Mapping & Assessing Ecosystem Services
Ecosystem services is a term now used to describe the range of things the environment does for people. Other people refer to them as nature’s benefits. They range from reducing flood risk to providing opportunities for recreation.
Assessing and measuring ecosystem services
A practical guide to ecosystem service assessment has been published by the Institution of Environmental Sciences. This contains information on what ecosystem services are, and how to go about assessing them.
Environment and Climate Change Canada has produced a ‘tool kit’ entitled Completing and using ecosystem service assessment for decision-making. While intended primarily for analysts of public policies and projects, it is useful to a wide range of professionals.
The TESSA toolkit provides guidance on how to measure and monitor ecosystem services at the site scale, and was developed by Anglia Ruskin University, BirdLife International, Cambridge University, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre.
A Natural England report, Mapping values: the vital nature of our uplands, contains examples of data that can be used as proxy indicators of ecosystem service provision.
Ecosystems Interactions on the Somerset Levels was a Defra-sponsored appraisal of ecosystem services in this part of England.
