We use two datasets to characterize impacts on ecosystem services. The first is a spatially explicit measure of the impact of human consumption or ‘demand’ on ecosystem services as measured by the ...human appropriation of net primary productivity (HANPP) derived from population distributions and aggregate national statistics. The second is an actual measure of loss of productivity or a proxy measure of ‘supply’ of ecosystem services derived from biophysical models, agricultural census data, and other empirical measures. This proxy measure of land degradation is the ratio of actual NPP to potential NPP. The HANPP dataset suggests that current ‘demand’ for NPP exceeds ‘supply’ at a corresponding ecosystem service value of $10.5 trillion per year. The land degradation measure suggests that we have lost $6.3 trillion per year of ecosystem service value to impaired ecosystem function. Agriculture amounts to 2.8% of global GDP. With global GDP standing at $63 trillion in 2010, all of agriculture represents $1.7 Trillion of the world's GDP. Our estimate of lost ecosystem services represent a significantly larger fraction (~10%) of global GDP. This is one reason the economics of land degradation is about a lot more than the market value of agricultural products alone.
•Global loss of ecosystem services due to land use change is $US 4.3–20.2trillion/yr.•Ecoservices contribute more than twice as much to human well-being as global GDP.•Estimates in monetary units are ...useful to show the relative magnitude of ecoservices.•Valuation of ecosystem services is not the same as commodification or privatization.•Ecosystem services are best considered public goods requiring new institutions.
In 1997, the global value of ecosystem services was estimated to average $33trillion/yr in 1995 $US ($46trillion/yr in 2007 $US). In this paper, we provide an updated estimate based on updated unit ecosystem service values and land use change estimates between 1997 and 2011. We also address some of the critiques of the 1997 paper. Using the same methods as in the 1997 paper but with updated data, the estimate for the total global ecosystem services in 2011 is $125trillion/yr (assuming updated unit values and changes to biome areas) and $145trillion/yr (assuming only unit values changed), both in 2007 $US. From this we estimated the loss of eco-services from 1997 to 2011 due to land use change at $4.3–20.2trillion/yr, depending on which unit values are used. Global estimates expressed in monetary accounting units, such as this, are useful to highlight the magnitude of eco-services, but have no specific decision-making context. However, the underlying data and models can be applied at multiple scales to assess changes resulting from various scenarios and policies. We emphasize that valuation of eco-services (in whatever units) is not the same as commodification or privatization. Many eco-services are best considered public goods or common pool resources, so conventional markets are often not the best institutional frameworks to manage them. However, these services must be (and are being) valued, and we need new, common asset institutions to better take these values into account.
Improving human well-being is increasingly recognized as essential for movement toward a sustainable and desirable future. Estimates of different aspects of human well-being, such as Gross Domestic ...Product, or percentage of population with access to electric power, or measuring the distribution of income in society are often fraught with problems. There are few standardized methods of data collection; in addition, the required data is not obtained in a reliable manner and on a repetitive basis in many parts of the world. Consequently, inter-comparability of the data that does exist becomes problematic. Data derived from nighttime satellite imagery has helped develop various globally consistent proxy measures of human well-being at the gridded, sub-national, and national level. We review several ways in which nighttime satellite imagery has been used to measure the human well-being within nations.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) comprise an important policy achievement towards identifying shared goals for addressing global challenges such as climate change and ...biodiversity loss. Though policy coherence for sustainable development ultimately depends on coherence among the SDGs – as progress toward one goal should not hamper progress toward others – synergies and trade-offs are emerging among the metrics (indicators) used to measure progress towards the various targets of the SDGs. In this context, the choice of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita as an indicator for SDG 8 (“Decent Work and Economic Growth”) contradicts the evidence that limitless economic growth is not possible on a planet with finite resources. Here, we highlight how pursuing unconditional GDP growth risks failing to achieve the SDGs overall. We show how, in the European Union, GDP is unrelated to other measures of economic performance such as levels of employment, and relates inversely to indicators of environmental sustainability and broader measures of wellbeing. Pursuing SDG 8 through a continuous increase in GDP will therefore hinder the achievement of environmental goals and goals on reducing inequalities. We propose guidelines for selecting alternative indicators for SDG 8 with the aim of improving coherence among all of the SDGs, as well as between the SDGs and other policy initiatives for sustainability. This will inform a better monitoring of SDG 8 and the definition of post-2030 Agendas for sustainable development.
