3.1.1 Developing Approaches for Assessing and Optimising
Ecosystems Services
Ecosystem services (ESS) are defined as the benefits people obtain from nature (MEA, 2005
9
).
ESS fall into the following categories: (i) provisioning services, i.e., material outputs from
ecosystems such as food, fresh water, raw materials and medicinal resources; (ii) regulating
services, i.e. the services that ecosystems provide by acting as regulators of climate, pollution,
pollination, soil stability, etc.; (iii) cultural services, the non-material benefits obtained from
ecosystems such as recreation and mental and physical health, tourism, aesthetic appreciation
and inspiration for culture, art and design, spiritual experience and sense of peace; and (iv)
supporting services, which underpin almost all other services and include habitat for species
and maintenance of genetic diversity (CIS-SPI report, 2011
10
). At the policy level, ESS are in
essence economic and decision-based valuation tools to protect biodiversity. Thus, for instance,
the cutting of a forest for urban sprawl leads to substantial gains for construction companies
but the costs of this land conversion are subsequently paid by society at large as a result of
biodiversity loss and dwindling levels of carbon storage. Another example is the restoration of
floodplains and wetlands. Restoring former floodplains and wetlands may entail considerable
costs. However, increasing retention measures helps reduce flood risk, reduce pollution, improve
the ecological and quantitative status of freshwater, and decrease the risk of water scarcity.
Monetary valuation methodologies permit integration of the value of these non-marketable is-
sues into the decision-making process. For a sound water management plan to be set up, this
monetary valuation should be complemented by a social valuation of ecosystems as some social
values are enhanced by perception, history and traditional practice in the use of water and by
the environmental, political and institutional context in which water regulation takes place. Re-
search and development are required to refine the methodology through case study analyses,
and to establish firm links with general water policies. Overall, a better understanding and as-
sessment of ecosystem services relies on research on the ecological functioning of aquatic and
riparian ecosystems.
In the last few years ESS has appeared as a promising concept to support the implementation
of the WFD. Thus, and as concluded during the 2nd ‘Water Science Meets Policy’ event organ-
ised in Brussels by the initiative CIS-SPI, the ESS approach is expected to provide responses on
the economic requirements of the WFD, in particular those concerning derogations based on
disproportionate costs, cost recovery and incentive pricing. In the same vein, the ESS approach
could support the implementation of the ‘Water Scarcity and Droughts’ Communication of the
European Commission based, among other principles, upon water-pricing and water-efficient
technologies and practices.
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