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Ecosystem Decision Support: A Living Database of Existing Tools, Approaches and Techniques for Supporting Decisions Related to Ecosystem Services
Citation:
FAULKNER, B. R. AND A. M. VEGA. Ecosystem Decision Support: A Living Database of Existing Tools, Approaches and Techniques for Supporting Decisions Related to Ecosystem Services. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-09/102, 2009.
Impact/Purpose:
The purpose is to provide an evolving searchable database of tools, approaches, and techniques that can be applied in analytic-deliberative decision support processes accounting for improving decisions that may affect ecosystem services.
Description:
Planners and decision makers are challenged to consider not only direct market costs, but also ecological externalities. There is an increasing emphasis on ecosystem services in the context of human well-being, and therefore the valuation and accounting of ecosystem services is becoming an integral component of economic efficiency (Costanza 2003, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005). Depending on the type of decision to be made, associated ecosystem services may be quantified by using a variety of approaches that could consider deterministic physical and chemical processes, known empirical relationships, and/or socioeconomic valuation methods. There are existing lists and directories that emphasize process modeling to evaluate results of water resources decisions, changes in mass and energy budgets, and other direct physical manipulations. These can be found on several governmental and non-governmental websites. In the context of decisions that affect ecosystem services in the more general sense, ecological externalities may be quantified using process models, but there may be tools and techniques that consider broader measures. The Ecosystem-Based Management Tools Network (NatureServe 2008) has developed a database of tools that consider bundled ecosystem services emphasizing coastal and marine systems. The database presented herein augments the scope of ecosystem services in the broad sense of decision support related to the USEPA’s Ecosystem Services Research Program (USEPA 2009). The purpose is to provide an evolving searchable database of tools, approaches, and techniques that can be applied in analytic-deliberative decision support processes accounting for improving decisions that may affect ecosystem services.
URLs/Downloads:
ECOSYSTEM DECISION SUPPORT: A LIVING DATABASE OF EXISTING TOOLS, APPROACHES AND TECHNIQUES FOR SUPPORTING DECISIONS RELATED TO ECOSYSTEM SERVICES,Abstract
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