; an ecosystem service to one stakeholder can be viewed as a disservice to another, or a service can change seasonally into a disservice, and vice versa. It is not enough to only consider the beneficial ecosystem services that coastal wetlands provide: instead, we need to provide a balanced view of coastal wetlands that incorporates the complexities that exist in how humans relate to and interact with them

Blue Carbon Science, Management and Policy Across a Tropical Urban Landscape

The ability of vegetated coastal ecosystems to sequester high rates of “blue” carbon over millennial time scales has attracted the interest of national and international policy makers as a tool for climate change mitigation. Whereas focus on blue carbon conservation has been mostly on threatened rural seascapes, there is scope to consider blue carbon dynamics along highly fragmented and developed urban coastlines. The tropical city state of Singapore is used as a case study of urban blue carbon knowledge generation, how blue carbon changes over time with urban development, and how such knowledge can be integrated into urban planning alongside municipal and national climate change obligations. A systematic review of blue carbon studies in Singapore was used to support a qualitative review of Singapore’s blue carbon ecosystems, carbon budget, changes through time and urban planning and policy. Habitat loss across all blue carbon ecosystems is coarsely estimated to have resulted in the release of ∼12.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide since the beginning of the 20th century. However, Singapore’s remaining blue carbon ecosystems still store an estimated 568,971 – 577,227 tonnes of carbon (equivalent to 2.1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide) nationally, with a small proportion of initial loss offset by habitat restoration. Carbon is now a key topic on the urban development and planning agenda, as well as nationally through Singapore’s contributions to the Paris Agreement. The experiences of Singapore show that coastal ecosystems and their blue carbon stocks can be successfully managed along an urban coastline, and can help inform blue carbon science and management along other rapidly urbanizing coastlines throughout the tropics