Developing ecological endpoints for valuation of semi-arid riparian ecosystem services

Abstract

Creating measurable ecological accounting units has become a point of emphasis in valuing ecosystem services. Understanding which ecological endpoints, which emanate from biophysical production functions, are important to individuals could help to create measurable ecological accounting units. Using two semi-arid riparian ecosystems we create a suite of ecological endpoints and using benefits transfer techniques compare their ability to be transferred to similar riparian ecosystems. If clearly defined, ecological accounting units can be developed for ecosystem services. This could lead to ecosystem services being properly incorporated into benefit cost analyses that maximize economic product of both market and non-market goods and services.

Keywords:

• ecosystem services
• ecological endpoints
• choice experiments
• Marginal Willingness To Pay

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Notes

1 Copies of the surveys for the SPRNCA and MRG can be found in the online appendix.

2 Minimal D-error is ${\left[{\left|\Omega \right|}^{\frac{1}{k}}\right]}^{-1}$where $\Omega$is the covariance matrix of the maximum likelihood estimator with$k$ being the number of parameters.

3 We acknowledge that attribute non-attendance is an issue in calculating MWTP estimates from stated preference surveys. We follow the Hess and Hensher (2010) threshold in calculating a coefficient of variation for the attributes and do not find this coefficient to exceed the threshold of 2 where attribute non-attendance may be an issue.

4 The database is accessible at https://www.evri.ca

Additional information

Funding

This research is supported by the US Environmental Protection Agency, “Integrated Modeling and Ecological Valuation,” EPA STAR GRANT Program #2003-STAR-G2, in part by SAHRA (Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas) under the STC Program of the National Science Foundation, Agreement No. EAR-9876800 (work related to the avian component), and the Science Impact Laboratory for Policy and Economics through the US Geologic Survey’s Science and Decision Center cooperative agreement #G10AC00303, and with in-kind contributions from the US Department of Agriculture Research Service, Hawks Aloft Inc and The Nature Conservancy.