A Conceptual Modeling Framework for Hydrologic Ecosystem Services

Feng Pan,Woonsup Choi

doi:10.3390/hydrology6010014

Abstract

Ecosystem services (ES) help people understand and deal with current environmental situations and problems, and ES-related research has been increasing recently. However, the quantitative evaluations of ES that can be easily understood by decision makers are still in development. Specifically, new methods are needed for hydrologic ES with the requirements of spatially and temporally explicit specification of parameters related to climate, geology, land cover, soil, and topography. This paper presents a conceptual modeling framework that aims to convert hydrologic information to hydrologic ES in fine temporal resolutions by developing a conceptual connection of three modules: data development, hydrologic and ES modeling, and results analysis. Then, the framework was applied to a study basin to demonstrate the importance of hydrologic ES in fine temporal resolutions. Results of water provision ES, flood control ES, and sediment regulation ES were produced at fine temporal resolutions in the framework, which indicates that more timely and relevant policy suggestions can be provided to decision makers. The framework and the methodology are applicable for watersheds of varied sizes and can serve as a template for future coupling of different environmental models.

Highlights

Human beings benefit enormously from the functions of ecosystems at various scales; such functions include the provision of food and resources, climate regulation, and recreational amenities [1].The benefits that human beings obtain from ecosystems are referred to as ecosystem services (ES) [2]. studies have been conducted to identify and value ES over the decades, the development of assessment tools such as ES simulation models is still new [3]
A conceptual modeling framework that can simulate ES with fine resolutions was built to conduct ES studies with fine temporal resolutions. The framework includes both a hydrologic model and an ES model. This framework can preprocess and access the input data efficiently and can simulate hydrologic ES at the same temporal resolution as the hydrologic model used in this study
Hydrologic results were converted to indices results for evaluating water provision, flood control, and sediment regulation in different ways, such as a general increasing or decreasing trend, detailed analysis of the changes, and seasonal changes to be used by decision makers

Summary

Introduction

Human beings benefit enormously from the functions of ecosystems at various scales; such functions include the provision of food and resources, climate regulation, and recreational amenities [1].The benefits that human beings obtain from ecosystems are referred to as ecosystem services (ES) [2]. studies have been conducted to identify and value ES over the decades, the development of assessment tools such as ES simulation models is still new [3]. Human beings benefit enormously from the functions of ecosystems at various scales; such functions include the provision of food and resources, climate regulation, and recreational amenities [1]. The benefits that human beings obtain from ecosystems are referred to as ecosystem services (ES) [2]. Studies have been conducted to identify and value ES over the decades, the development of assessment tools such as ES simulation models is still new [3]. Without quantitative evaluations of the actual benefits that can be obtained from ecosystems, the importance of these services does not draw adequate attention from decision makers [4]. Hydrologic ES, a subset of terrestrial ES related to water, are affected by complex interactions of many environmental factors and require a robust understanding and the skills for prediction and assessment [5]. ES models are still under development, and hydrologic ES simulation is limited [5]

Methods

Results

Conclusion