The Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program is an unprecedented opportunity to restore the Chesapeake Bay, yet program costs threaten to undermine its complete implementation. Analyses ...of Bay TMDL program design and implementation were used to relate program cost-effectiveness to choices in (1) compliance definitions, (2) geographic load allocations, and (3) approaches to engaging unregulated sources. A key finding was that many design choices require choosing an acceptable level of risk of achieving water quality outcomes, and a lack of data can lead to precautionary choices, which increase compliance costs. Furthermore, although some choices managed costs, others decisions may have reduced the potential for cost savings from water quality trading and payment programs. In particular, the choice by some states to distribute the portion of load reductions that improve water quality in the Bay mainstem to many small basins is likely to diminish the potential for market development or reduce funding for the most cost-effective nutrient and sediment reduction practices. Strategies for reducing costs of future TMDLs include considering diminishing marginal returns early in the TMDL design to balance costs and risks in regulatory goal setting and to design rules and incentives that promote innovation and cost-effective compliance strategies.
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Increasingly government agencies are seeking to quantify the outcomes of proposed policy options in terms of ecosystem service benefits, yet conflicting definitions and ad hoc approaches to measuring ...ecosystem services have created confusion regarding how to rigorously link ecological change to changes in human well-being. Here, we describe a step-by-step framework for producing ecological models and metrics that can effectively serve an economic-benefits assessment of a proposed change in policy or management. A focus of the framework is developing comparable units of ecosystem goods and services to support decision-making, even if outcomes cannot be monetized. Because the challenges to translating ecological changes to outcomes appropriate for economic analyses are many, we discuss examples that demonstrate practical methods and approaches to overcoming data limitations. The numerous difficult decisions that government agencies must make to fairly use and allocate natural resources provides ample opportunity for interdisciplinary teams of natural and social scientists to improve methods for quantifying changes in ecosystem services and their effects on human well-being. This framework is offered with the intent of promoting the success of such teams as they support managers in evaluating the equivalency of ecosystem service offsets and trades, establishing restoration and preservation priorities, and more generally, in developing environmental policy that effectively balances multiple perspectives.
Abstract Excessive nitrogen (N) pollution in the Chesapeake Bay is threatening ecological health. This study presents a multilayer N flow network model where each network layer represents a stage in ...the production step from raw agricultural commodities such as corn to final products such as packaged meat. We use this model to assess the impacts of alternative future agricultural production and land use changes on multiple pathways of N pollution within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed (CBW). We analyzed N loss via all pathways under multiple future scenarios, considering crop-specific projections based on empirical data and US Department of Agriculture projections. We found two model parameters, fertilizer nitrogen application rate (FNAR) and feed conversion ratio (FCR), to be particularly important for seeing measurable N loss reductions in the Bay. Our results indicate a large increase in N loss under the business-as-usual trajectory in geographic locations with intensive agricultural production. We found that numerous management scenarios including improvements in FNAR and FCR, N losses fall short of the 25% total maximum daily load targets. Our work suggests that achieving the CBW N loss reduction goals will necessitate large deviations from business as usual. Our model also highlights substantial regional variations in nitrogen loss across the U.S., with central regions like the Corn Belt and Central Valley of California experiencing the highest losses from crop-related stages, while eastern areas such as the Chesapeake Bay exhibit major losses from live animal production, underscoring the need for region-specific management strategies. Thus, implementation of effective N management strategies, combined with improved crop residue management, remains pivotal in mitigating N pollution in the Chesapeake Bay.
A comprehensive synthesis of data from empirically based published studies and a widely used stormwater best management practice (BMP) database were used to assess the variability in nitrogen (N) ...removal performance of urban stormwater ponds, wetlands, and swales and to identify factors that may explain this variability. While the data suggest that BMPs were generally effective on average, removal efficiencies of ammonium (NH4), nitrate (NO3), and total nitrogen (TN) were highly variable ranging from negative (i.e., BMPs acting as sources of N) to 100%. For example, removal of NO3 varied from (median ±1 SD) −15 ± 49% for dry ponds, 32 ± 120% for wet ponds, 58 ± 210% for wetlands, and 37 ± 29% for swales. Across the same BMP types, TN removal was 27 ± 24%, 40 ± 31%, 61 ± 30%, and 50 ± 29%. NH4 removal was 9 ± 36%, 29 ± 72%, 31 ± 24%, and 45 ± 34%. BMP size, age, and location explained some of the variability. For example, small and shallow ponds and wetlands were more effective than larger, deeper ones in removing N. Despite well‐known intra‐annual variation in N fluxes, most measurements have been made over short time periods using concentrations, not flow‐weighted N fluxes. Urban N export is increasing in some areas as large storms become more frequent. Thus, accounting for the full range of BMP performance under such conditions is crucial. A select number of long‐term flux‐based BMP studies that rigorously measure rainfall, hydrology, and site conditions could improve BMP implementation.
