Mapping Ecosystem Services

Environment Systems was commissioned by CCW in January 2010 to formulate a methodology which would enable us to try and map the spatial variation in the importance of land for providing a range of ecosystem services (the benefits provided by nature to households, communities and economies), for a pilot area within Wales (the South East Wales Spatial Plan Area) using readily available datasets. In August 2010, Environment Systems were commissioned for a second phase to roll out selected services of the pilot work to an all Wales Scale and to develop a selection of ecosystem services case studies for the Heads of the Valley’s Strategic Regeneration Area.

Both the pilot and second phase projects involved five stages:

• Devise a rationale for mapping a range of ecosystem services
• Identify suitable existing datasets and a mapping methodology.
• Formulate a rule base from each dataset to enable sensible, scientifically rigorous and clearly understandable maps to be produced
• Carry out Geographical Information System (GIS) analysis of natural assets supplying services
• Produce mapped output.

Natalie Small, Environmental Analyst working on the project said "The completed project included a series of clear understandable maps with an attached mapping rationale report for six of the services, including: carbon storage, water regulation, renewable energy, fibre and recreation. This work has been included as part of the Natural Environment Framework (NEF) and was unveiled at the Natural Environment Framework – 2010 and beyond: Leading By Example’ conference held by the Wales Biodiversity Partnership at Bangor University".

The maps Environment Systems produced on behalf of the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) can be viewed on the Countryside Council for Wales website The mapping document produced by CCW forms part of the Welsh Assembly Government’s public consultation ‘A Living Wales – a new framework for our environment, our countryside and our seas’, which ends 31^st December 2010.

Note:

Ecosystem services are defined as services provided by the natural environment that benefit humans. The millennium ecosystem assessment framework is a widely accepted method and has categorised ecosystem services into four broad categories:

• Supporting Services, such as soil formation, nutrient cycling, water cycling and primary production. These underpin the provision of the other ‘service’ categories.
• Provisioning Services, such as food, fibre, fuel, bio-materials and water.
• Regulating Services, such as climate regulation, flood protection, pollination, air/soil/water quality.
• Cultural Services, such as education, cultural heritage/sense of place, health, recreation, tourism and aesthetic value.

Extensive land use and habitat modification often result in the simplification of the ecosystem (benefiting one service – causing the deterioration of another), this consequently alters and reduces an ecosystems capacity to provide a broad range of services. Natural ecosystems and the plants and animals within them provide humans with services that would be very difficult to duplicate. While it is impossible to place an exact and accurate monetary cost on ecosystem services, we can calculate some of the financial values these services perform. Ecosystem services contribute to economic welfare in numerous ways firstly, through contributions to the generation of income and wellbeing and secondly, through the prevention of damages that inflict costs on society (Defra, 2007).

Recent studies have quantified how expensive the degradation of nature by humans really is. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (Teeb), estimated (in 2008) the damage done to the natural world by human activities such as land use change, over exploitation, introduction of invasive species and anthropogenic climate change to be between $2tn and $4.5tn. Now that the value of protecting ecosystems, and in some cases replacing them, is being calculated, their vital role in the global economy becomes clear (BBC, 2010).

There is a need to consider the multiple benefits ecological systems provide society at a national, regional and local scale. But to bear in mind that the natural resources and services that the planet provides are not infinite. To derive conclusions about the important trends in ecosystem condition and trade-offs among ecosystem services requires the availability and assessment of data to monitor terrestrial and marine ecosystems. GIS allows disparate data sources (physical, biological, and socioeconomic characteristics of ecosystems) to be analysed and interpreted together in a spatial framework.