Development of a quantification method for ecosystem services

Ecosystem services are benefits that people receive from their environment. The ecosystem service concept takes a holistic approach to viewing how humans interact and depend on their environment. Although the concept has been gaining in popularity, it has yet to play a major role in any water management policy. We propose that one reason for this lack of adoption is that the current method for quantifying ecosystem services are inadequate and have many limitations. The purpose of this project was to create quantitative methods for evaluating watershed scale ecosystem services. Outputs from the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) were used to develop quantitative methods to evaluate six ecosystem services: Fresh Water Provision, Food Provision, Fuel Provision, Genetic Resource Provision, Erosion Regulation and Flood Regulation. These six ecosystem services were evaluated in Wildcat Creek Watershed in Central Indiana. Results show that over the study period (1995-2009), all ecosystem services except Food and Fuel Provisioning have been diminished