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Evidence of a Shared Value for Nature Wainger, Lisa A.; Helcoski, Ryan; Farge, Kevin W. ...
Ecological economics,
12/2018, Volume:
154
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Ecosystem service analysis aims to expand the accounting of human values for nature, yet frequently ignores or obfuscates a category of human values with potentially large magnitude, namely nonuse or ...passive use values. These values represent the satisfaction derived from the protection or restoration of species, habitats and wilderness areas, even if people never use them in any tangible way. The shunting of nonuse values to the background of ecosystem service analysis appears, in part, to be an attempt to avoid the perceived elitism of environmental values. To examine whether such values are the purview of the elite, we explore three types of evidence of who holds nonuse values. We find that when people are asked to 1) commit money via stated preference instruments, 2) respond to tweets, or 3) express opinions via surveys they demonstrate a significant willingness to protect and restore natural resources, regardless of their own use of those resources. Such values are represented in all socio-demographic groups that encompass race, ethnicity, immigration status, income, political affiliation, geographic location, age or gender, although the magnitude can vary among groups. The implications are that omitting nonuse values in ecosystem service analysis will tend to underestimate values, particularly for remote sites with limited use, and fail to represent important tradeoffs.
Display omitted
•Nonuse values represent intangible benefits that people derive from protecting nature.•Such values are widely shared across all socio-demographic groups.•Economic valuation, Twitter and opinion surveys all provide evidence of nonuse values.•Yet, nonuse values are frequently omitted from ecosystem service analysis.•Omitting nonuse values will tend to underestimate values of environmental change.
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Outreach events such as trainings, demonstrations, and workshops are important opportunities for encouraging private land operators to adopt voluntary conservation practices. However, the ability to ...understand the effectiveness of such events at influencing conservation behavior is confounded by the likelihood that attendees are already interested in conservation and may already be adopters. Understanding characteristics of events that draw non-adopters can aid in designing events and messaging that are better able to reach beyond those already interested in conservation.
For this study, we interviewed 101 operators of private agricultural lands in Maryland, USA, and used descriptive statistics and qualitative comparative analysis to investigate differences between the kinds of outreach events that adopters and non-adopters attended.
Our results suggested that non-adopters, as compared to adopters, attended events that provided production-relevant information and were logistically easy to attend. Further, non-adopters were more selective when reading advertisements, generally preferring simplicity. Future research and outreach can build on these findings by experimentally testing the effectiveness of messages that are simple and relevant to farmers' production priorities.
Applying ecosystem service valuation principles to natural resources management has the potential to encourage the efficient use of resources, but can decision support systems built on these ...principles be made both practical and robust? The limitations to building such systems are the practical limits on managers' time to develop or learn tools and the state of the science to support decision-making components. We address this question by applying a cost-effectiveness analysis framework and optimization model to support the targeting of restoration funds to control an invasive grass (
Bromus tectorum) in agro-ecosystems. The optimization aims to maximize benefits derived from a suite of ecosystem services that may be enhanced through site restoration. The model combines a spatially-varying cost function with ecosystem service benefit functions that are risk-adjusted to capture the probability of successful restoration. We demonstrate that our approach generates roughly three times the level of ecosystem service benefits (as measured through indicators) compared to the current management strategy of selecting restoration sites that are superlative producers of one ecosystem service. The results showed that spatial (GIS) data and ecosystem understanding were sufficient to formally capture the managers' informal decisions and that cost-effectiveness of restoration could be improved by considering the ability of sites to jointly produce multiple ecosystem services and adjusting expected benefits by the probability of success.
