Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities for Hydrologic Modeling to Support Decision Making

Abstract

Ecosystem characteristics and processes provide significant value to human health and well- being, and there is growing interest in quantifying those values. Of particular interest are water-related eco- system services and the incorporation of their value into local and regional decision making. This presents multiple challenges and opportunities to the hydrologic-modeling community. To motivate advances in water-resources research, we first present three common decision contexts that draw upon an ecosystem- service framework: scenario analysis, payments for watershed services, and spatial planning. Within these contexts, we highlight the particular challenges to hydrologic modeling, and then present a set of opportu- nities that arise from ecosystem-service decisions. The paper concludes with a set of recommendations regarding how we can prioritize our work to support decisions based on ecosystem-service valuation

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