A comparison of tools for modeling freshwater ecosystem services
TL;DR: This work compares the data requirements, ease of use, questions addressed, and interpretability of results among the models, and suggests gaps in the modeling toolbox that would provide the greatest advances by improving existing tools.
About: This article is published in Journal of Environmental Management.The article was published on 2011-10-01. It has received 318 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Ecosystem services & Toolbox.
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TL;DR: This study describes 17 ecosystem services tools and rate their performance against eight evaluative criteria that gauge their readiness for widespread application in public- and private-sector decision making, and describes potential pathways forward to reduce the resource requirements for running ecosystem services models.
Abstract: To enter widespread use, ecosystem service assessments need to be quantifiable, replicable, credible, flexible, and affordable. With recent growth in the field of ecosystem services, a variety of decision-support tools has emerged to support more systematic ecosystem services assessment. Despite the growing complexity of the tool landscape, thorough reviews of tools for identifying, assessing, modeling and in some cases monetarily valuing ecosystem services have generally been lacking. In this study, we describe 17 ecosystem services tools and rate their performance against eight evaluative criteria that gauge their readiness for widespread application in public- and private-sector decision making. We describe each of the tools′ intended uses, services modeled, analytical approaches, data requirements, and outputs, as well time requirements to run seven tools in a first comparative concurrent application of multiple tools to a common location – the San Pedro River watershed in southeast Arizona, USA, and northern Sonora, Mexico. Based on this work, we offer conclusions about these tools′ current ‘readiness’ for widespread application within both public- and private-sector decision making processes. Finally, we describe potential pathways forward to reduce the resource requirements for running ecosystem services models, which are essential to facilitate their more widespread use in environmental decision making.
565 citations
Cites background from "A comparison of tools for modeling ..."
...ARIES’ probabilistic models, which are encoded as Bayesian belief networks, may be more appropriate under conditions of data scarcity (Vigerstol and Aukema, 2011)....
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...InVEST and ARIES are perhaps the best known of the generalizable, public-domain tools (Vigerstol and Aukema, 2011)....
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...The scope of most other reviews has been limited, providing detailed descriptions of 2–3 tools and references to another 2–4 tools (Nelson and Daily, 2010; Vigerstol and Aukema, 2011)....
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TL;DR: The current state of the art of ecosystem service science regarding spatial localisation, indication and quantification of multiple ecosystem service supply and demand is reviewed and discussed.
Abstract: The high variety of ecosystem service categorisation systems, assessment frameworks, indicators, quantification methods and spatial localisation approaches allows scientists and decision makers to harness experience, data, methods and tools. On the other hand, this variety of concepts and disagreements among scientists hamper an integration of ecosystem services into contemporary environmental management and decision making. In this article, the current state of the art of ecosystem service science regarding spatial localisation, indication and quantification of multiple ecosystem service supply and demand is reviewed and discussed. Concepts and tables for regulating, provisioning and cultural ecosystem service definitions, distinguishing between ecosystem service potential supply (stocks), flows (real supply) and demands as well as related indicators for quantification are provided. Furthermore, spatial concepts of service providing units, benefitting areas, spatial relations, rivalry, spatial and temporal scales are elaborated. Finally, matrices linking CORINE land cover types to ecosystem service potentials, flows, demands and budget estimates are provided. The matrices show that ecosystem service potentials of landscapes differ from flows, especially for provisioning ecosystem services.
546 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, an approach for assessing and valuing ecosystem services in the context of water management is proposed, which can be used for assessing the benefits of conservation and restoration of aquatic ecosystems.
354 citations
Cites background from "A comparison of tools for modeling ..."
...…do not provide directly indicators for ecosystem services): the specific studies of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment dealing with freshwater systems (MEA, 2005b,c); UNEP (2009), UNEP-WCM (2011), Feld et al. (2009, 2010), TEEB (2010), Vigerstol and Aukema (2011) and Clerici et al. (2014) In Fig....
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...Hydrological and biogeochemical catchment models are appropriate tools for dealing with water related ecosystem services (Guswa et al., 2014; Vigerstol and Aukema, 2011; Brauman et al., 2007)....
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...biogeochemical catchment models are appropriate tools for dealing with water related ecosystem services (Guswa et al., 2014; Vigerstol and Aukema, 2011; Brauman et al., 2007)....
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TL;DR: An integrated ES modeling methodology, named ARIES (ARtificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services), which adopts a uniform conceptualization of ES that gives equal emphasis to their production, flow and use by society, while keeping model complexity low enough to enable rapid and inexpensive assessment in many contexts and for multiple services.
Abstract: Ecosystem Services (ES) are an established conceptual framework for attributing value to the benefits that nature provides to humans. As the promise of robust ES-driven management is put to the test, shortcomings in our ability to accurately measure, map, and value ES have surfaced. On the research side, mainstream methods for ES assessment still fall short of addressing the complex, multi-scale biophysical and socioeconomic dynamics inherent in ES provision, flow, and use. On the practitioner side, application of methods remains onerous due to data and model parameterization requirements. Further, it is increasingly clear that the dominant “one model fits all” paradigm is often ill-suited to address the diversity of real-world management situations that exist across the broad spectrum of coupled human-natural systems. This article introduces an integrated ES modeling methodology, named ARIES (ARtificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services), which aims to introduce improvements on these fronts. To improve conceptual detail and representation of ES dynamics, it adopts a uniform conceptualization of ES that gives equal emphasis to their production, flow and use by society, while keeping model complexity low enough to enable rapid and inexpensive assessment in many contexts and for multiple services. To improve fit to diverse application contexts, the methodology is assisted by model integration technologies that allow assembly of customized models from a growing model base. By using computer learning and reasoning, model structure may be specialized for each application context without requiring costly expertise. In this article we discuss the founding principles of ARIES - both its innovative aspects for ES science and as an example of a new strategy to support more accurate decision making in diverse application contexts.
