Abstract
Ecosystem service assessments aim to integrate the natural environment into decision-making by developing linked biophysical and economic models that demonstrate how changes in the environment affect human welfare. When these analyses inform national level, strategic choices, large-scale analyses are required. Such assessments, embracing multiple ecosystem services, will often rely on the transfer of either economic or biophysical models, or both. This chapter discusses the main concepts of ecosystem service assessments and illustrates the conceptual framework with examples from the UK National Ecosystem Assessment . An analysis of the recreational and carbon values arising from land use changes shows how differences in ecological , socioeconomic or climatic factors result in high spatial heterogeneity in ecosystem services and how this variation can be incorporated within transfer values.
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
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Although many ecosystem service assessment frameworks highlight intrinsic and community or shared social values, this chapter will focus on the benefits that can be assessed at the level of the individual and expressed in monetary terms. Bateman et al. (2011) discusses cases where reliable monetary values might not be available.
- 2.
It is worth observing that this exercise aims at transferring biophysical values and not benefits. Therefore under the UK NEA, the correct term for the methodology used would be “value transfer” and not “benefit transfer.”
- 3.
The use of meta-analysis for valuing recreational trips is a well developed area of research and interested readers are referred to Rosenberger and Loomis (2000).
References
Abson, D., Termansen, M., Pascual, U., Aslam, U., Fezzi, C. & Bateman, I. J. (2010). Valuing regulating services (climate regulation) from UK terrestrial ecosystems. Report to the Economics Team of the UK National Ecosystem Assessment, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge and Centre for Social and Economic Research of the Global Environment (CSERGE), University of East Anglia.
Arrow, K. J., Dasgupta, P., & Mäler, K.-G. (2003). Evaluating projects and assessing sustainable development in imperfect economies. Environment and Resource Economics, 26, 647–685.
Barbier, E. B. (2009). Ecosystems as natural assets. Foundations and Trends in Microeconomics, 4, 611–681.
Barbier, E. B. (2011). Capitalizing on nature: Ecosystems as natural assets. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Bateman, I. J., Mace, G. M., Fezzi, C., Atkinson, G., & Turner, R. K. (2011). Economic analysis for ecosystem service assessments. Environment and Resource Economics, 48, 177–218.
Bradley, R. I., Milne, R., Bell, J., Lilly, A., Jordan, C., & Higgins, A. (2005). A soil carbon and land use database for the United Kingdom. Soil Use and Management, 21, 363–369.
Brander, L. M., Bräuer, I., Gerdes, H., Ghermandi, A., Kuik, O., Markandya, A., et al. (2011). Using meta-analysis and GIS for value transfer and scaling up: Valuing climate change induced losses of European wetlands. Environmental and Resource Economics (online first). doi:10.1007/s10640-011-9535-1.
Cruickshank, M. M., Tomlinson, R. W., Devine, P. M., & Milne, R. (1998). Carbon in the vegetation and soils of Northern Ireland. Biology and Environment: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 98B, 9–21.
Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). (2009). Carbon appraisal in UK policy appraisal: A revised approach. UK: Climate Change Economics, Department of Energy and Climate Change.
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). (2007). An introductory guide to valuing ecosystem services. UK: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Publications.
De Groot, R. S. (2006). Function-analysis and valuation as a tool to assess land use conflicts in planning for sustainable, multifunctional landscapes. Landscape and Urban Planning, 75, 175–186.
Dyson, K. E., Thomson, A. M., Mobbs, D. C., Milne, R., Skiba, U., Clark, A., et al. (2009). Inventory and projections of UK emissions by sources and removals by sinks due to land use, land use change and forestry. Annual report July 2009. Edinburgh: Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, 279 pp. (CEH Project No. C03116, DEFRA Contract GA01088).
Fezzi, C., & Bateman, I. J. (2011). Structural agricultural land use modeling for spatial agro-environmental policy analysis. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 93, 1168–1188.
Fisher, B., & Turner, R. K. (2008). Ecosystem services: Classification for valuation. Biological Conservation, 141, 1167–1169.
Fisher, B., Turner, R. K., Zylstra, M., Brouwer, R., De Groot, R., Farber, S., et al. (2008). Ecosystem services and economic theory: Integration for policy-relevant research. Ecological Applications, 18, 2050–2067.
Fisher, B., Turner, R. K., Burgess, N. D., Swetnam, R. D., Green, J., Green, R. E., et al. (2011) Measuring, modeling and mapping ecosystem services in the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania. Progress in Physical Geography, 35(5). 595–611. ISSN 0309-1333.
Haines-Young, R., Paterson, J., Potschin, M., Wilson, A. & Kass, G. (2011). Scenarios: Development of storylines and analysis of outcomes. In The UK National Ecosystem Assessment Technical Report. Cambridge: UNEP-WCMC. Also available from http://UKNEA.unep-wcmc.org.
