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Ecosystem goods and services at the neighborhood scale
Citation:
Russell, M., A. Teague, F. Alvarez, D. Dantin, AND J. Nestlerode. Ecosystem goods and services at the neighborhood scale. Presented at Ecosystem Services Partnership Conference 2012, July 31 - August 04, 2012.
Impact/Purpose:
Abstract for submission to ESP conference 2012
Description:
Mapping ecosystem functions and articulating the ecosystem goods and services (EGS) they provide to human beneficiaries are important aspects that: link human actions to human costs and benefits from ecosystem, and ultimately provide this information to the general public, public representatives, and scientists in an understandable manner. Ecosystem goods and services for a land/seascape are produced at a rate that is dependent on ecosystem type and the levels of complementary factors or stressors on that area. The spatial arrangement of complementary factors, such as location of human residences, water flow paths, and transportation networks is paramount in turning these potential EGS into realized EGS with actual benefits to real beneficiaries. At a neighborhood scale, we combined the Florida Land Use/Cover Classification System dataset with supplementary information housed in the NLCD’s database, as well as data layers of residential parcel boundaries, transportation networks, and digital elevation models to allow us to partition quantifiable attributes of the production of EGS by ecosystem type. Here we present mapped inventories of measures of EGS production at a neighborhood scale within the Tampa Bay, FL region. Biophysical attributes currently considered as direct measurements or indicators of EGS production include carbon sequestration, nitrogen removal, atmospheric pollution removal, shading, water viewscapes, greenspace, and biodiversity. A subset of these EGS can be translated from their biophysical measurements to derived benefits weighted by a specified group of beneficiaries. In this case the beneficiaries are mostly local residents, however for the larger scale processes of nitrogen removal and carbon sequestration, the beneficiary groups are also associated with watershed and global scale boundaries. Changes in EGS production between 1990 and 2009 as well as between two alternative neighborhood designs are presented.