Cook-book for water ecosystem service assessment and valuation

Abstract

This work proposes a methodological framework for the biophysical assessment and the economic valuation of water ecosystem services at the water body, the catchment and the European scale. It suits the intent of understanding how changes in pressures may affect the delivery and the value of these services. We integrated the existing knowledge with experience of experts and operational needs (collected through a consultation), to propose practical methodologies able to address specific objectives. This report is organized as follows. The first section analyses the objectives of an ecosystem services assessment, explains how and why we selected and designed the methodology proposed, and discusses the concepts of ecosystem services and their integrated assessment and valuation. The results of the consultation of the experts are presented in the second section. The third section (‘cook-book’) exposes, in a concise and practical way, the approach and methodologies proposed to assess and value water ecosystem services. Finally, some major issues related to this methodology are discussed in the last section.