Linking ecosystem services to strategic environmental assessment in development policies

This paper first, introduces the concept of mainstreaming ecosystem services by showing its relevance for development planning. Second, it presents the role and importance of strategic environmental assessment in designing and implementation of development policy. Third, the paper sets-out the concept of economic valuation of ecosystem services by discussing what it means and what is at stake if valuation of ecosystem services is ignored in the process of development policy making. The methods of capturing economic contribution of ecosystem services at policy level are discussed with examples in the paper.The main focus of this paper is how ecosystem services can be used in policy scale environmental impact assessment. The paper argues that ecosystem services can be an appropriate indicator to weight developmental policies, programs and plans to ensure the consideration of environmental balancing at the policy level. The paper suggests that the roles of ecosystem services in macroeconomic policies including ecosystem accounting, poverty alleviation and employment generation can be used to link environmental policies and SEA with development policies for a successful impact assessment at policy and program levels. By building upon the various contemporary initiatives within UNEP and outside, the paper in its synthesis section, flags-up necessary knowledge gaps, challenges and lessons learned in integrating values of ecosystem services in strategic environmental assessments.     

Linking phosphorus export and hydrologic modeling: a case study in Central Italy

Soil erosion is an open topic, not only because soil fertility is lost, but also because nutrients are spilled into water bodies, thereby causing pollution. Research carried out in this field has amply described this process, but the interaction between these factors is complex and experimental research is needed to understand the production of loads of nutrients for different land uses. This paper describes a long-term monitoring case study using high-resolution rainfall data and runoff samples, carried out in the Lake Vico basin (Central Italy) to determine the phosphorus (P) export during erosive rainfall events. State of the art GIS-based basin characterization and advanced rainfall-runoff models are employed in order to describe the relationship between nutrient export and rainfall or runoff time distribution. Results show that the phosphorus export is strongly related to such time distributions, and less to the cumulative amount of rainfall or runoff.     

Lichen transplants as a suitable tool to identify mercury pollution from waste incinerators: a case study from NE Italy

A lichen transplant study aimed at investigating a strong increase in mercury concentrations in lichens was run in a territory of NE Italy where background values were very low only 8 years before. Thalli of the lichen Pseudevernia furfuracea collected in a pristine area were exposed for 1.5, 3 and 6 months at 31 sites selected according to the observed pattern of Hg concentrations, location of the suspected source (a new waste incinerator) and prevailing wind direction. Hg strongly increased at eight sites after 1.5 months, at 12 after 3 months and at 20 after 6 months. The highest values were always located SW and S of the incinerator, in good agreement with the prevailing night wind direction. It was concluded that, although the immediate risk for the population living close to the incinerator is low, long-term hazard due to Hg accumulation in the surrounding environment should be seriously taken into account.     

Impact of socioeconomic development on ecosystem services and its conservation strategies: a case study of Shandong Province,China

Ecosystems and their components provide a lot of benefits for the welfare of human beings. Coupled with increasing socioeconomic development, most of the rapidly developing and transitional countries and regions have been experiencing dramatic land use changes. This has resulted in a large amount of forestland, grassland, and wetland being occupied as residential and industrial land or reclaimed for arable land, which in turn results in a sharp deterioration of ecosystem services around the world. Shandong Province, an economically powerful province of China, was chosen as a case study in order to capture the impact of socioeconomic development on ecosystem services. By way of the study, land uses and their changes were categorized between 1980 and 2006, and the ecosystem services capital and changes of 111 counties of Shandong Province in different phases were evaluated, as well as the total ecosystem services capital, followed by the zoning of ecosystem services function region of Shandong Province. We found that the counties in mountainous areas and wetlands, where generally the prefectural-level cities are located with a rapid socioeconomic development, experienced a successive deterioration of ecosystem services especially during the 2000s. Finally, three conservation strategies for managing and improving ecosystem services were proposed and discussed with the aim of achieving coordinate and sustainable development of the socioeconomy, environment, and ecosystems not only in Shandong Province but also in other provinces of China, as well as in other developing and transitional countries and regions.     

