Connecting Marine Ecosystem Services to Human Well-being: Insights from Participatory Well-being Assessment in Kenya

The linkage between ecosystems and human well-being is a focus of the conceptualization of “ecosystem services” as promoted by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. However, the actual nature of connections between ecosystems and the well-being of individuals remains complex and poorly understood. We conducted a series of qualitative focus groups with five different stakeholder groups connected to a small-scale Kenyan coastal fishery to understand (1) how well-being is understood within the community, and what is important for well-being, (2) how people’s well-being has been affected by changes over the recent past, and (3) people’s hopes and aspirations for their future fishery. Our results show that people conceive well-being in a diversity of ways, but that these can clearly map onto the MA framework. In particular, our research unpacks the “freedoms and choices” element of the framework and argues for greater recognition of these aspects of well-being in fisheries management in Kenya through, for example, more participatory governance processes.     

Fish Migration, Dams, and Loss of Ecosystem Services in the Mekong Basin

The past decade has seen increased international recognition of the importance of the services provided by natural ecosystems. It is unclear however whether such international awareness will lead to improved environmental management in many regions. We explore this issue by examining the specific case of fish migration and dams on the Mekong river. We determine that dams on the Mekong mainstem and major tributaries will have a major impact on the basin’s fisheries and the people who depend upon them for food and income. We find no evidence that current moves towards dam construction will stop, and consider two scenarios for the future of the fisheries and other ecosystems of the basin. We conclude that major investment is required in innovative technology to reduce the loss of ecosystem services, and alternative livelihood strategies to cope with the losses that do occur.     

A Review of the Elements of Human Well-Being with an Emphasis on the Contribution of Ecosystem Services

Natural ecosystems perform fundamental life-support services upon which human civilization depends. However, many people believe that nature provides these services for free and therefore, they are of little or no value. While we do not pay for them, we pay significantly for their loss in terms of wastewater treatment facilities, moratoriums on greenhouse gases, increased illnesses, reduced soil fertility and losses in those images of nature that contribute to our basic happiness. Little is understood about the well-being benefits of the natural environment and its ecosystem services. The interwoven relationship of ecosystems and human well-being is insufficiently acknowledged in the wider philosophical, social, and economic well-being literature. In this article, we discuss an approach to examine human well-being and the interactions of its four primary elements-basic human needs, economic needs, environmental needs, and subjective well-being-and ecosystem services.     

The Dynamics of Urban Ecosystem Governance in Rotterdam,The Netherlands

We explore whether Rotterdam city has the governance capacity in terms of processes at place, and the attention in terms of vision and strategy to take up an integrated approach toward urban resilience. We adopt an interpretative policy analysis approach to assess the dynamics of urban ecosystem governance considering interviews, gray literature, and facilitated dialogues with policy practitioners. We show the inner workings of local government across strategic, operational, tactical, and reflective governance processes about the way urban ecosystems are regulated. Despite the existing capacity to steer such processes, a number of underlying challenges exist: need for coordination between planning departments; need to ease the integration of new policy objectives into established adaptive policy cycles; and need to assess the lessons learnt from pilots and emerging green initiatives. Regulating and provisioning ecosystem services receive heightened policy attention. Focus on regulating services is maintained by a policy renewal cycle that limits and delays consideration of other ecosystem services in policy and planning.     

Reconnecting Cities to the Biosphere: Stewardship of Green Infrastructure and Urban Ecosystem Services

Within-city green infrastructure can offer opportunities and new contexts for people to become stewards of ecosystem services. We analyze cities as social–ecological systems, synthesize the literature, and provide examples from more than 15 years of research in the Stockholm urban region, Sweden. The social–ecological approach spans from investigating ecosystem properties to the social frameworks and personal values that drive and shape human interactions with nature. Key findings demonstrate that urban ecosystem services are generated by social–ecological systems and that local stewards are critically important. However, land-use planning and management seldom account for their role in the generation of urban ecosystem services. While the small scale patchwork of land uses in cities stimulates intense interactions across borders much focus is still on individual patches. The results highlight the importance and complexity of stewardship of urban biodiversity and ecosystem services and of the planning and governance of urban green infrastructure.     

