Measuring Ecosystem Service Benefits: The Use of Landscape Analysis to Evaluate Environmental Trades and Compensation

Ecosystem compensation and exchange programs require benefit analysis in order to guarantee that compensation or trades preserve the social benefits lost when ecosystems are destroyed or degraded. This study derives, applies, and critiques a set of ecosystem benefits indicators (EBIs). Organized around the concept of ecosystem services and basic valuation principles we show how GIS mappings of the physical and social landscape can improve understanding of the ecosystem benefits arising from specific ecosystems. The indicator system focuses on landscape factors that limit or enhance an ecosystem's ability to provide services and that limit or enhance the expected value of those services. The analysis yields an organized, descriptive, and numerical depiction of sites involved in specific mitigation projects. Indicator-based evaluations are applied to existing wetland mitigation projects in Florida and Maryland in order to practically illustrate the virtues and limits of the approach.Ecosystem Valuation, Wetlands, Spatial Analysis, Landscape Analysis

Panel discussion: U.S. EPA using modeling and ecosystem services to enhance coastal decision making

This panel will discuss the research being conducted, and the models being used in three current coastal EPA studies being conducted on ecosystem services in Tampa Bay, the Chesapeake Bay and the Coastal Carolinas. These studies are intended to provide a broader and more comprehensive approach to policy and decision-making affecting coastal ecosystems as well as provide an account of valued services that have heretofore been largely unrecognized. Interim research products, including updated and integrated spatial data, models and model frameworks, and interactive decision support systems will be demonstrated to engage potential users and to elicit feedback. It is anticipated that the near-term impact of the projects will be to increase the awareness by coastal communities and coastal managers of the implications of their actions and to foster partnerships for ecosystem services research and applications. (PDF contains 4 pages

A collaborative approach to socio-economic assessment to increase coastal marsh and community resilience on the Chesapeake Bay

Sea level rise and other stressors in the mid-Atlantic U.S. are impacting the resilience of coastal communities, and increase their overall physical and socio-economic vulnerabilities. The Deal Island Peninsula on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, MD is used as a case study of a coastal heritage community that is undergoing these stressors and is involved in stakeholder-driven resilience and adaptation planning. In this interdisciplinary socio-ecological project funded by the NERRS Science Collaborative, a socio-economic analysis of a culturally rich coastal community is performed as a sub-study. The goals of the socio-economic analysis are to 1) better understand stakeholder relationships with marsh ecosystems and services they provide, 2) bring stakeholder perceptions and values of socio-ecological services into a coastal decision-making framework, and 3) bridge the gap between science and decision-making through improved communication and collaboration. The methodologies employed take the nature of a collaborative learning approach, coupled with the Q-sort technique. In this presentation, discussion topics include the collaborative approach taken toward a socio-economic assessment, preliminary results of the Q-sort, and indicators of community adaptation efforts

Incorporating Risk of Reinvasion to Prioritize Sites for Invasive Species Management

The relationship between landscape pattern and the distribution and spread of exotic species is an important determinant of where and when management actions are best applied. We have developed an interdisciplinary approach for prioritizing treatment of harmful, nonnative, invasive plants in National Park landscapes of the Mid-Atlantic USA. The approach relies upon a detailed model of reinvasion risk that combines information on: (1) global factors representing park-level infestation from seed and sprout, (2) landscape factors including disturbance-based spread vectors and neighborhood seed density, and (3) local factors determining establishment probability based on habitat suitability. Global seed rain estimates are derived empirically from park inventory data and modified by information on species reproductive strategies. Landscape-level propagule pressure is modeled spatially using species life history characteristics including dispersal attributes, connectivity to nearby plant populations, and increased propagule pressure through disturbance. The local-scale habitat suitability model uses a Mahalanobis distance approach, parameterized from plant inventory plot data and GIS-based data on plot wetness, land cover, slope, radiation, and soil characteristics. We illustrate the model for Ailanthus altissima (tree-of-heaven) in Antietam National Battlefield Park. The results of the A. altissima modeling highlight regions of the park where eradication would be most prudent and feasible based on current infestation patterns and landscape heterogeneity. Although the success of different treatment modalities is often considered in invasive species management, a spatially explicit assessment of likely treatment success is rarely undertaken. Our approach provides a valuable tool to assist natural resource practitioners to prioritize management options in confronting biological invasions

