Loading...
Making Cents of Science: Lessons Learned & Recommendations for Communicating Ecosystem Service Valuation
Woodson, AnnJacob
Woodson, AnnJacob
Abstract
Ecosystem services – the benefits humans are provided by the ecosystem through some physical, biological, or chemical process – from marsh habitats are heavily relied upon both globally and in Virginia Middle’s Peninsula. These marsh services include – but are not limited to – carbon removal and sequestration, nutrient removal and storage, improved fish habitat, reduction in storm and flooding impacts, and improved recreation. These services are threatened by human stressors like development, pollution, and climate change. This environmental degradation leads to decreased benefits for humans. Living shorelines are a shoreline management method that protects the ecosystem and provides service benefits to the community. Ecosystem service valuations (ESVs) are a method of estimating the dollar amount a community derives from these benefits. This is often done in hopes of justifying funding to create new or protect existing living shorelines; to prioritize living shoreline project locations; to inform policy-making decisions, or to communicate the value of these ecosystems with an easily interpretable and translatable metric. Those hoping to create an ESV estimate should be aware of difficulties in disseminating their end product, selecting benefits to value, and using technical language. Recommendations for effective communication of the ESV estimate include: doing a stakeholder analysis to identify key stakeholders, collaborating with those stakeholders to establish common goals, and creating a project glossary with accessible and consistent definitions of commonly used terminology. Knowing these challenges and implementing recommendations will lead to a user-friendly ESV estimate.
Description
Date
2024-01-01
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Collections
Download Dataset
Rights Holder
Usage License
Embargo
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
Citation
Department
Virginia Institute of Marine Science
DOI
https://doi.org/10.25773/zbg4-9n54