Mapping ecosystem services for policy support and decision making in the European Union

TLDR

Ecosystem services are increasingly integrated into EU policy, requiring spatially explicit data on ecosystem state and trends, as highlighted by the 2020 Biodiversity Strategy and advanced mapping methods that use primary data, functional traits, and ecological production models. The study reviews existing mapping methods, identifies gaps, and proposes a stepwise methodological framework—based on the ecosystem services cascade—to guide European‑scale mapping and assessment, while highlighting the need for marine coverage and resilience considerations. The authors develop a stepwise framework based on the ecosystem services cascade, integrating mapping methods and ecological production models, and illustrate its application by mapping water purification services. The framework successfully maps water purification services, demonstrating its applicability for EU policy support.

Abstract

Mainstreaming ecosystem services into policy and decision making is dependent on the availability of spatially explicit information on the state and trends of ecosystems and their services. In particular, the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 addresses the need to account for ecosystem services through biophysical mapping and valuation. This paper reviews current mapping methods, identifies current knowledge gaps and provides the elements for a methodological framework for mapping and assessing ecosystems and their services at European scale. Current mapping methodologies go beyond purely land cover based assessments and include the use of primary data of ecosystem services, the use of functional traits to map ecosystem services and the development of models and ecological production functions. Additional research is needed to cover marine ecosystems and to include the resilience of ecosystems to environmental change in spatially explicit assessments. The ecosystem services cascade which connects ecosystems to human wellbeing is argued to provide a suitable, stepwise framework for mapping ecosystem services in order to support EU policies in a more effective way. We demonstrate the use of this framework for mapping using the water purification service as case.