O Ciberespaço e a mutação da realidade: o caso dos EUA

Understanding the way regional landscapes operate, evolve, and change is a key area of research for ecosystem science. It is also essential to support the placebased management approach being advocated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other management agencies. We developed a spatially explicit, process-based model of the 2352 km2 Patuxent River watershed in Maryland to integrate data and knowledge over several spatial, temporal, and complexity scales, and to serve as an aid to regional management. In particular, the model addresses the effects of both the magnitude and spatial patterns of human settlements and agricultural practices on hydrology, plant productivity, and nutrient cycling in the landscape. The spatial resolution is variable, with a maximum of 200 X 200 m to allow adequate depiction of the pattern of ecosystems and human settlement on the landscape. The temporal resolution is different for various components of the model, ranging from hourly time steps in the hydrologic sector to yearly time steps in the economic land-use transition module. We used a modular, multiscale approach to calibrate and test the model. Model results show good agreement with data for several components of the model at several scales. A range of scenarios with the calibrated model shows the implications of past and alternative future land-use patterns and policies. We analyzed 18 scenarios including: (1) historical land-use in 1650, 1850, 1950, 1972, 1990, and 1997; (2) a buildout scenario based on fully developing all the land currently zoned for development; (3) four future development patterns based on an empirical economic land-use conversion model; (4) agricultural best management practices that lower fertilizer application; (5) four replacement scenarios of land-use change to analyze the relative contributions of agriculture and urban land uses; and (6) two clustering scenarios with significantly more and less clustered residential development than the current pattern. Results indicate the complex nature of the landscape response and the need for spatially explicit modeling

Measuring Ecosystem Service Benefits: The Use of Landscape Analysis to Evaluate Environmental Trades and Compensation

Ecosystem compensation and exchange programs require benefit analysis in order to guarantee that compensation or trades preserve the social benefits lost when ecosystems are destroyed or degraded. This study derives, applies, and critiques a set of ecosystem benefit indicators (EBIs). Organized around the concept of ecosystem services and basic valuation principles we show how GIS mappings of the physical and social landscape can improve understanding of the ecosystem benefits arising from specific ecosystems. The indicator system focuses on landscape factors that limit or enhance an ecosystem's ability to provide services and that limit or enhance the expected value of those services. The analysis yields an organized, descriptive, and numerical depiction of sites involved in specific mitigation projects. Indicator-based evaluations are applied to existing wetland mitigation projects in Florida and Maryland in order to practically illustrate the virtues and limitations of the approach

S3_Benefits to Boat-Dependent Businesses and Drinking Water Treatment Plants as Treatment Costs Avoided

S3_Benefits_as_CostsAvoided_Boat_businesses_water_treatment.pdf explains methods used to calculate treatment costs avoided for business entities and where data and calculations can be found in excel files.<div><br></div><div>S3_CostofBioControl_Marinas.xlsx and S3_CostsofBioControl_WaterIntakes.xlsx contain benefit calculations and data under the control scenario.</div><div><br></div><div>S3_CostofNoControl_Marinas.xlsx and S3_CostsofNoControl_WaterIntakes.xlsx contain benefit calculations and data under the no control scenario.</div><div><br></div><div>S3_Marinas_NoCtrlsubtractedfromBioCtrl.xlsx and S3_WaterIntakes_NoCtrlsubtractedfromBioCtrl.xlsx contain difference calculations between the control and no control scenarios.</div

S2_Benefits to Fishing and Hunting as Treatment Costs Avoided

S2_Explanation_Hunting_Benefit.pdf and S2_Explanation_Fishing_Benefit.pdf explain methods used to calculate recreational benefits and where data and calculations can be found in excel files.<div><br><div>S2_FishingBenefitSpatial Analysis_Substitution_BioControl.xlsx and S2_HuntingBenefitSpatialAnalysis_Biocontrol.xlsx contain benefit calculations and data under the control scenario.<br></div><div><br></div><div>S2_FishingBenefitSpatialAnalysis_Substitution_NoControl.xlsx and S2_HuntingBenefitSpatialAnalysis_Nocontrol.xlsx contain benefit calculations and data under the no control scenario.</div><div><br></div><div>S2_FishingBiCtrl_subtractedfrom_NoCtrl.xlsx and S2_HuntingBenefit_Ctrl_subtractedfrom_NoCtrl.xlsx contain difference calculations between the biocontrol and no control scenarios.</div></div