Abstract
Economic assessment provides one strand of an overall integrated (sustainability) analysis. The core aim of the economic assessment process is to determine how changes in ecosystem services provision are translated into changes in human welfare. The chapter discusses available valuation methods and key issues for appropriate economic valuation of ecosystem services. Since sustainable policies often require choosing between options that differ in temporal patterns of costs and benefits, or that differ in their duration, discounting can be used to compare costs and benefit that occur at different points in time. Different discount rates have different implications for trade-off analysis, including the consideration of intergeneration equity. However, it may not be possible to value all impacts through economic approaches, because of practical or ethical considerations. Contested issues which are commonplace in coastal management, also require the consideration of equity impacts, for which economics/social sciences provide different approaches to inform trade-offs and decision-making.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
GDP reflects the financial (market) value of all final goods and services produced within a country within a certain period. Net Domestic Product (net GDP) is GDP net of the depreciation on capital goods, and thereby reflects how much capital has been consumed over the year.
References
Asheim, G. B. (2012). Discounting while treating generations equality. In R. W. Hahn & A. Ulph (Eds.), Climate change and common sense: Essays in honour of Tom Schelling. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bainbridge, J. M., Potts, T., & O’Higgins, T. G. (2011). Rapid policy network mapping: A new method for understanding governance structures for implementation of marine environmental policy. PLoS ONE, 6, e20149.
Bateman, I. J., Ferrini, S., Brouwer, R., Schaafsma, M., Barton, D. N., Dubgaard, A., Hasler, B., Hime, S., Liekens, I., Navrud, S., De Nocker, L., Sceponavicitue, R., & Semeniene, R. (2011). Making benefit transfers work: Deriving and testing principles for value transfers for similar and dissimilar sites using a case study of the non-market benefits of water quality improvements across Europe. Environmental and Resource Economics, 50, 368–387.
Baveye, P. C., Baveye, J., & Gowdy, J. (2013). Monetary valuation of ecosystem services: It matters to get the timeline right. Ecological Economics, 95, 231–235.
Bodin, Ö., & Crona, B. (2009). The role of social networks in natural resource governance: What relational patterns make a difference? Global Environmental Change, 19, 366–374.
Borgatti, S. P., Mehra, A., Brass, D. J., & Labianca, G. (2009). Network analysis in the social sciences. Science, 323, 892–895.
Brander, L. M., Florax, R. J. G. M., & Vermaat, J. E. (2006). The empirics of wetland valuation: A comprehensive summary and a meta-analysis of the literature. Environmental and Resource Economics, 33, 223–250.
Brander, L. M., Brauer, I., Gerdes, H., Ghermandi, A., Kuik, O., Markandya, A., Navrud, S., Nunes, P. A. L. D., Schaafsma, M., Vos, H., & Wagtendonk, A. (2012). Using meta-analysis and GIS for value transfer and scaling up: Valuing climate change induced losses of European wetlands. Environmental and Resource Economics, 52, 395–413.
Brouwer, R. (2000). Environmental value transfer: State of the art and future prospects. Ecological Economics, 32, 137–152.
Brouwer, R. (2006). Do stated preference methods stand the test of time? A test of the stability of contingent values and models for health risks when facing an extreme event. Ecological Economics, 60(2), 399–406.
Costanza, R., D’Arge, R., Groot, R. D., Farber, S., Grasso, M., Hannon, B., Limburg, K., Naeem, S., O’Neil, R. V., Paruelo, J., Raskin, R. G., Sutton, P., & Belt, M. V. D. (1997). The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital. Nature, 387, 253–260.
Costanza, R., de Groot, R., Sutton, P., van der Ploeg, S., Anderson, S. J., Kubiszewski, I., Farber, S., & Turner, R. K. (2014). Changes in the global value of ecosystem services. Global Environmental Change, 26, 152–158.
Dasgupta, P. (2011). The ethics of intertemporal distribution in a warming planet: Reply and response to J.E. Roemer. Environmental and Resource Economics, 50, 475–493.
Fish, R., Burgess, J., Chilvers, J., Footitt, A., Haines‐Young, R., Russel, D., Turner, K., & Winter, D. M. (2011). Participatory and deliberative techniques for embedding an ecosystems approach into decision making. Full Technical Report, Project Code: NR0124.
Frederick, S., Loewenstein, G., & O’Donoghue, T. (2002). Time discounting and time preference: A critical review. Journal of Economic Literature, 40, 351–401.
Gollier, C. (2002). Discounting an uncertain future. Journal of Public Economics, 85, 149–166.
