Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
O
cultural services that provide recreational, aesthetic, tourism and spiritual
benefits;
O
supporting services which underpin all the above such as biodiversity
maintenance, soil formation, photosynthesis, and nutrient cycling.
The second question is aptly addressed by Plant
et al
is (2012) framework
for applying ecosystem services to water resource planning, which is built
around identifying benefits and beneficiaries and linking them back to the
water resource via services. The framework differentiates the services provided
by ecosystems from the benefits received by people in order to avoid double-
counting in economic evaluations and environmental accounting, and to link
ecosystem services, benefits and beneficiaries in a transparent way.
Under this framework (illustrated in Figure 5.1):
O
Beneficiaries are the people to whom benefits from aquatic ecosystems
accrue.
O
Benefits are the gains in well-being dependent on ecosystem services that
are obtained by beneficiaries.
O
Services are the features, characteristics or conditions of the aquatic
systems upon which benefits depend. The distinction between a service
and a benefit as used here is simply that a benefit typically requires some
contribution from people, whereas an ecosystem service requires only the
ecosystem.
O
Processes are similar to the MEA's 'supporting services'. They are split
into two parts. One is the hydrologic processes relevant to water resource
planning, labelled as the 'water regime'. These are the characteristics of an
Figure 5.1
Linking water resources to benefits via services
(Source: Plant
et al
. 2012 p. 6. Used with permission.)