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Would-be adopters of ecosystem service analysis frameworks might ask, ‘Do such frameworks improve ecosystem service provision or social benefits sufficiently to compensate for any extra effort?’ Here ...we explore that question by retrospectively applying an ecosystem goods and services (EGS) analysis framework to a large river restoration case study conducted by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and comparing potential time costs and outcomes of traditional versus EGS-informed planning. USACE analytic methods can have a large influence on which river and wetland restoration projects are implemented in the United States because they affect which projects or project elements are eligible for federal cost-share funding. A new framework is designed for the USACE and is primarily distinguished from current procedures by adding explicit steps to document and compare tradeoffs and complementarity among all affected EGS, rather than the subset that falls within project purposes. Further, it applies economic concepts to transform ecological performance indicators into social benefit indicators, even if changes cannot be valued. We conclude that, for large multi-partner restoration projects like our case study, using the framework provides novel information on social outcomes that could be used to enhance project design, without substantially increasing scoping costs. The primary benefits of using the framework in the case study appeared to stem from early comprehensive identification of stakeholder interests that might have prevented project delays late in the process, and improving the communication of social benefits and how tradeoffs among EGS benefits were weighed during planning.
Invasive species management can be a victim of its own success when decades of effective control cause memories of past harm to fade and raise questions of whether programs should continue. Economic ...analysis can be used to assess the efficiency of investing in invasive species control by comparing ecosystem service benefits to program costs, but only if appropriate data exist. We used a case study of water hyacinth (
(Mart.) Solms), a nuisance floating aquatic plant, in Louisiana to demonstrate how comprehensive record-keeping supports economic analysis. Using long-term data sets, we developed empirical and spatio-temporal simulation models of intermediate complexity to project invasive species growth for control and no-control scenarios. For Louisiana, we estimated that peak plant cover would be 76% higher without the substantial growth rate suppression (84% reduction) that appeared due primarily to biological control agents. Our economic analysis revealed that combined biological and herbicide control programs, monitored over an unusually long time period (1975-2013), generated a benefit-cost ratio of about 34:1 derived from the relatively modest costs of $124 million ($2013) compared to the $4.2 billion ($2013) in benefits to anglers, waterfowl hunters, boating-dependent businesses, and water treatment facilities over the 38-year analysis period. This work adds to the literature by: (1) providing evidence of the effectiveness of water hyacinth biological control; (2) demonstrating use of parsimonious spatio-temporal models to estimate benefits of invasive species control; and (3) incorporating activity substitution into economic benefit transfer to avoid overstating benefits. Our study suggests that robust and cost-effective economic analysis is enabled by good record keeping and generalizable models that can demonstrate management effectiveness and promote social efficiency of invasive species control.
Weber MA, Wainger LA, Harms NE, Nesslage GM. 2020. The economic value of research in managing invasive hydrilla in Florida public lakes. Lake Reserv Manage. XX:XX-XX.
Decisions on how to allocate ...research funds can be informed by evaluating the benefits of research, yet past spending is rarely analyzed to gain insights for effective research allocation. We used a case study to evaluate whether research into nonnative invasive plants improved management of herbicide-resistant hydrilla (Hydrilla verticillata) in the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes (KCOL), Florida, USA. We applied a retrospective benefit-cost analysis to quantify the net economic benefits of invasive control informed by government-supported research, relative to a scenario without research funding. Using conservative assumptions, we estimated net benefits of 11 yr of research (1999-2009) and 5 yr of improved hydrilla management as $19.5 million (2017 dollars) with a benefit-cost ratio of 3.8, including avoided ecosystem service losses to angler and nonangler lake users. These benefits were about 2.2 times the annual value of recreational fishing in the KCOL. Sensitivity analysis indicated that positive net benefits were generally robust to uncertainty regarding the hydrilla intrinsic growth rate and treatment costs in the absence of research-informed protocols. We have likely underestimated research benefits because we lumped costs from multiple programs and did not measure benefits accruing to nonusers of lakes. To enable future retrospective economic analyses, we suggest some improvements in record keeping. Our findings of positive net benefits of research may be representative of cases where relatively modest research investment in invasive species control is likely to protect widely appreciated ecosystem services.
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