The US National Park Service (NPS) Night Skies Program measured changes in sky brightness resulting from a countywide lighting retrofit project. The retrofit took place in Chelan County, a gateway ...community to North Cascades National Park and Lake Chelan National Recreation Area in Washington State. The county retrofitted all 3693 county-owned high pressure sodium (HPS) street lamps to full cutoff LEDs. This number is about 60% of the County's total outdoor street and area lights. About 80% of the newly installed lights were 3000 K in color temperature and 20% were 4000 K. The 4000 K LEDs were used to meet Washington State Department of Transportation guidelines. To measure sky brightness, we used the NPS night sky camera system before the retrofit started in 2018 and after its completion in 2019. These images were photometrically calibrated and mosaicked together to provide hemispherical images in V band. For comparison with our ground-based measurement, we obtained the satellite imagery taken by Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite. Our measurements show that the post-retrofit skyglow became brighter and extended higher in the sky, but upward radiance, as measured by the day-night band radiometer, decreased. These divergent results are likely explained by a substantial increase in light emitted at wavelengths shorter than 500 nm, and a relative decrease in upward light emission due to better shielded luminaires. These results also demonstrate that earlier models relating VIIRS day-night band data to skyglow will – at a minimum – require substantial revision to account for the different characteristics of solid state luminaires.
•The skyglow became brighter after the countywide LED lighting retrofit.•Chelan County retrofitted 3693 high pressure sodium (HPS) streetlights to LEDs.•The VIIRS satellite failed to detect the increase of upward radiance in this case.•Earlier models relating VIIRS data to LED skyglow will require substantial revision.•Typical one-for-one HPS to LED replacements are likely to increase light pollution.
Light pollution has detrimental impacts on wildlife, human health, and ecosystem functions and services. This paper explores the impact of light pollution on the value of ecosystem services. We use ...the Simplified All-Sky Light Pollution Ratio (sALR) as a proxy for the negative impact of light pollution and the Copernicus PROBA-V Global Landcover Database as our proxy of ecosystem service value based on previously published ecosystem service values associated with a variety of landcovers. We use the sALR value to ‘degrade’ the value of ecosystem services. This results in a 40% reduction in ecosystem service value in those areas of the world with maximum levels of light pollution. Using this methodology, the estimate of the annual loss of ecosystem service value due to light pollution is USD 3.4 trillion. This represents roughly 3% of the total global value of ecosystem services and 3% of the global GDP, estimated at roughly USD 100 trillion in 2022. A summary of how these losses are distributed amongst the world’s countries and landcovers is also presented.
The effects of tropical cyclones on damages/GDP and lives lost/population in the swath of a tropical cyclone, as moderated by coastal wetlands. Globally coastal wetlands prevent $447 Billion/yr. of ...damages and save 4,620 lives/yr.
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•1st global estimate of the value of coastal wetlands for avoiding all storm damages.•Median global storm protection value of $447 Billion/yr. and 4,620 lives saved/yr.•Integrated global databases on storms, damages, deaths, wetlands, GDP, & population.•Used Bayesian and OLS statistical techniques to relate damages & deaths to wetlands.•Coastal wetlands provide storm protection and many other ecosystem services.
Coastal wetlands provide a range of valuable ecosystem services, including protecting coastal communities from storms. We estimated for the first time the global value of these storm protection services for all coastal wetlands for both damages avoided and lives saved. We used the historical tracks of 1,014 tropical cyclones since 1902 that recorded property damage and/or human casualties in 71 countries/regions. We used Bayesian and OLS statistical techniques to relate storm damages and lives lost to: wind speed, storm forward speed, the year of the storm, the volume of ocean water proximal to landfall, and GDP, population, and coastal wetlands in the swath of the storm. Based on current storm probabilities, we estimate the median annual global value of coastal wetlands for storm protection at $447 billion/yr (2015$US) ($213 - $837 billion/yr, 90% CI) and 4,620 lives saved per year (3,320 – 6,550, 90% CI). The 40 million hectares of coastal wetlands in storm prone areas provided an average of $11,000/ha/yr in avoided storm damages. The frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones has been increasing in recent decades and is projected to further increase with climate change. Consequently, the already significant benefits from protecting and restoring coastal wetlands will become increasingly important and valuable in the future. These results justify much larger investments in conservation and restoration of coastal wetlands.