A web application to support the quantification and valuation of ecosystem services

Assessing the impacts of policies on a wide range of ecosystem services can support the development of cost-effective policies that establish win–win situations across different environmental domains. To explore the quantity and value of ecosystem services, the web-based application “nature value explorer” was developed. The application allows to estimate the impact of land use and land cover change on regulating and cultural ecosystem services in Flanders, Belgium. To ensure the applicability in day-to-day decision making as part of environmental impact assessments, user requirements were investigated prior to tool development. Finding the optimal balance between accuracy and complexity on the one hand and flexibility and user-friendliness on the other hand was an important challenge. To date, the nature value explorer has been successful in drawing the interest of policy makers and has been used several times to support decisions in infrastructure projects as well as in nature restoration projects in Flanders. This paper discusses the user requirements, the main tool characteristics, potential policy applications and future improvements. Three case studies illustrate the functionalities of the tool in day-to-day decision making. The tool can be consulted on http://www.natuurwaardeverkenner.be.     

Developing an optimal sampling design. A case study in a coastal marine ecosystem

The development of a sampling design for optimisingsampling site locations collected from a coastalmarine environment has been the purpose of the presentwork; application of statistical analysis and spatialautocorrelation methods have been carried out. Thedataset included data collected from 34 sampling sitesspaced out in the Strait of Lesbos, Greece, arrangedin a 1×1 NM grid. The coastal shallow ecosystem wassubdivided into three zones, an inner one (7stations), a middle one (16 stations) and an offshorezone (11 stations). The standard error of thechlorophyll-a concentrations in each zone hasbeen used as the criterion for the sampling designoptimisation, resulting into reallocation of thesampling sites into the three zones. The positions ofthe reallocated stations have been assessed byestimation of the spatial heterogeneity and anisotropyof chlorophyll-a concentrations usingvariograms. Study of the variance of the initialdataset of the inner zone taking into account spatialheterogeneity, revealed two different sub-areas andtherefore, the number of the inner stations has beenreassessed. The proposed methodology eliminates thenumber of sampling sites and maximises the informationof spatial data from marine ecosystems. It isdescribed as a step-by-step procedure and could bewidely applied in sampling design concerning coastalpollution problems.     

Bottom-up responses to environmental and social impact assessments: A case study from Guatemala

In this article we take a closer look at resistance to the practice of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in mining and energy projects in Guatemala. Collectivities resisting mining and hydropower projects in Guatemala are increasingly using the evaluations of EIAs conducted by international independent professionals. Reaching out to international experts is facilitated by local communities' engagements in transnational networks bringing together activists, NGOs, scientists, journalists and others. We argue that resistance movements resort to international professionals to challenge the limits imposed on them by the national legislation and institutional arrangements as well as by the way in which EIAs are performed in the country. Further, the engagements in networks that facilitate access to knowledge contribute to strengthen the legitimacy of communities' claims. Challenges to and complaints about EIAs are ways in which affected communities try to reclaim their right to participate in decision-making related to their local environment and the development of their communities. Both complaints about EIAs and the use of transnational networks to attain better participation in decision making processes at local levels, illustrated in this study for Guatemala, are common responses to the advancement of extractive industries and hydropower development across Latin America. The widespread of initiatives to challenge EIAs involving international experts in the region show that EIAs have become a sort of a transnational battleground.     

Developmental strategies for sustainable ecosystem on mine spoil dumps: a case of study

An important goal of ecological rehabilitation is to accelerate natural successional processes to increase biological productivity, soil fertility and biotic control over biogeochemical fluxes within the recovering ecosystems. A new approach called Microbe Assisted Green Technology (MAGT) is an integrated biotechnological approach developed at National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) through exhaustive laboratory as well as field studies and serve as a model for land reclamation and development of lush green vegetation on mine overburdens. One year old seedlings of native tree species were planted on 6.3 ha area of manganese mine overburden at Gumgaon under Manganese Ore India Ltd., Maharashtra, India. Continuous efforts resulted in nutrient rich soil with high N, P, K and organic carbon; well developed biodiversity, including bacteria, fungi, higher plants (more than 350 species) and different classes of animals. Planted trees accumulated 698 t ha( - 1) above ground biomass and 143 t ha( - 1) below ground mass. This was achieved in 18 years by MAGT, which otherwise takes hundreds of years.     

