Valuing the ecosystem services provided by European river corridors – an analytical framework

tom.buijse@deltares.nl — Tue, 26 Nov 2013 15:43:42 +0000

An analytical framework is developed for estimating ecosystem services delivered by restored and non-restored river corridors, i.e. the active river channel and its accompanying valley floor. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment approach towards ecosystem services is adopted with a focus on final services, i.e. only those services are quantified that provide a net benefit to societal beneficiaries. A long list of services potentially provided by European rivers is provided and linked qualitatively to a river style typology developed in D2.1 by Gurnell and colleagues.

An analytical framework is developed for the estimation of ecosystem services delivered by restored and non-restored river corridors, i.e. the active river channel and its accompanying valley floor. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment approach towards ecosystem services is adopted, but with a focus on final services, i.e. only those services are quantified that provide a net benefit to societal beneficiaries. A long list of services potentially provided by European rivers is provided and linked qualitatively to a river style typology developed in D2.1 by Gurnell and colleagues to present the major services potentially provided by European rivers and their floodplains.

The appropriate spatial scale for a quantification of services provided is defined as that of a reach, hence the method should cover extents of ~ 10 km and grains of ~ 100 m. From the reach, aggregation upwards to segments and catchments is feasible. The consolidated land cover classification of CORINE can serve to provide the mappable units but requires additional fine-grained detail to specify the different habitats (or landscape elements, as specified in EUNIS) present in a reach as a mapped unit. The analytical framework starts from the mapped mosaic of habitat units within a reach and lists the potentially delivered services by each habitat. Subsequently, the exercise is re-iterated to assess whether a service is only provided at a larger scale by a combination of landscape elements, or the full length and width of the floodplain and stream that can only be appreciated as a landscape. Then services are summed across the reach, generally as fluxes in biophysical units, and brought under the same denominator of economic value using benefit transfer functions. For several cultural services that have no market, direct field surveys using questionnaires are proposed. Such economic valuation methodologies for different services are briefly justified and procedures are outlined.

2.3 Analytical framework ecosystem services.pdf

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D2.3 Framework to analyse ecosystem services provided by European river systems

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REFORM - D2.3 Framework to analyse ecosystem services provided by European river systems

Valuing the ecosystem services provided by European river corridors – an analytical framework

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