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Ecosystem Services Approaches to Restoring a Sustainable Chesapeake Bay and its Tributary Watersheds
Citation:
Wainger, L., G. Van Houtven, B. Rashleigh, N. Detenbeck, J. Messer, S. Jordan, AND A. Rea. Ecosystem Services Approaches to Restoring a Sustainable Chesapeake Bay and its Tributary Watersheds. U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-15/092, 2015.
Impact/Purpose:
Many watersheds/estuaries are suffering from water quality impairment, which is addressed through total maximum daily loads (TMDLs), which limit the allowable amount of pollutant loads. Despite progress, meeting TMDL limits presents challenging tradeoffs in where/how to control pollution sources. EPA’s Office of Research and Development undertook a project to explore the cost-effectiveness and the legal and social feasibility of innovative policies and institutional arrangements to reduce the costs of meeting the TMDLs for nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment, while at the same time promoting the creation or restoration of “bonus” ecosystem services not related to water quality in the Bay. This work supports implementation of the TMDL using a least-cost approach, and developed methods and tools that are transferrable to other impaired estuaries.
Description:
Within this set of reports and papers, the authors developed an optimization framework to examine how incorporating selected co-benefits (carbon sequestration, recreation/hunting, air quality) of nutrient reductions alters their optimal distribution in the watershed. They used the optimization framework to: 1) include benefits from water quality improvements in rivers; and 2) assess TMDL costs reductions under alternative trading scenarios. Additionally,ecosystem services that cannot be monetized but are linked to human welfare were reviewed and quantified.