Elsevier

Ecosystem Services

How ecosystem services are changing: an accounting application at the European union level

Nether a Creative Commons license

Open access

Highlights

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Nosotros accounted for ecosystem services using methods with levels of complexity.

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Provisioning services refer to the ecosystem contribution (non to human being inputs).

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Spatial models are useful to quantify the apply of the service (actual flow).

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The assessment of the demand not covered by ecosystems is useful for determination making.

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The value of each ecosystem blazon represents the yearly flow of the ecosystem asset.

Abstract

Ecosystem services accounts are a useful tool that provides relevant data on the role of ecosystems in delivering services, and the social club benefiting from them. This paper presents the accounting workflow for ecosystem services at the European Spousal relationship level adopted by the Knowledge Innovation Project on an Integrated system for Natural Capital and ecosystem services Accounting (KIP INCA) - a European Commission initiative. The workflow includes: 1) biophysical assessment of ecosystem services; two) monetary valuation; and three) compilation of accounting tables. Supply and use tables are presented for half dozen ecosystem services assessed so far. The supply table shows woodland and forest, followed by wetlands, as the ecosystem types with the highest monetary value per unit area. Analyses of changes between 2000 and 2012 testify an overall increment of the budgetary value of ecosystem services, mainly due to an increment in need for them. We besides discuss advantages and disadvantages of adopting a fast-track arroyo, based on official statistics, in comparison to an accounting strategy based on spatial models. Nosotros suggest a novel workflow for ecosystem services accounts, focused on assessment of the actual flow of ecosystem services, making a significant contribution to further development of the technical recommendations for ecosystem services accounts.

Keywords

Supply table

Use table

Official statistics

Spatial models

Drivers of changes

Monetary value

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© 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.