InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs)

Overview

Description:

InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs) is a suite of open-source software models for mapping and valuing the ecosystem services provided by land and seascapes. It uses data about the environment to explore how changes in ecosystems are likely to affect the flow of benefits to people. It is designed to inform decisions about natural resource management.

Input:

Predominantly GIS / map data; information tables (usually.csv format)

Output:

Maps

Scale:

Site scale

Local scale

Landscape scale

Regional scale

National scale

Multi-scale

Cost of the tool (and guidance):

Open access (free)

Context:

A range of land uses

Resource requirement (software):

InVEST was originally developed as script tools in the ArcGIS ArcToolBox environment, but all models are now available as stand-alone software and the ArcGIS versions are no longer supported [3] . You will need a mapping software such as QGIS or ArcGIS to view your results and perform any further analysis (e.g., overlays). No specific software is needed to view TIFF outputs [29].

Level of technical expertise required:

Basic – intermediate GIS skills

Types of ecosystem service included:

Regulating

Provisioning

Cultural

Habitat type (UK NEA habitats):

Mountains, moors and heaths

Semi-natural grasslands

Enclosed farmland

Woodland

Freshwater, wetlands and floodplains

Urban

Marine

Coastal margins

How does it work?:

InVEST is designed to inform decisions about natural resource management in terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems. The models use input data (map/GIS data and information in tables) to explore how changes in ecosystems are likely to affect the flow of benefits provided to people.

It consists of 18 software models for mapping and valuing ecosystem services, plus a number of supporting tools to help with preparing, processing and visualising data. Models can be applied at multiple scales. Most models use a 'production function' approach, meaning that the ecosystem service output (map) is derived using information about environmental condition and processes. The final map result is expressed in either biophysical terms (i.e. a quantity) or economic terms. InVEST is suitable for users who wish to look at multiple services or have multiple objectives for their area of interest.

Where can I get it?:

http://www.naturalcapitalproject.org/invest/

For references e.g. [01] see the reference list.

Case Studies

Number of case studies in the uk:

Up to 10 sites

Examples of case studies in the uk :

Milton Keynes 'Urban-BESS' (Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Sustainability)

The Urban-BESS project modelled potential carbon storage, soil erosion and pollination to test the sensitivity of the model outputs according to the spatial resolution of input data, and whether any scale dependency was constant across the different models [26]. Fine-scale (5m) maps predicted more carbon storage and less soil erosion than coarse-scale (25m) maps, but pollination was visually predicted to occur more using coarse-scale maps. The scale at which the landscape is mapped and modelled is important and the best scale depends heavily on what ecosystem service is being investigated and the character of the landscape (e.g. urban areas are more complex than rural areas).

Wessex-BESS

Wessex-BESS is a consortium project investigating biodiversity and ecosystem services under different land use scenarios in lowland agricultural landscapes in central southern England. As part of this project, the InVEST models for water yield, water quality and pollination have been validated against independent data on point measurements of these ecosystem services (or close proxies). Data from the UK National River Flow Archive and the Environment Agency on water flow and water chemistry were collated and compared to predictions from InVEST models for 20 UK catchments [115, 122]. For the InVEST pollination model, validation is still in progress comparing InVEST model outputs to pollinator monitoring data (held by CEH).

Scotland

InVEST was used mainly for water and (only partly) pollination-related modelling in Scotland [33, 34]. In addition, researchers investigated the relevance and importance of landscape configuration (the spatial arrangement of different land-cover types) for mapping ecosystem service (ES) capacity at the local / watershed scale [35]. Configuration affected the capacity of all four of the ES mapped; especially flood control and sediment retention. ES were affected by different aspects of configuration, and thus specific methods are required to map each one. Accounting for configuration is important for the assessment of certain ES and provides an opportunity for spatial optimization of ES capacity at local and landscape scales

Aberdeenshire Land Use Strategy Pilot

Aberdeenshire Council in partnership with The James Hutton Institute are using InVEST for water-related modelling to identify where land-use change may be detrimental or beneficial in line with policy goals and climate change mitigation / adaptation [34, 36].

