Federal Resource Management and Ecosystem Services Guidebook nespguidebook.com The Federal Resource Management and Ecosystem Services Guidebook LINKING ECOLOGICAL & SOCIAL: BENEFIT RELEVANT INDICATORS ACES Workshop 2014 Lisa Wainger, PhD Research Professor University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science

Benefit Relevant Indicators Assessing Potential Ecosystem Service Benefits Dr. Lisa A. Wainger University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science ACES Workshop: Methods for Incorporating Ecosystem Services into Planning and Decision-Making December 8, 2014

What are Benefit Relevant Indicators? Measures used to adjust ecological outcomes to reflect the social context Incorporate economic concepts that suggest potential value but do not directly measure value Useful in cost-effectiveness analysis, risk assessment, and performance metrics A stepping stone to valuation (via benefit transfer) or provide inputs into multi-criteria decision analysis

Alternative Ecosystem Service Metrics 1. Management Activity 2. Ecological Outcomes 3. Ecosystem Services 4. Social Benefits Bridging IndicatorsBenefit Relevant Indicators Monetary Values OUTPUTS Increasing Information to Inform Tradeoffs

Economic principles applied in indicator development Not every ecological change creates a benefit ▫ A benefit is when someone is made better off Supply and demand conditions determine magnitude of changes in benefits ▫ Scarcity = demand in excess of supply People may substitute or adapt rather than replace lost goods and services ▫ Substitutability People value assets that produce dependable streams of goods and services ▫ Reliability

Benefit Relevant Categories 1.Quality is sufficient ▫ Beach is wide enough for recreation 2.Complements - Capital and labor available ▫ Crops close enough to be pollinated 3.Demand - Users or beneficiaries present / possible ▫ # Houses protected (not already protected by seawall) 4.Reliability of the future stream of services ▫ Adjacent land is protected 5.Scarcity and substitutability ▫ Conservation Priority / no alternative restoration sites

Property Protection Service Indicator Example Bridge support Value of time saved (?) Change in wave height at bridge Reduced days of bridge closure (? days / yr) Commuting time saved (4,000 hr/day)

Conclusions Potential benefits are often reflected by the relative scarcity of the ecosystem good or service ▫ Use BRIs to:  Demonstrate a service is possible  Characterize the scarcity Benefit relevant indicators provide context for ecological indicators ▫ Suggest what people might be willing to pay for, given their behavior within and outside of markets

Options for Combining Indicators Pick one indicator – no combining Put on common scale – no combining Best professional judgment Multivariate statistical approaches Empirical relationships

Example of using best professional judgment Conservation priorities from combining benefit- relevant indicators CriticalEndangeredVulnerableRelatively Stable Relatively Intact Globally Outstanding IIIIII Regionally Outstanding II III Bioregionally Outstanding IV VVV Nationally Important IV VVV 11 Ricketts et al Biological Distinctiveness Conservation Status

Multivariate Statistical Techniques to Combine Indicators Distance Metrics Initial State Future State Ideal State Anti-Ideal State Management Effectiveness

Quality Mapping Wildlife Viewing Service – Bridging Indicators Connectivity -Connected to Green Infrastructure Corridor Rarity - # Rare Plants; - Only park occurrence Attractiveness -Vegetation Diversity -Miles of Stream Adjacent to Trail Gower Distance Metric = Wildlife Viewing Quality Metric

Combine using weighted combination Wildlife Viewing Quality Metric 0 - 3,662 3, ,324 7, ,985 10, ,647 14, ,309 = U Demand (user days) Benefit Indicator

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