Hein, L., van Koppen, K., de Groot, R. S., & van Ierland, E. C. (2006). Spatial scales, stakeholders and the valuation of ecosystem services. Ecological Economics, 57, 209–228.
Johnston, R. J., and Sutinen, J. G. (1996). Uncertain biomass shift and collapse: implications for harvest policy in the fishery. Land Economics, 72(4), 500–518.
Mäler, K. G., Aniyar, S., & Jansson, Å. (2008). Accounting for ecosystem services as a way to understand the requirements for sustainable development. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), 105, 9501–9506.
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA). (2005). Ecosystems and human well-being: A framework for assessment. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
Milne, R., Tomlinson, R. W. & Gauld, J. (2001). The land use change and forestry sector in the 1999 UK greenhouse gas inventory. In R. Milne (Ed.), UK emissions by sources and removals by sinks due to land use and land use change and forestry activities (pp. 11–59). Annual report for DETR Contract EPG1/1/160.11. http://www.nbu.ac.uk/ukcarbon.
Monitor of Engagement with the Natural Environment. (2010). The national survey on people and the natural environment—Annual Report from the 2009–10 survey, NECR049. Sheffield, UK: Natural England.
Murphy, J. M., Sexton, D. M. H., Jenkins, G. J., Boorman, P. M., Booth, B. B. B., Brown, C. C., et al. (2009). UK climate projections science report: Climate change projections. Exeter: Met Office Hadley Centre.
Polasky, S., de Zeeuw, A., & Wagener, F. (2011). Optimal management with potential regime shifts. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 62, 229–240.
Rosenberger, R. S., and Loomis. J. B. (2000). Using meta-analysis for benefit transfer: in-sample convergent validity tests of an outdoor recreation database. Water Resources Research, 36(4): 1097–1107.
Sen, A., Darnell, A., Crowe, A., Bateman, I. J., Munday, P. & Foden, J. (2010). Economic assessment of the recreational value of ecosystems in Great Britain. Report to the Economics Team of the UK National Ecosystem Assessment, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge and Centre for Social and Economic Research of the Global Environment (CSERGE), University of East Anglia.
Sen, A., Harwood, A. R., Bateman, I. J., Munday, P., Crowe, A., Brander, L., et al. (2014). Economic assessment of the recreational value of ecosystems: Methodological development and national and local application. Environmental and Resource Economics, 57, 233–249.
Stern, N. (2007). The economics of climate change: The Stern review. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Swetnam, R. D., Fisher, B., Mbilinyi, B. P., Munishi, P. K., Willcock, S., Ricketts, T., et al. (2011). Mapping socio-economic scenarios of land cover change: A GIS method to enable ecosystem service modelling. Journal of Environmental Management, 92, 563–574.
The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB). (2010). Integrating the ecological and economic dimensions in biodiversity and ecosystem service valuation. In The economics of ecosystems and biodiversity: The ecological and economic foundations (Chapter 1). http://www.teebweb.org.
Thomas, J., Thistlethwaite, G. MacCarthy, J., Pearson, B., Murrells, T., Pang, Y., et al. (2011). Greenhouse gas inventories for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: 1990–2009. Didcot: Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), The Scottish Government, The Welsh Government, The Northern Ireland Department of Environment.
Thomson, A. M., Mobbs, D. C., & Milne, R. (2007). Annual inventory estimates for the UK. In A. M. Thomson & M. Van Oijen (Eds.), Inventory and projections of UK emissions by sources and removals by sinks due to land use, land use change and forestry. London: Centre for Ecology and Hydrology/DEFRA.
Tol, R. S. J. (2010). The economic impact of climate change. Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, 11, 13–37.
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. (2011). The UK national ecosystem assessment: Synthesis of the key findings. Cambridge: UNEP-WCMC.
Worrall, F., Bell, M. J., & Bhogal, A. (2009). Assessing the probability of carbon and greenhouse gas benefit from the management of peat soils. Science of the Total Environment, 408, 2657–2666.
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to David Abson, Amii Harwood and Antara Sen for their help and comments and for providing the GIS maps. All errors are the sole responsibility of the authors.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Employee of the Crown
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ferrini, S., Schaafsma, M., Bateman, I.J. (2015). Ecosystem Services Assessment and Benefit Transfer. In: Johnston, R., Rolfe, J., Rosenberger, R., Brouwer, R. (eds) Benefit Transfer of Environmental and Resource Values. The Economics of Non-Market Goods and Resources, vol 14. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9930-0_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9930-0_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-9929-4
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-9930-0
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsEconomics and Finance (R0)