Mapping Ecosystem Services for Marine Planning: A UK Case Study

Emmanouil Tyllianakis,Paulette Posen,Tiziana Luisetti,Lenka Fronkova,Stephen Mangi Chai

doi:10.3390/resources9040040

Abstract

This study presents an ecosystem-services-mapping tool that calculates the monetary value of several ecosystem services (ES) provided from an area comprising both MPAs (Marine Protected Areas) and non-managed areas. Findings in the UK South West Marine Management Organisation (MMO) Plan Area show that different MPAs yield high value estimates and that activities are grouped in certain areas, with the Severn Estuary and surrounding Site(s) of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) attracting the most recreational anglers, despite having lower water quality. This can be explained by increased nutrient levels, which enhance biological activity and yet do not cause oxygen depletion. The yearly value of the ecosystem service of carbon sequestration and storage in the area is estimated between £16 and £62 thousand. Proximity to large urban areas and shallow waters appear to be the most appealing factors for anglers, while proximity with France can be associated with the high fishing effort in the southwest of the study area. We show that the use of a tool integrating a willingness-to-pay function with high spatial resolution layers and associated monetary values can be used for short-term marine spatial planning and management.

Highlights

There has been considerable scientific and policy interest in ecosystem services assessment and valuation since the publication of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA, [1])
The growing need for mapping and valuing ecosystem services has been mainly focused on terrestrial environments, with few mapping tools and comprehensive initiatives devoted to combining ecosystem services provided by the marine and coastal environments and their values
The tool contains monetary values for different ES, starting with a willingness to pay (WTP) method developed for the South West Management Organisation (MMO) Plan Are for recreational angling, values for the final ecosystem services of fish caught and clean climate

Summary

Introduction

There has been considerable scientific and policy interest in ecosystem services assessment and valuation since the publication of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA, [1]). A focus on the geographic representation of such monetary values has emerged to serve the purposes of European Union’s (EU) policies such as the Biodiversity. International networking initiatives such as the Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP) or the Intergovernmental. The end-purpose of such ecosystem service mapping efforts is to estimate the economic value of different ecosystem services [3]. Such endeavours are meant to inform Natural Capital accounts in the UK, in an attempt to combine environmental and monetary indicators for different ecosystem “assets” [4]. Assigning economic values to components of an ecosystem is difficult due to Resources 2020, 9, 40; doi:10.3390/resources9040040 www.mdpi.com/journal/resources

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion