Ecosystem Service Value Determination

OVERVIEW
In QLP 2, you described the concept of ecosystem services, the four ecosystem service categories, and provided a detailed explanation of the specific ecosystem services that are provided by your system. In QLP 3, you are going to assign a value to each of those specific services you explained in QLP 2 and apply that value to the entire area of your system. In your final paper, this information will go into the third section: values of each relevant service and calculated value. When you create the QLP#3 document, separate it into sections (as shown below) so that the LA knows which text applies to each part of this assignment.

Ecosystem Service Value Determination
In this section you are going to explain how you determined the value of each service that you specifically described in QLP 2. This will include the source(s) you used to determine the value of each service and how you applied the information in each source. As you start this assignment, keep in mind that determining a value for each service can be tricky and can take a lot of research time, but it is a key piece of this assignment so you need to focus on doing a comprehensive job here. There are many ways to determine ecosystem value (as you have seen from the many resources you’ve studied in this course). Below, I describe three different ways to determine the value of your ecosystems. You don’t need to do all three, just chose the one that works best for you and/or best for each service you are trying to value. Remember, for many of your systems services, a value has not been determined for specific services from your specific system. So your job is to determine a value (by using values from other systems) as best you can and then justify the use of that value for your system.

Option 1: Determining service value using the TEEB database. One way to determine value is by using the TEEB database provided for you on the Additional Resources and Documentation checklist in the QLP folder on D2L. This is a large spreadsheet that can be overwhelming, but it provides accurate values for many ecosystem services. If you use this, simplify its use by focusing on two columns: ecosystems and services. When you download this spreadsheet, click on the TEEB database tab at the bottom of the spreadsheet. Then scroll down the spreadsheet to find the “ecosystem” that applies to your system. Once you find the applicable ecosystems and services, you will scroll across to the value column for each service. In that column will be a number that is the US dollar value of each service per area per year. The area is in hectares. So your next step will be to determine the area of your ecosystem and then convert it to hectares. If you use this, make sure you check the location of the ecosystem to see if it is applicable. Don’t use an area of the world that is not similar (for example, don’t use a value for a service from an ecosystem in Antarctica to compare to an ecosystem service in Oregon – the areas are too different).

Option 2: Determining service value using Costanza et al. 1997. In Module 5, you were required to read a paper titled The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capitol. This paper was authored by many scientists, but the lead author was Costanza. In the paper, worldwide ecosystems and services were valued. Using the Costanza et al. 1997 paper as a basis for your valuation is a good place to start. Also, there are two more papers by this same author in the Additional Resources and Documentation checklist on this same topic that will/could-be helpful. You might also look up other articles that were cited and referred to in the Constanza papers in order to obtain more detailed information about each service and an appropriate value to give to your service.

Option 3: Determining service value using your own research search. One of the most effective ways to determine an ecosystem value is for you to research this in your own way. Some students find values embedded in the papers they read about their systems and end up using those values instead of the TEEB database or Costanza et al 1997. Other students do their own literature searches for values of the specific ecosystems services they have identified for their system. Both of these are great ways to determine ecosystem values. If you determine the values in either of these ways, just make sure the source is reputable (not some random website) and the methods for determination of that value are explained.

System Area determination
After you explain how you chose the values for each of the ecosystem services provided by your system, you need to describe how you determined the area of your system. This is important because service values are given as the value per unit area (usually acres or hectares) per year. So, you need to determine the area of your system and then convert it to the units of your values. To determine the area, use the following description

Determining area. Start with a simple search in Google your system using the keyword “area” and the name of your system (ie NYC watershed, Marmot dam on the Sandy River, Talking Water Gardens on the Willamette river). After you see/get some values, you need to determine the applicability of the values in your results to your ecosystem services. Below are some guidelines for determining area in each system:
• Marmot dam removal – you shouldn’t use the area of the entire Sandy river, you should choose only the area of the river that is impacted by the removal. You might need to do some more internet searches to find out how far the impacts of a small dam effect a river both upstream and downstream of the dam. Just make sure your chosen area is logical and justifiable.
• NYC watershed – the watershed that supplies water to NYC is actually a group of smaller watersheds. Make sure you chose the appropriate watersheds. Don’t accidentally add too many or leave some out. Include the area of the ones that supply NYC only. If you do enough reading on this topic, the areas of all of these watersheds have already been determined, so you just need to find them and add them all together.
• Albany Talking Water Gardens – the point of the talking water gardens is to improve water quality in the Willamette river so you need to include the area of the Talking Water Gardens and the area of the river that is effected by the Talking Water Gardens. Do not use the area of the whole Willamette River, or the entire area of the Willamette River below the Talking Water Gardens. Each of these is too big of an area for this project. You may need to do some internet searching to determine how far down the river that the water form the gardens influences ecosystem services, but when you come up with an area for this, make sure it is logical and justifiable.

When you describe the impacted area in your assignment, make sure you include a justification for the applicability of the area you determined. Also, if you find the area, but in units that are different than your values, use Google to convert the units. This can be as simple as typing into Google “Convert acres to hectares”. If you didn’t use acres, type in the appropriate area value you used. Remember, your area estimate can be a rough estimate but the more precise it is, the better your final value will be.

Instructor note on value and area determination: It is your job to determine a $$ value provided by the ecosystem services and the explain/justify how you determined this. However, for many services this will be difficult and at times frustrating. Unfortunately, there is no strict formula or method to be followed to determine each of these values. In many cases, you will be using the information you collect to the best of your ability to determine a practical value for your services. This means that for many services, I cannot really tell you how to determine a value any more detail than I have provided here. You need to come up with a logical value and explain how you determined it. The TEEB database is a great resource here, but it can be daunting due to its size. However, it provides some of the most accurate values. Remember, many ecosystems are covered in the TEEBS (for example, you’ll see coral reefs, tropical rainforests…) and you just need to find the one that applies to your system best and use it to determine a value. After that you need to describe in the methods section (as a paragraph) how/what-you- did to determine the value. Your determined values will be in the results section. If the TEEB database doesn’t seem to be helpful, you can use other sources too. You can use almost any other sources you want (as long as they are reliable), just explain how you used them to determine your value. Also, don’t forget to cite the sources that you decide to use.
Individual Service Values and Total System Value
This section may be your shortest. Here you will need to clearly report the value you determined for each of the ecosystem services provided by your system and then describe how you used these service values to calculate the overall value of your system. To start, this section I want you to list all the services (that you described in the section above) in a table that has at least three columns: Ecosystem, Service, value in units of area and time (usually hectares /year or acres/year). Please follow the format of the example table shown below. Notice that each service is listed separately, the values all have the same units, and there is no overall value listed at the bottom. Also notice that the table has a caption (ie title) above it.

Table 1. Valuation summary numbers for lake trophic structure in Long Lake. All values take from TEEB database for the ecosystems: lakes and estuaries.
Ecosystem Service US dollars/hectare/year
Lake Algae $500.00
Lake Macrophytes $250.00
Lake Emergent plants $7,350.00
Lake Fish $10,270.00

After the table, you need to include a short paragraph that describes how you applied each of the listed values to the area of your system (not all services may be able to be applied to the entire area of the system, for example a service provided by rivers and lakes should not be applied to the entire are of the NYC watershed because only a small part of the system is made up of rivers and lakes, the rest is made up of forests and other natural areas) and then provide the overall value of your system. Make sure your overall value is calculated based upon the application of the values to your chosen area. Also, make sure the value is clearly stated and your description of how you calculated the value is clearly explained. When you describe your overall system value, make sure you explain how you used the system area for each service when you determined your overall calculation. This paragraph may be very short, but it is crucial for it to be clear and easily understand by the reader (the person grading your assignment) how you determined the overall value of the system.
FORMAT
When writing your QLP 3 document, make sure you use the headings listed above so that the TA knows which paragraphs apply to each section. There should be no sections or parts of sections of this assignment that are numbered or a list of bullet points, everything must be in paragraph form (except for the table and table heading). Except for the table, the entire assignment must be in paragraph form, 12 pt font, with regular margins (1 inch), and single spaced. You should have at least three paragraphs, because there are three sections here, but you may need more than one paragraph in each of the first two sections to explain all of the necessary details. Your last section should only have 1 table and only 1 paragraph (that describes your overall value calculation). Also, you need to reference the sources you used to determine each ecosystem value and the sources you used to determine the area of your system. This means you need to include a reference section at the end of the document. Complete the in-paragraph citations and reference section with the same format described for the QLP 1 assignment. The maximum page number for this assignment is 2 pages (not including reference section). So your actual document can be 3 pages long, but only the reference section can be on the third page, all of the paragraphs and the table must fit on 2 pages only.
Assignment scoring details
Your assignment will be scored based upon the following point totals. To receive full points for each section, your explanations must be detailed and your citations correctly formatted.
• Explanation of how you determined the value for each ecosystem service (8 pts)
• Description of how you determined the area of your system (4 pts)
• Table, correctly formatted and captioned (3pts)
• Description of your overall value calculation (3pts)
• Correctly formatted citations and correctly formatted reference section (3 pts)
• Overall quality of the assignment – these points are determined by the TA (or LA) based upon the overall clarity of the writing, organization of the details and concepts within each paragraph, the flow of details and concepts between the paragraphs, and grammar and typo’s. (4pts)
Upload information
After you finish this assignment, upload it as a .doc document to the correct assignment folder on D2L for QLP assignment #3.

Name it with the following format: ESM_355_Assignment_lastname.doc Example: ESM_355_QLP3_Smith.doc

The following rubric will be used to score each part of your paper:

Full credit (8) Partial credit (5-7)    Partial credit (2-4)    Low credit (0-1)

Ecosystem service value determination Fully explains how you determined the value for each ecosystem service Ecosystem service values explained, has many details
,but still needs
more details to be effective Ecosystem service values explained, but not well, has some details but needs many more
to be effective The introduction paragraph is either missing or severely lacking in adequate details to be
effective
Full credit (4) Partial credit (3) Partial credit (2) Low credit (0-1)
Area determination Fully explains how the area of the study system was determined. Study system area determination was explained well, but not with enough detail or examples Study system area determination was explained but not well not enough examples/details Study system area determination was not explained or very poorly
explained, lacking examples/details
Full credit (4) Partial credit (3) Partial credit (2) Low credit (0-1)
Table of values Actions taken are fully explained with many details and associated
cost(s). Actions taken are explained, but not completely and/or cost description is
not complete Actions taken are not explained well, are lacking many details, and/or cost
is not complete The actions taken are not explained or very poorly explained. Cost is
lacking or missing
Full credit (3) Partial credit (2) Partial credit (1) Low credit (0)
Description of overall study system value calculation Overall value calculation is detailed and clear Overall value calculation is explained well, but needs more added
details Overall value calculation is explained, but not well, needs many
more added details Overall value calculation explanation missing or severely
lacking
Full credit (4) Partial credit (3) Partial credit (2) Low credit (0-1)
Clarity Writing style is clear, concepts are connected between paragraphs, and support/examples for each concept
are logical Writing style is good, but not completely clear, most concepts are connected and logical but not all of them Writing style is not very clear, many concepts are not connected between paragraphs and statements are not
logically organized Writing style is very hard to follow, concepts are disparate and not logically linked between paragraphs or
supported
Full credit (3) Partial credit (2) Partial credit (1) Low credit (0)
References All details taken from other sources are correctly cited in the text, and correctly formatted in the reference section Some, but not all details taken from other sources are correctly cited in the text, and/or some not correctly
cited and in the reference section Very few details taken from other sources are correctly cited in the text, and/or some not correctly
cited and in the reference section Citations and/or reference section are/is severely lacking or completely missing