Detailed information

Key data sources:

The InVEST Users Guide [1]

Information about InVEST available on The Natural Capital Project website [3]. (The website offers a library of papers published by Natural Capital Project authors, a database of publications using InVEST by other authors, and key papers documenting each of the models within InVEST).

Natural Capital Protocol Fact Sheet for InVEST [117]

Original purpose:

The tool was developed by the Natural Capital Project and is intended to be used in the decision-making process, especially in assessing trade-offs that arise over land use. The Natural Capital Approach involves stakeholder consultations (general discussion, outlining questions of interest and defining the scope), followed by scenario development (where data are compiled and models are run). The outputs are assessed and synthesized, and can then be used to inform decisions. The Natural Capital Project has used InVEST in over 20 decision contexts worldwide, including for spatial planning, corporate risk management, ecosystem restoration, assessing development impacts and designing Payment for Ecosystem Services schemes [1].

User groups:

Decision-makers (main users)
Stakeholders
NGO / Non-profit Organisations
Conservation Organisations
Government Agencies
Local Authorities
Corporations
Scientists
Analysts

Original geographic scope:

Global scope (Natural Capital projects)

Terrestrial, freshwater or marine focus?:

Terrestrial

Freshwater

Marine focus

Specific ecosystem services modelled:

Carbon Storage and Sequestration - [4] Estimates the current amount of carbon stored in a landscape and values the amount sequestered over time. Option to estimate economic value to society. Can perform uncertainty analysis.
Coastal Blue Carbon - [5] Estimates the value of carbon storage and sequestration by coastal ecosystems (vegetation and wetland habitats).
Coastal Vulnerability - [6] Uses geophysical and habitat data to estimate coastal exposure to erosion and flooding. Can overlay population density to identify areas where humans face higher risk.
Crop Pollination - [7] Estimates insect pollinator nest sites, floral resource and flight ranges to provide an index of pollinator abundance. Can also create an index of the value of the pollinators to agricultural production.
Fisheries Production - [8] Population dynamics modelling. Estimates the harvest volume and economic value of single-species fisheries within a user defined area.
Habitat Quality - [9] Estimates the extent and threat (degradation) of vegetation and habitats and uses such information on habitat quality and rarity as proxies for biodiversity in a landscape. No economic value is placed on biodiversity.
Habitat Risk Assessment - [10] Evaluates risks posed to habitats and allows users to visualise areas on the landscape or seascape where impacts of climate change and human pressures may create trade-offs among multiple ecosystem services.
Marine Fish Aquaculture - [12] Estimates weight and economic value of Atlantic Salmon grown in netpen aquaculture facilities. Default fish parameters can be provided and uncertainty analyses conducted.
Nearshore Waves and Erosion - [14] Quantifies the protective services provided by nearshore natural habitats in terms of avoiding erosion and flood mitigation. Requires marine python extensions for ArcGIS.
Offshore wind energy - [15] Measures electricity generation potential offshore and over large lakes.
Recreation - [16] Predicts the spread of person-days of recreation using the known locations of natural habitats and other recreational features. Model is parameterised using geotagged Flickr photographs (to represent visitation data). Can predict how changes to natural habitats may affect future patterns of recreational use.
Reservoir Hydropower Production - [17] Estimates the annual quantity of water produced by a watershed and then estimates the economic value of the water yield for hydropower production.
Scenic Quality - [18] Assesses the visual quality of a landscape based on sited or planned development features that impact on visual quality. Scenic quality can be valued in a number of ways (e.g. viewer days per year or a monetary value of scenic quality change using peer-reviewed literature). The model can assess viewsheds to determine optimal site locations for a new development.
Sediment Retention - [19] Estimates the capacity of a land parcel to retain sediment using information on climate, geomorphology, vegetation and management practice. The model can value the landscape in terms of water quality maintenance and determine the economic cost of sediment removal (e.g. from reservoirs).
Water Purification - [20] Estimates the capacity of a land parcel to retain nutrients. Uses data on water treatment costs to calculate the economic value contributed by each part of the watershed to water purification. Potential to model current and future landuse scenarios to help inform conservation efforts / clean water supply.
Wave energy - [21] Values the electricity generation potential of ocean waves. The model estimates expected wave power and harvested energy, and calculates the net present value of constructing and operating a wave energy conversion facility. Allows users to evaluate cost and production tradeoffs.