Urban ecosystem services delivered by green open spaces: an example from Nicosia City in North Cyprus

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the major urban ecosystem services (UESs) delivered by a number of green open spaces (GOSs) and their contributions to the human wellbeing (HWB) in four selected sites located in the city of Nicosia of North Cyprus. The objectives of the study were to map the dominant GOSs in the selected sites, to identify the plant species cultivated in the GOSs, and to evaluate the major UESs delivered by the GOSs and their contributions to the components of HWB. The conceptual framework of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was adopted to evaluate the linkages between the different types/components of GOSs, UESs, and HWB. The relevant data were collected by combining quantitative (questionnaire) and qualitative (semi-structured interviews and field surveys) research tools. The collected data were evaluated on a 1–5 Likert scale. Overall, 31 UESs and 14 components of HWB were evaluated. The results of the evaluation revealed that 229 plant species are cultivated in the GOSs. The total average relative value of the UESs delivered by the dominant GOSs was estimated to be very low with 2.43 points. The total average relative contribution of the UESs to the HWB seems to be low with 3.56 points. Plant diversity was identified as the main criterion that influences the degree of UESs. We hope that the results of this study can help policy-makers and planners to design more effective policies in terms of building resilient cities and societies in the city of Nicosia and elsewhere.     

Marine Birds as Indicators of Arctic Marine Ecosystem Health: Linking the Northern Ecosystem Initiative to Long-Term Studies

Marine birds are sensitive indicators of the condition of marine ecosystems in the Arctic, partly because they feed at the top of the arctic food chain. The Northern Ecosystem Initiative (NEI) recently supported four separate studies that investigated aspects of Arctic marine bird science which simultaneously addressed goals of the NEI to better understand northern ecosystems and their response to environmental stressors. The projects used both scientific and traditional knowledge to examine the relationship between sea-ice, contaminants, and the ecology of marine birds, and to transfer environmental knowledge to students. Results from these investigations confirm that changes are occurring in Arctic environments, and that these are captured through marine bird research. Collectively these studies provided new data that supported NEI objectives of monitoring the health of the Arctic ecosystem, and contributed to Canada's international obligations for Arctic science.     

Effects of middle-term land reclamation on nickel soil-water interaction: a case study from reclaimed salt marshes of Po River Delta,Italy

Reclaimed salt marshes are fragile environments where water salinization and accumulation of heavy metals can easily occur. This type of environment constitutes a large part of the Po River Delta (Italy), where intensive agricultural activities take place. Given the higher Ni background of Po River Delta soils and its water-soluble nature, the main aim of this contribution is to understand if reclamation can influence the Ni behavior over time. In this study, we investigated the geochemical features of 40 soils sampled in two different localities from the Po River Delta with different reclamation ages. Samples of salt marsh soils reclaimed in 1964 were taken from Valle del Mezzano while soils reclaimed in 1872 were taken nearby Codigoro town. Batch solubility tests and consecutive determination of Ni in pore-water were compared to bulk physicochemical compositions of soils. Bulk Ni content of the studied soils is naturally high, since these soils originated from Po River sediments derived from the erosion of ultramafic rocks. Moreover, it seems that Ni concentration increases during soil evolution, being probably related to the degradation of serpentine. Instead, the water-soluble Ni measured in the leaching tests is greater in soils recently reclaimed compared to the oldest soils. Soil properties of two soil profiles from a reclaimed wetland area were examined to determine soil evolution over one century. Following reclamation, pedogenic processes of the superficial horizons resulted in organic matter mineralization, pH buffer, and a decrease of Ni water solubility from recently to evolved reclaimed soil.     

