Review of decision support tools to operationalize the ecosystem services concept

The ecosystem services concept provides a valuable framework for analyzing and acting on the linkages between people and their environment. By making the values of nature explicit, it allows discussions about trade-offs between services and thus a prioritization of management options. The integration of the ecosystem services concept into decision making remains however challenging. Based on a thorough literature review of 68 tools for integrating ecosystem services into decision making, we analyze the current state, gaps and trends in the operationalization of the ecosystem services concept. We evaluate how well various policy sectors are covered with the tools and highlight gaps where more development is needed. While for some policy sectors such as agriculture or forestry several tools have been developed to support the integration of nature's benefits into concrete decisions, tools are missing where the link between policies and ecosystem services is less evident for example regarding cultural services related to land use policies as well as services supported by soils. Furthermore, the successful implementation of tools requires a good understanding of decision-making processes to bridge gaps in the science-policy interface. Based on the analysis of the application of tools in case studies, we evaluate the establishment of tools over time in different policy sectors and the frequency of their application.

[1]  Adrienne Grêt-Regamey,et al.  Facing uncertainty in ecosystem services-based resource management. , 2013, Journal of environmental management.

[2]  Louise Willemen,et al.  A blueprint for mapping and modelling ecosystem services , 2013 .

[3]  Eeva Primmer,et al.  Operationalising ecosystem service approaches for governance: Do measuring, mapping and valuing integrate sector-specific knowledge systems? , 2012 .

[4]  Graham Jewitt,et al.  Mapping ecosystem services across scales and continents – A review , 2015 .

[5]  K. Seto,et al.  Global forecasts of urban expansion to 2030 and direct impacts on biodiversity and carbon pools , 2012, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[6]  G. Daily,et al.  Biodiversity loss and its impact on humanity , 2012, Nature.

[7]  Joachim Maes,et al.  Mapping ecosystem services' values: current practice and future prospects. , 2013 .

[8]  C. Dormann,et al.  A quantitative review of ecosystem service studies: approaches, shortcomings and the road ahead , 2011 .

[9]  R. D. Groot,et al.  The history of ecosystem services in economic theory and practice: From early notions to markets and payment schemes , 2010 .

[10]  B. Nykvist,et al.  The use and non-use of policy appraisal tools in public policy making: an analysis of three European countries and the European Union , 2008 .

[11]  Gregory Verutes,et al.  Process matters: a framework for conducting decision-relevant assessments of ecosystem services , 2015 .

[12]  J. Farley.  Ecosystem services: The economics debate , 2012 .

[13]  S. Carpenter,et al.  Decision-making under great uncertainty: environmental management in an era of global change. , 2011, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[14]  Christer Carlsson,et al.  Past, present, and future of decision support technology , 2002, Decis. Support Syst..

[15]  D. McCauley.  Selling out on nature , 2006, Nature.

[16]  Y. Laurans,et al.  Use of ecosystem services economic valuation for decision making: questioning a literature blindspot. , 2013, Journal of environmental management.

[17]  E. Lambin,et al.  The emergence of land change science for global environmental change and sustainability , 2007, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[18]  Joseph H. A. Guillaume,et al.  Making Progress in Integrated Modelling and Environmental Decision Support , 2011, ISESS.

[19]  H. Wittmer,et al.  “Maps have an air of authority”: Potential benefits and challenges of ecosystem service maps at different levels of decision making , 2013 .

[20]  P. Verburg,et al.  Mapping ecosystem services demand: A review of current research and future perspectives , 2015 .

[21]  A. Jordan,et al.  Proceeding in Parallel or Drifting Apart? A Systematic Review of Policy Appraisal Research and Practices , 2012 .

[22]  Adrienne Grêt-Regamey,et al.  Ecosystem services visualization and communication: A demand analysis approach for designing information and conceptualizing decision support systems , 2015 .

[23]  Darius J. Semmens,et al.  A comparative assessment of decision-support tools for ecosystem services quantification and valuation , 2013 .

[24]  M. Reed.  Stakeholder participation for environmental management: A literature review , 2008 .

[25]  B. Martín‐López,et al.  Trade-offs across value-domains in ecosystem services assessment. , 2014 .

[26]  Patricia Balvanera,et al.  Methods for mapping ecosystem service supply: a review , 2012 .

[27]  B. Grizzetti,et al.  Mapping ecosystem services for policy support and decision making in the European Union , 2012 .

[28]  G. Daily,et al.  Ecosystem Services in Decision Making: Time to Deliver , 2009 .

[29]  O. Bina,et al.  New Agendas for Appraisal: Reflections on Theory, Practice, and Research , 2004 .

[30]  J. Ioannidis,et al.  The PRISMA Statement for Reporting Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses of Studies That Evaluate Health Care Interventions: Explanation and Elaboration , 2009, Annals of Internal Medicine [serial online].

[31]  Jan Staes,et al.  A GIS plug-in for Bayesian belief networks: Towards a transparent software framework to assess and visualise uncertainties in ecosystem service mapping , 2015, Environ. Model. Softw..

[32]  S. Carpenter,et al.  Global Consequences of Land Use , 2005, Science.

[33]  A. Scolobig,et al.  Choosing the most appropriate sustainability assessment tool , 2012 .

[34]  H. Mooney,et al.  The Intergovernmental science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: moving a step closer to an IPCC-like mechanism for biodiversity , 2010 .

[35]  N. Chettri,et al.  The evolution of ecosystem services: A time series and discourse-centered analysis , 2015 .

[36]  David M. Stoms,et al.  Modeling wildlife and other trade‐offs with biofuel crop production , 2012 .

[37]  Y. Laurans,et al.  Ecosystem services economic valuation, decision-support system or advocacy? , 2014 .

[38]  Lennart Olsson,et al.  Categorising tools for sustainability assessment , 2007 .

[39]  Greg Brown,et al.  Empirical PPGIS/PGIS mapping of ecosystem services: A review and evaluation , 2015 .

[40]  Ralf Seppelt,et al.  Form follows function? Proposing a blueprint for ecosystem service assessments based on reviews and case studies , 2012 .

[41]  S. Carpenter,et al.  Science for managing ecosystem services: Beyond the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment , 2009, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[42]  R. Costanza,et al.  Contributions of cultural services to the ecosystem services agenda , 2012, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[43]  Stephen R. Carpenter,et al.  Opening the Black Boxes: Ecosystem Science and Economic Valuation , 2000, Ecosystems.

[44]  G. Daily,et al.  Notes from the field: Lessons learned from using ecosystem service approaches to inform real-world decisions , 2015 .

[45]  R. Costanza,et al.  Global mapping of ecosystem services and conservation priorities , 2008, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[46]  W. Adams,et al.  The value of valuing nature , 2014, Science.

[47]  John Turnpenny,et al.  A FRAMEWORK FOR TOOL SELECTION AND USE IN INTEGRATED ASSESSMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT , 2007 .

[48]  Kevin J. Gaston,et al.  The impact of proxy‐based methods on mapping the distribution of ecosystem services , 2010 .

[49]  V. N. Jonge,et al.  Integrating ecological, economic and social aspects to generate useful management information under the EU Directives' ‘ecosystem approach’ , 2012 .

[50]  Kenneth J. Bagstad,et al.  A decision framework for identifying models to estimate forest ecosystem services gains from restoration , 2016, Forest Ecosystems.

[51]  Lynn Scarlett,et al.  Ecosystem services and resource management: Institutional issues, challenges, and opportunities in the public sector , 2015 .

[52]  W. Steffen.  Interdisciplinary research for managing ecosystem services , 2009, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.