Datasets (required):

Please note: different models require different datasets.

Carbon Storage and Sequestration - Land-use/ land-cover map; Carbon stock values (carbon stored in above and belowground biomass, dead organic matter and soil).
Coastal Blue Carbon - Land-use/ land-cover map; Carbon stock values (carbon stored in biomass, soil and litter); Information on carbon disturbance and accumulation rates over time.
Coastal Vulnerability - Coastal region (polygon data); Natural coastal habitats; Wind data.
Crop Pollination - Land-use/ land-cover map; Table of pollinator species; Table of landcover attributes (scaled 0 -1) e.g. nest information and flowering season.
Fisheries Production - Species information to fulfill model parameters. See [8] for more information.
Habitat Quality - Land-use/ land-cover map; Threat data (e.g. roads, agriculture, pollution); Source of threats; Habitat type and sensitivity to threat; Half-saturation constant.
Habitat Risk Assessment - Multiple and dependent on user requirement. See [10] for more information.
Marine Fish Aquaculture - Multiple. See [12] for more information.
Nearshore Waves and Erosion - Multiple. See [14] for more information.
Offshore wind energy - Multiple. See [15] for more information.
Recreation - Area of interest map.
Reservoir Hydropower Production - Multiple. See [17] for more information.
Scenic Quality - Area of interest map; Features impacting on scenic quality (point data); Digital Elevation Model; Refractivity coefficient; Population data.
Sediment Retention - Digital Elevation Model; Rainfall Erosivity Index; Soil erodibility; Land-use/ land-cover map; Watersheds; Biophysical table; Threshold flow accumulation; Hydrology and soil texture calibration parameters (defaults available).
Water Purification - Digital Elevation Model; Root restricting layer depth; Precipitation values; Plant available water content; Average annual potential evapotranspiration rates; Land-use/ land-cover map; Watersheds; Biophysical table; Threshold flow accumulation value; Water purification valuation table; Water purification threshold table.
Wave energy - Multiple, see [21] for more information.

Datasets (optional):

Carbon Storage and Sequestration - Harvest rates; Land-cover map for future scenarios; Economical data.
Coastal Vulnerability - Population data; Sea level change; Surge potential depth contour.
Crop Pollination - Half-saturation constant; Land-cover map for future scenarios.
Habitat Quality - Land-cover map for future scenarios; Baseline / historical land-cover map; Relative protection against threats (0-1)
Recreation - Additional predictor variables (e.g., population data, protected area data, protected habitats, land-use / land-cover map)
Scenic Quality - Overlap Analysis Features (polygon)
Sediment Retention - Drainage layer (e.g. roads, stormwater pipes).

Time requirements:

Moderate-high

Estimated working days to complete a project:

Simple analysis - 1 day. Detailed stakeholder engagement project - several years.

Tool accessibility:

Open access

License information:

Free cost software project under BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) open source license.

Current version:

Version 3.3.3

Updates:

Approxmately every 3 months.

Technical support provided?:

Training workshops via Natural Capital website.
General Help Forum (http://forums.naturalcapitalproject.org/) - not solely for InVEST queries and support.
On-line course (MOOC) @ https://lagunita.stanford.edu/courses/HumanitiesSciences/NCP_101/SelfPac...