Evapotranspiration estimation has benefitted from recent advances in remote sensing and GIS techniques particularly in agricultural applications rather than urban environments. This paper explores ...the relationship between urban vegetation evapotranspiration (ET) and vegetation indices derived from newly-developed high spatial resolution WorldView-2 imagery. The study site was Veale Gardens in Adelaide, Australia. Image processing was applied on five images captured from February 2012 to February 2013 using ERDAS Imagine. From 64 possible two band combinations of WorldView-2, the most reliable one (with the maximum median differences) was selected. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values were derived for each category of landscape cover, namely trees, shrubs, turf grasses, impervious pavements, and water bodies. Urban landscape evapotranspiration rates for Veale Gardens were estimated through field monitoring using observational-based landscape coefficients. The relationships between remotely sensed NDVIs for the entire Veale Gardens and for individual NDVIs of different vegetation covers were compared with field measured urban landscape evapotranspiration rates. The water stress conditions experienced in January 2013 decreased the correlation between ET and NDVI with the highest relationship of ET-Landscape NDVI (Landscape Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) for shrubs (r2 = 0.66) and trees (r2 = 0.63). However, when the January data was excluded, there was a significant correlation between ET and NDVI. The highest correlation for ET-Landscape NDVI was found for the entire Veale Gardens regardless of vegetation type (r2 = 0.95, p > 0.05) and the lowest one was for turf (r2 = 0.88, p > 0.05). In support of the feasibility of ET estimation by WV2 over a longer period, an algorithm recently developed that estimates evapotranspiration rates based on the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) from MODIS was employed. The results revealed a significant positive relationship between ETMODIS and ETWV2 (r2 = 0.9857, p > 0.05). This indicates that the relationship between NDVI using high resolution WorldView-2 imagery and ground-based validation approaches could provide an effective predictive tool for determining ET rates from unstressed mixed urban landscape plantings.
Abstract
As billions of nocturnal avian migrants traverse North America, twice a year they must contend with landscape changes driven by natural and anthropogenic forces, including the rapid growth ...of the artificial glow of the night sky. While airspaces facilitate migrant passage, terrestrial landscapes serve as essential areas to restore energy reserves and often act as refugia—making it critical to holistically identify stopover locations and understand drivers of use. Here, we leverage over 10 million remote sensing observations to develop seasonal contiguous United States layers of bird migrant stopover density. In over 70% of our models, we identify skyglow as a highly influential and consistently positive predictor of bird migration stopover density across the United States. This finding points to the potential of an expanding threat to avian migrants: peri-urban illuminated areas may act as ecological traps at macroscales that increase the mortality of birds during migration.
•Increasing land degradation from management is costly and needs to be valued.•All necessary data is available but scattered and needs consolidation.•Measure of human well-being requires measure of ...all the capitals.•Models that include all capitals as well as the human factor should be prioritized.
This review assesses existing data, models, and other knowledge-based methods for valuing the effects of sustainable land management including the cost of land degradation on a global scale. The overall development goal of sustainable human well-being should be to obtain social, ecologic, and economic viability, not merely growth of the market economy. Therefore new and more integrated methods to value sustainable development are needed. There is a huge amount of data and methods currently available to model and analyze land management practices. However, it is scattered and requires consolidation and reformatting to be useful. In this review we collected and evaluated databases and computer models that could be useful for analyzing and valuing land management options for sustaining natural capital and maximizing ecosystem services. The current methods and models are not well equipped to handle large scale transdisciplinary analyses and a major conclusion of this synthesis paper is that there is a need for further development of the integrated approaches, which considers all four types of capital (human, built, natural, and social), and their interaction at spatially explicit, multiple scales. This should be facilitated by adapting existing models and make them and their outcomes more accessible to stakeholders. Other shortcomings and caveats of models should be addressed by adding the ‘human factor’, for instance, in participatory decision-making and scenario testing. For integration of the models themselves, a more participatory approach to model development is also recommended, along with the possibility of adding advanced gaming interfaces to the models to allow them to be “played” by a large number of interested parties and their trade-off decisions to be accumulated and compared.
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