Visions for the North Sea: The Societal Dilemma Behind Specifying Good Environmental Status

We augment discussions about the Good Environmental Status of the North Sea by developing two extreme visions and assessing their societal benefits. One vision (‘Then’) assumes restoration of benthic functioning; we contend that trawling had already degraded the southern North Sea a century ago. Available information is used to speculate about benthic functioning in a relatively undisturbed southern North Sea. The second vision (‘Now’) draws on recent benthic functioning. The supply of five ecosystem services, supported by benthic functioning, is discussed. ‘Then’ offers confidence in the sustainable supply of diverse services but restoration of past function is uncertain and likely to be paired with costs, notably trawling restraints. ‘Now’ delivers known and valued services but sustained delivery is threatened by, for example, climate change. We do not advocate either vision. Our purpose is to stimulate debate about what society wants, and might receive, from the future southern North Sea.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-014-0536-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

汽车制造项目环境影响评价技术要点分析

本文在实际开展汽车制造项目环境影响评价的基础上,对汽车制造项目生产工艺及产污环节进行梳理,重点对废气、废水、固废、噪声源强核算过程和方法进行解析,对污染防治措施论证内容进行探讨,同时从清洁生产水平分析、政策相符性分析等方面的技术要点进行总结整理,梳理了目前汽车制造项目环评文件编制的要点核心,指出汽车整车制造项目环境影响评价中应关注的重点问题,主要在于挥发性有机废气源强和含氮、磷及重金属废水源强核算、物料平衡等,为下阶段汽车制造项目建设和环境管理提供参考。     

Development of a Concept for Non-monetary Assessment of Urban Ecosystem Services at the Site Level

Determining the performance of ecosystem services at the city or regional level cannot accurately take into account the fine differences between green or gray structures. The supply of regulating ecosystem services in, for instance, parks can differ as parks vary in their land cover composition. A comprehensive ecosystem service assessment approach also needs to reflect land use to consider the demands placed on ecosystem services, which are mostly neglected by current research yet important for urban planning. For instance, if a sealed surface is no longer used, it could be unsealed to improve ecosystem service supply. Because of these scientific shortcomings, this article argues for a conceptual framework for the non-monetary assessment of urban ecosystem services at the site scale. This paper introduces a standardized method for selecting representative sites and evaluating their supply of and demand on ecosystem services. The conceptual design is supplemented by examples of Salzburg, Austria.     

Contribution of Ecosystem Services to Air Quality and Climate Change Mitigation Policies: The Case of Urban Forests in Barcelona,Spain

Mounting research highlights the contribution of ecosystem services provided by urban forests to quality of life in cities, yet these services are rarely explicitly considered in environmental policy targets. We quantify regulating services provided by urban forests and evaluate their contribution to comply with policy targets of air quality and climate change mitigation in the municipality of Barcelona, Spain. We apply the i-Tree Eco model to quantify in biophysical and monetary terms the ecosystem services “air purification,” “global climate regulation,” and the ecosystem disservice “air pollution” associated with biogenic emissions. Our results show that the contribution of urban forests regulating services to abate pollution is substantial in absolute terms, yet modest when compared to overall city levels of air pollution and GHG emissions. We conclude that in order to be effective, green infrastructure-based efforts to offset urban pollution at the municipal level have to be coordinated with territorial policies at broader spatial scales.     

The Evolution of the Environmental Quality Concept: From the US EPA Red Book to the European Water Framework Directive

- DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1065/espr2006.01.003 Background Water Quality Criteria were firstly defined in the 1970s by the EPA in the USA and the EIFAC in Europe, recognizing the need for protecting water quality in order to allow the use of water resources by man. In the 1990s, the European Commission emphasized the importance of safeguarding structure and function of biologic communities. These approaches were chemically-based. The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) substantially changes the concept of Water Quality, by assuming that a water body needs to be protected as an environmental good and not as a resource to be exploited. In this frame, the biological-ecological quality assumes a prevailing role. Main Features The Water Quality concept introduced by the WFD is a challenge for environmental sciences. Reference conditions should be defined for different typologies of water bodies and for different European ecoregions. Suitable indicators should be developed in order to quantify ecological status and to define what a 'good' ecological status is. Procedures should be developed for correlating the deviation from a good ecological to the effects of multiple stressors on function and structure of the ecosystem. The protection of biodiversity becomes a key objective. In this frame, the traditional procedures for ecotoxicological risk assessment, mainly based on laboratory testing, should be overcome by more site-specific approaches, taking into account the characteristics and the homeostatic capabilities of natural communities. In the paper an overview of the present knowledge and of the new trends in ecotoxicology to get these objectives will be given. A procedure is suggested based on the concept of Species Sensitivity Distribution (SSD). Recommendations and Perspective . The need for more site-specific and ecologically-oriented approaches in ecotoxicology is strongly recommended. The development of new tools for implementing the concept of 'Stress Ecology' has been recently proposed by van Straalen (2003). In the same time, more 'cological realism'is needed in practically applicable procedures for regulatory purposes.