Chironomid mouthpart deformities as indicator of environmental quality: a case study in Lake Trasimeno (Italy)

The aim of the present study was to monitor mouthpart deformities of Chironomus plumosus (Insecta-Diptera) in Lake Trasimeno (2000-2010) in relation with sediment contamination by heavy metals, which is one of the main causes of deformity induction. In Lake Trasimeno, concentrations of heavy metals in the investigated littoral zone were low, in comparison with those of the central area. By contrast, the incidence of deformities was much higher in the littoral station (2006-2009) than in the central area. In the littoral zone, the deformities progressively decreased and by 2010 reached values similar to those observed in the central area (2000-2002, 2010). This decrease was mainly due to the reduction of severe deformities, thus indicating an environmental quality recovery of this littoral sector. Chemical analysis revealed that the higher incidence of deformities in the littoral zone was not caused by heavy metal contamination, unless they may have contributed to a joint action with other toxicants. The present study on Lake Trasimeno provided additional evidence that chironomid mouthpart deformities can be used in biomonitoring programs to evaluate sediment contamination by toxicants. Since mouthpart deformities may also be induced by compounds not included in routine chemical analyses, they may better reflect sediment quality than chemical analysis alone.     

Linking Water Science to Policy: Results from a Series of National Workshops on Water

To ensure science better informs the decision-making process, researchers and policy/program managers need to understand and respect each other's way of working, culture and operational timelines. However, there is little practical guidance on how this should be done and even less documented experience with specific mechanisms that better link these two groups. The published literature on information transfer has largely emphasized the dissemination of standard packages of information to ill-defined constituencies whose needs for scientific information are not well understood. Environment Canada's National Water Research Institute, on behalf of the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment, led a series of “Linking Water Science to Policy Workshops” as one such mechanism by which recent science could be delivered to practitioners, and practitioners could identify their research needs to scientists and research managers. There is a pressing need to explore and share experiences using creative mechanisms for sustained dialogue and networking between scientists and policy and program managers. The lessons learned from the workshop series and the need for science to continually inform the decision-making process has particular relevance for Canada's Ecosystem Initiatives given their integrated, place-based focus on long-term restoration and protection, and the challenge of continually changing ecosystems.The Canadian Crown reserves the right to retain a non-exclusive, royalty free licence in and to any copyright.     

Change in drinking water quality from source to point-of-use and storage: a case study from Guwahati, India

To ascertain the quality of drinking water being supplied and maintained at Guwahati, the study was conducted on the status of water supply in city through surveillance of drinking water quality for consecutive 7 days at various treatment stages, distribution network and consumer ends. The performance of five water treatment plants (WTPs), viz. Panbazar WTP, Satpukhuri WTP, Kamakhya WTP, PHED WTP and Hegrabari WTP were assessed for summer, piost-post-monsoon and winter seasons. No significant change in raw water quality was observed on day-to-day basis. Residual chlorine was found in the range of nil to 0.2 mg/L in the treated water. During post-monsoon, winter, and summer seasons the thermotolerent TC and FC counts ranged between Nil to 168 CFU/100 ml and Nil to 84 CFU/100 ml; Nil to 3356 CFU/100 ml and Nil to 152 CFU/100 ml; and Nil to 960 CFU/100 ml and Nil to 108 CFU/100 ml respectively. There was variation in bacterial counts among the different service reservoirs and consumer ends, which may be attributed to the general management practices for maintenance of service reservoirs and the possibility of enroute contamination. Evaluation of the raw water quality indicate that the water is suitable for drinking after conventional treatment followed by disinfection. The finished water quality meets the level of standards described as per Bureau of Indian Standard specifications (BIS:10500 1991) for potability in terms of its physico-chemical characteristics.     