Gowdy, J. M. (2004). The revolution in welfare economics and its implications for environmental valuation and policy. Land Economics, 80, 239–257.
Groom, B., Hepburn, C., Koundouri, P., & Pearce, D. W. (2005). Declining discount rates: The long and short of it. Environmental and Resource Economics, 32, 445–493.
Heal, G. (1998). Valuing the future: Economic theory and sustainability. New York: Columbia University Press.
Heal, G. (2000). Nature and the marketplace. Washington, DC: Island Press.
Henderson, N., & Bateman, I. (1995). Empirical and public choice evidence for hyperbolic social discount rates and the implications for intergenerational discounting. Environmental and Resource Economics, 32, 13–34.
HMT. (2003). Green book: Appraisal and evaluation in central government. London: HMSO.
Howarth, R. B., & Farber, S. (2002). Accounting for the value of ecosystem services. Ecological Economics, 41, 421–429.
Knetsch, K. (2005). Gains, losses and the US-EPA economic analyses guidelines: A hazardous product? Environmental and Resource Economics, 32, 91–112.
Luisetti, T., Turner, R. K., Bateman, I. J., Morse-Jones, S., Adams, C., & Fonseca, L. (2011). Coastal and marine ecosystem services valuation for policy and management: Managed realignment case studies in England. Ocean and Coastal Management, 54, 212–224.
Luisetti, T., Jackson, E., & Turner, R. K. (2013). Valuing the European ‘Coastal Blue Carbon’ storage benefit. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 71(1–2), 101–106.
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA). (2005). Millennium ecosystem assessment: Ecosystems and human wellbeing: Synthesis. Washington, DC: Island Press.
Morse-Jones, S., Bateman, I. J., Kontoleon, A., Ferrini, S., Burgess, N. D., & Turner, R. K. (2012). Stated preferences for tropical wildlife conservation amongst distant beneficiaries: Charisma, endemism, scope and substitution effects. Ecological Economics, 78, 9–18.
Norgaard, R. B. (2010). Ecosystem services: From eye-opening metaphor to complexity blinder. Ecological Economics, 69(6), 1219–1227.
Ostrom, E. (2007). A diagnostic approach for going beyond panaceas. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104, 15181–15187.
Pearce, D. W., & Turner, R. K. (1990). Economics of natural resources and the environment. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Potts, T., O’Higgins, T., Mee, L., & Pita, C. (2011). Public perceptions of Europe’s seas – A policy brief. Eu Fp7 Knowseas Project. ISBN 0-9529089-3-X.
Roemer, J. E. (2011). The ethics of intertemporal distribution in a warming planet. Environmental and Resource Economics, 48, 363–390.
Stouffer, R. J. (2012). Oceanography: Future impact of today’s choices. Nature Climate Change, 2, 397–398.
Turner, R. K. (1999). The place of economic values in environmental valuation. In I. J. Bateman & K. G. Willis (Eds.), Valuing environmental preferences (pp. 17–41). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Turner, R. K. (2007). Limits to CBA in UK and European environmental policy: Retrospects and future prospects. Environmental and Resource Economics, 37, 253–269.
Turner, R. K., Paavola, J., Cooper, P., Jessamy, V., & Georgiou, S. (2003). Valuing nature: Lessons learned and future research directions. Ecological Economics, 46, 493–510.
Turner, R. K., Morse-Jones, S., & Fisher, B. (2010). Ecosystem valuation: A sequential decision-support system and quality assessment issues. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1185, 79–101.
UK National Ecosystem Assessment Follow-on. (2014). The UK national ecosystem assessment follow-on: Synthesis of the Key findings. Cambridge, UK: UNEP-WCMC/LWEC.
UNU-IHDP and UNEP. (2012). Inclusive wealth report 2012. Measuring progress toward sustainability. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Vatn, A. (2009). An institutional analysis of methods for environmental appraisal. Ecological Economics, 68, 2207–2215.
Weitzman, M. (1998). Why far distant future should be discounted at its lowest possible rate. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 26, 200–209.
Young, R., & Pilkey, O. (2010). How high will seas rise? Get ready for seven feet. Yale Environment 360. 14 Jan 2010.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Turner, R.K., Schaafsma, M. (2015). Valuation of Ecosystem Services. In: Turner, R., Schaafsma, M. (eds) Coastal Zones Ecosystem Services. Studies in Ecological Economics, vol 9. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17214-9_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17214-9_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-17213-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-17214-9
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsEconomics and Finance (R0)