Developer (organisation):

The Natural Capital Project - a partnership among Stanford University, WWF (World Wildlife Fund), The Nature Conservancy, and the Institute on the Environment at University of Minnesota

Developer (organisation type):

Non-Governmental Organisation
Non-profit Conservation Organisation
Academic

Developer (individuals):

Richard Sharp, Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer, Spencer Wood, Anne Guerry, Heather Tallis, Taylor Ricketts and many others (see project team at https://www.naturalcapitalproject.org/people/)

Primary contact:

contact@naturalcapitalproject.org

Publications:

The InVEST website contains:

Information about each model with supporting references (mostly scientific publications).
Invest Users Guide.
Information about "Helper tools" with accompanying user guides.
Links to the Natural Capital "Publications Library" containing all publication information (white papers, peer-reviewed articles, newsletters, news articles, training materials)
Link to a database of publications using InVEST (including those by authors not affiliated with NatCap)

Number of case studies outside the uk:

Over 20 projects worldwide by Natural Capital Project staff and partners. Also, active users in 80+ countries.

Examples of case studies outside of uk:

Willamette Basin, Oregon, USA

This study used InVEST to predict changes in ecosystem services, biodiversity conservation and community production levels and to monitor tradeoffs at a landscape scale using stakeholder-defined scenarios of landuse change in the Willamette Basin, Oregon, USA. Scenarios that received high scores for a number of different ES had high scores for biodiversity suggesting little tradeoff between biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services. Scenarios involving increased development had higher commodity production values, but lower levels of biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services. Including payments for carbon sequestration alleviated this tradeoff. Analyzing tradeoffs between ES can help with natural resource decision making [24].

China, Baoxing County

Planners base their landuse plans on 'Ecosystem Function Conservation Areas' which indicate areas that have high importance for ecosystem services and biodiversity. InVEST was used to design development zones to avoid sites with high ES provision and importance for nature conservation. The InVEST output maps highlighted that development activities were planned in areas important for a number of priority ES. This led to reconsideration of development plans by the local government [25]. See also the more recent example of the National Ecosystem Assessment for China [120].

Hawaii, O'ahu

InVEST models were used to help the largest private landowner in Hawaii implement a plan to fulfil their mission to balance environmental, economic, cultural, education and community values. Alternative planning and land-use scenarios were modelled (e.g. returning agricultural land to sugarcane biofuel stock, residential development and agricultural and forest diversification). The quantified services were carbon storage, water quality and financial return from the land. Cultural services were input qualitatively. Results led to a decision to rehabilitate irrigation infrastructure and to invest in the diversification of forestry and agriculture [25].

Tool limitations:

Data access limitations.
Data quality limitations.
Potential for over simplification of models.
Many of the supporting documents cited are scientific publications which may not be open access.

Other information:

Limitations and assumptions of each model are clearly explained in the information provided by tool developers.
Clear methodologies provided for each model.
Time required depends on data need and availability to support modelling. Time can be reduced if the literature that can be used to parameterize the models is compiled beforehand.
InVEST developers are working on building models that will use globally available datasets and will better incorporate beneficiaries [116, 119].

Third party reviews / cross:

Bagstad et al. (2013) [2] conducted a comparative assessment of decision-support tools for ecosystem service quantification and valuation in the San Pedro river basin, Arizona, USA. The key findings were that InVEST is appropriate in contexts where ecological processes are well-understood but many models can be data and time-intensive to apply. They recognised the need for an improved data archive that contains information about what data are needed to populate the models and descriptions of the contexts under which the data and models are applicable.

Nemec et al. (2013) [120] surveyed users of a number of GIS models for mapping ecosystem services, including InVEST and ARIES, in 2011. They concluded that the strengths of InVEST, as identified by survey respondents, included ease of use, simplicity, good selection of important ecosystem services, peer-reviewed methodology and multi-functionality, plus the growing community of users that share information within a supported InVEST forum, as well as support offered from the developer team. Weaknesses identified by survey respondents including the modeling capabilities of freshwater services, the biodiversity model, the potential for oversimplification, and lack of sufficient explanation of the models in the user guide.

InVEST was also reviewed in the 2013 Natural England review of green infrastructure valuation tools carried out by eftec/Cascade [131].