Linking groundwaters of high CO2 to aluminium levels in rivers: the case for the upper Severn in mid-Wales

Al is a critical ecotoxicant in surface waters impacted by acidic deposition. Apart from the most acidic surface waters, Al concentrations are often considered to be controlled by Al(OH)(3) or aluminosilicate (clay) solubility for modelling studies. For many UK rivers there is no clear evidence for such solubility controls even though there is the potential under moderately acidic/alkaline conditions. Here, Al solubility in ground and river water is compared for acid sensitive catchments in mid-Wales. The results reveal that there may be a solubility control within the groundwater but a more complex state of affairs within the river. The groundwater is of high CO(2) content and once in the river it degasses to raise pH. However, there is limited change in Al concentration and hence the solubility relationship is lost. The results flag the potential importance of groundwater solubility controls for Al and the potential for the groundwater zone to act as an Al filter. For positive alkalinity groundwaters, the high CO(2) levels depress the pH to near the value for minimum Al solubility. However, there is no simple groundwater end-member. Examining Al solubility controls solely within the rivers provides cryptic and misleading clues to the hydrogeological controls for Al within catchments. Assessing the within-catchment processes requires direct measurement with full consideration of both inorganic and organic attenuation.     

Spatial dynamics of carbon storage: a case study from Turkey

Forest ecosystems have an important role in carbon cycle at both regional and global scales as an important carbon sink. Forest degradation and land cover changes, caused by deforestation and conversion to non-forest area, have a strong impact on carbon storage. The carbon storage of forest biomass and its changes over time in the Hartlap planning unit of the southeastern part of Turkey have been estimated using the biomass expansion factor method based on field measurements of forests plots with forest inventory data between 1991 and 2002. The amount of carbon storage associated with land use and land cover changes were also analyzed. The results showed that the total forested area of the Hartlap planning unit slightly increased by 2.1 %, from 27,978.7 ha to 28,282.6 ha during the 11-year period, and carbon storage increased by 9.6 %, from 390,367.6 to 427,826.9 tons. Carbon storage of conifer and mixed forests accounted for about 70.6 % of carbon storage in 1991, and 67.8 % in 2002 which increased by 14,274.6 tons. Land use change and increasing forest area have a strong influence on increasing biomass and carbon storage.     

Strategies to optimize monitoring schemes of recreational waters from Salta,Argentina: a multivariate approach

Several recreational surface waters in Salta, Argentina, were selected to assess their quality. Seventy percent of the measurements exceeded at least one of the limits established by international legislation becoming unsuitable for their use. To interpret results of complex data, multivariate techniques were applied. Arenales River, due to the variability observed in the data, was divided in two: upstream and downstream representing low and high pollution sites, respectively, and cluster analysis supported that differentiation. Arenales River downstream and Campo Alegre Reservoir were the most different environments, and Vaqueros and La Caldera rivers were the most similar. Canonical correlation analysis allowed exploration of correlations between physicochemical and microbiological variables except in both parts of Arenales River, and principal component analysis allowed finding relationships among the nine measured variables in all aquatic environments. Variable’s loadings showed that Arenales River downstream was impacted by industrial and domestic activities, Arenales River upstream was affected by agricultural activities, Campo Alegre Reservoir was disturbed by anthropogenic and ecological effects, and La Caldera and Vaqueros rivers were influenced by recreational activities. Discriminant analysis allowed identification of subgroup of variables responsible for seasonal and spatial variations. Enterococcus, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, E. coli, pH, and fecal coliforms are sufficient to spatially describe the quality of the aquatic environments. Regarding seasonal variations, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, fecal coliforms, and pH can be used to describe water quality during dry season, while dissolved oxygen, conductivity, total coliforms, E. coli, and Enterococcus during wet season. Thus, the use of multivariate techniques allowed optimizing monitoring tasks and minimizing costs involved.     

Traceability from weathered oil spills in the marine environment to the original contamination source. A case study

An algorithm for stepwise approximation to the most reliable source of contamination is proposed. The concept of the algorithm is based on discrimination rather than on similarity. Gradually, by means of more complicated and higher distinguishing power approaches, the differences between the spilled sample and the suspected source are checked. Capillary gas chromatography with flame-ionization and mass spectrometric detection was applied to gather the necessary data. Fingerprint, diagnostic parameter approaches and pattern recognition methods were used for reliably distinguishing the analytical results. If the compared samples are not discriminated by any means, they are considered as identical.