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Sustainable Return on Investment (SuROI)
Published in Kevin Dean, Claudia Trillo, Angela Lee’s, Sustainable Urban Regeneration, 2022
Kevin Dean, Claudia Trillo, Angela Lee’s
It has been regarded as being difficult to understand the complexity and ‘public goods’ nature of ecosystems (Costanza et al., 1997) and has also been cited that gaps exist in terms of the measurement of ecosystem services (ten Brink et al., 2011). However, contrary to this, it is important to cite that many databases are available (such as the TEEB, the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity Valuation, database) to provide a large amount of indicators and proxy values for ecosystem services, whilst “each ecosystem service has aspects that can be measured” (Zari, 2012). It is also important to note that as human ingenuity in deriving benefit from ecosystem services and lists of known ecosystem services evolve and expand over time, it is likely that more will come about in the future (Heal et al., 2005).
Pasturelands, Rangelands, and Other Grazing Social-Ecological Systems
Published in Brian D. Fath, Sven E. Jørgensen, Megan Cole, Managing Soils and Terrestrial Systems, 2020
Radost Stanimirova, Rachael Garrett
There are four different categories of ecosystem services: provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural (MA 2005, Sala et al. 2017). Because grazing systems are heterogeneous, they provide numerous ecosystem services in addition to provisioning feed for livestock, and food and fiber for the world’s pastoralists (Sala et al. 2017). In the case of grazing lands, provisioning services, which are the products that can be directly harvested and have market value, are freshwater and forage for livestock to produce meat, milk, wool, and leather (Sala and Paruelo 1997, Sala et al. 2017). The main ecosystem regulating service in grasslands is soil carbon sequestration. Supporting services enable the production of all other ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling, conservation of soils, habitat, and biodiversity (MA 2005, Sala and Paruelo 1997). Lastly, cultural services, which are the nonmaterial benefits that humans obtain from grazing lands, include social status, traditional lifestyles, and tourism (Sala et al. 2017). From local-to-global scales, ranchers, commercial entities, and the public sector all benefit from the ecosystem services that are provided by grazing lands.
Ecosystem Services: Pollinators and Pollination
Published in Yeqiao Wang, Terrestrial Ecosystems and Biodiversity, 2020
Ecosystem services are those benefits provided by the biosphere that maintain, support, and enhance life on Earth. Ecosystem services are defined as the set of direct and indirect benefits that are derived from healthy, sustainable, and functioning ecosystems.[5,6] Efforts to create a tangible, manageable system for classification have sorted ecosystem services into groups of functions that interact with all aspects of life. Supportive services connect ecosystems and facilitate the movement of energy and matter. Provisional services are responsible for the bounty of food and resources provided to humans and animals. Regulating services provide resilience to the environment, regulating and buffering against extreme shifts and supporting the status quo. Cultural services support creativity and esthetic landscapes, provide the inspiration for arts, literature, belief systems, and deliver opportunities for recreation.[7]
Water yield service influence by climate and land use change based on InVEST model in the monsoon hilly watershed in South China
Published in Geomatics, Natural Hazards and Risk, 2022
Xiaojun Wang, Guangxu Liu, Durui Lin, Yingbing Lin, Yi Lu, Aicun Xiang, Shumei Xiao
Ecosystem service refers to the essential environmental conditions and utility provided by the ecosystem for the maintenance of human survival and development, which are also the benefits that humans receive directly or indirectly from ecosystems (Fisher and Turner 2008; Bennett et al. 2009; Daily 2013). Water yield is an important element of ecosystem services, reflecting the amount of water resources a region can provide to humans under resource background conditions. China has only 6% of the world's freshwater resources (Bao and Fang 2012), faces with high per capita shortage, and are characterized with abundance in the south and relative scarcity in the north. China has large population. The increasing conflict between people and the environment along with quick urbanization and economic development have made China become one of the major resource consuming countries (Hubacek et al. 2009). Even in the South China, where precipitation is abundant, there are also problems such as ecological protection in mountainous hilly areas, the uneven spatial and temporal distribution of water resources and the contradiction of social needs. Therefore, it is of great value to carry out water yield service assessment and identify the importance differences for coordinating the production-living-ecological spaces layout and ecosystem services.
Risk of cardiovascular disease is driven by different combinations of environmental, medical and behavioral factors: Building a conceptual model for cumulative risk assessment
Published in Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journal, 2021
Roxolana Kashuba, Charles Menzie, Lawrence Martin
A CRA conceptual model for a health outcome can be expanded to illustrate how other components that may be of interest relate to and affect the health outcome. For example, from the perspective of environmental risk management, it is useful to understand how ecosystem services can influence an adverse health risk. Ecosystem services are benefits that humans derive from environmental processes and functions (Reid et al. 2005), such as oxygen to breathe produced by trees or flood control provided by coastal wetlands. This offers a potential way to integrate human and ecological risk assessment. Figure 4 shows the different ecosystems which provide services that improve the full suite of environmental drivers for CVD. Figure 2 and Figure 4 can be used in concert to understand the environmental risks and management options given the complicated network of CVD risk factors overall. To implement an approach for CVD risk mitigation through this ecosystem lens, suites of management actions affecting each service would need to be identified, and associated impacts of each service on cumulative risk calculated. This could involve environmental regulatory agencies responsible for setting and enforcing exposure limits for different media (air, water, land), recreational management agencies, land management agencies, and agricultural agencies charged with food production and regulation.
Using an ecosystem services approach to re-frame the management of flow constraints in a major regulated river basin
Published in Australasian Journal of Water Resources, 2021
Georgia Kahan, Matthew Colloff, Jamie Pittock
Ecosystem services can be classified as: provisioning services, which are the goods provided or produced from ecosystems, such as water for irrigation; regulating services, which are derived from regulating ecosystem processes, such as water purification though groundwater filtration, and cultural services, which are non-material benefits derived from ecosystem integrity, structure and functions, such as aesthetic appreciation, place attachment and wellbeing. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) also includes supporting services, which are processes and functions that underpin other services, such as nutrient cycling and soil formation. However, recognition of supporting services in ecosystem services assessments risks double counting if monetary valuation is involved (Boyd and Banzhaf 2006). Accordingly, we consider only the first three categories.