347 citations
Cites methods from "A comparison of tools for modeling ..."
...This integrated modeling approach supports the mixing of data-driven and hypothesis-driven models to produce the overall model structure most suited to the application context [4]....
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...academic, governmental, NGO, and corporate sectors [4,5]....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a methodology for quantifying and assessing changes in multiple ecosystems services as a result of land use change using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model.
310 citations
References
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TL;DR: A conceptual, continuous time model called SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) was developed to assist water resource managers in assessing the impact of management on water supplies and nonpoint source pollution in watersheds and large river basins as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: A conceptual, continuous time model called SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) was developed to assist water resource managers in assessing the impact of management on water supplies and nonpoint source pollution in watersheds and large river basins. The model is currently being utilized in several large area projects by EPA, NOAA, NRCS and others to estimate the off-site impacts of climate and management on water use, nonpoint source loadings, and pesticide contamination. Model development, operation, limitations, and assumptions are discussed and components of the model are described. In Part II, a GIS input/output interface is presented along with model validation on three basins within the Upper Trinity basin in Texas.
6,674 citations
"A comparison of tools for modeling ..." refers methods in this paper
...SWAT (Arnold et al., 1998; Arnold and Fohrer, 2005) was developed for the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) to evaluate the impact of land use changes on watershed yield, sediment, and agricultural pollutants in a river basin....
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TL;DR: Nature's Services brings together world-renowned scientists from a variety of disciplines to examine the character and value of ecosystem services, the damage that has been done to them, and the consequent implications for human society.
Abstract: Life itself as well as the entire human economy depends on goods and services provided by earth's natural systems. The processes of cleansing, recycling, and renewal, along with goods such as seafood, forage, and timber, are worth many trillions of dollars annually, and nothing could live without them. Yet growing human impacts on the environment are profoundly disrupting the functioning of natural systems and imperiling the delivery of these services.Nature's Services brings together world-renowned scientists from a variety of disciplines to examine the character and value of ecosystem services, the damage that has been done to them, and the consequent implications for human society. Contributors including Paul R. Ehrlich, Donald Kennedy, Pamela A. Matson, Robert Costanza, Gary Paul Nabhan, Jane Lubchenco, Sandra Postel, and Norman Myers present a detailed synthesis of our current understanding of a suite of ecosystem services and a preliminary assessment of their economic value. Chapters consider: major services including climate regulation, soil fertility, pollination, and pest control philosophical and economic issues of valuation case studies of specific ecosystems and services implication of recent findings and steps that must be taken to address the most pressing concerns Nature's Services represents one of the first efforts by scientists to provide an overview of the many benefits and services that nature offers to people and the extent to which we are all vitally dependent on those services. The book enhances our understanding of the value of the natural systems that surround us and can play an essential role in encouraging greater efforts to protect the earth's basic life-support systems before it is too late. -- publisher's description
3,601 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a generalization of the single soil layer variable infiltration capacity (VIC) land surface hydrological model previously implemented in the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) general circulation model (GCM) is described.
Abstract: A generalization of the single soil layer variable infiltration capacity (VIC) land surface hydrological model previously implemented in the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) general circulation model (GCM) is described. The new model is comprised of a two-layer characterization of the soil column, and uses an aerodynamic representation of the latent and sensible heat fluxes at the land surface. The infiltration algorithm for the upper layer is essentially the same as for the single layer VIC model, while the lower layer drainage formulation is of the form previously implemented in the Max-Planck-Institut GCM. The model partitions the area of interest (e.g., grid cell) into multiple land surface cover types; for each land cover type the fraction of roots in the upper and lower zone is specified. Evapotranspiration consists of three components: canopy evaporation, evaporation from bare soils, and transpiration, which is represented using a canopy and architectural resistance formulation. Once the latent heat flux has been computed, the surface energy balance is iterated to solve for the land surface temperature at each time step. The model was tested using long-term hydrologic and climatological data for Kings Creek, Kansas to estimate and validate the hydrological parameters, and surface flux data from three First International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project Field Experiment (FIFE) intensive field campaigns in the summer-fall of 1987 to validate the surface energy fluxes.
3,297 citations
"A comparison of tools for modeling ..." refers methods in this paper
...VIC (variable infiltration capacity) model The VIC (variable infiltration capacity) 4.1.1 model (Liang et al., 1994, 1996; Nijssen et al., 1997) is a large-scale gridded hydrologic model that is most appropriate for large river basins where water yield and stream flow are the main variables of…...
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01 Sep 2011
2,988 citations
"A comparison of tools for modeling ..." refers background in this paper
...…daily basis, which can be used for assessments of ecosystem services such as freshwater for municipal, industrial and agricultural uses, instream flows that support fisheries and recreation, flood risk, and inflows for hydropower and other water resource infrastructure (Neitsch et al., 2004, 2005)....
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