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Linking Aquatic Ecosystems to Human Well-Being
Citation:
Ringold, P., M. Weber, J. Boyd, AND A. Herlihy. Linking Aquatic Ecosystems to Human Well-Being. Presented at Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Portland, OR, May 18 - 23, 2014.
Impact/Purpose:
The research presented is part of an effort to work with social scientists to identify indicators of ecosystem that are of direct relevance to people. These indicators are of significance because they convey the status of ecosystem more efficaciously than indicators designed without social science input. Because they have this status, these indicators serve as a superior foundation for valuation of ecosystems.
Description:
While ecological indicators should have relevance to people, a clear methodology to develop and evaluate this characteristic of ecological indicators is not well developed. Economists developed the concept of “Final Ecosystem Goods and Services”. Because these features are the biophysical units that have direct intuitive meaning to people, they are the units most useful in describing ecosystems in a relevant manner and therefore in analysis of human well being. Using data from a regional survey, we illustrate a method to report on these “linking” indicators for multiple ways in which people benefit from aquatic ecosystems. Ways that we can examine include irrigation, municipal and cooling water use, non-use values and multiple modes of fishing. Notably, these preliminary indicators are not well correlated with each other suggesting that single indicators may not meaningfully represent status and trends for all of the ways in which people benefit from streams. In addition to illustrating these indicators, we also identify specific limitations in the types of data collected that preclude better representation of the goods and services provided by streams, but also limitations in our capacity to translate measurements into socially meaningful representations in a defensible manner.