Approaches for Ecosystem Services Valuation for the Gulf of Mexico After the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Interim Report (2012) / Chapter Skim
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4 An Ecosystem Services Approach to Damage Assessment
4 An Ecosystem Services Approach to Damage Assessment
Pages 95-120
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From page 95... ...
It is likely that some of the wealth of data collected for the ongoing damage assessment will be readily applicable to the ecosystem services analysis. A unique opportunity exists to benefit from the application of new approaches to both available data sets and emerging results from ongoing and future research to understand the impacts of the DWH oil spill and large-scale oil spills in general.
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From page 96... ...
Changes in ecosystem conditions, either from natural disturbances such as hurricanes, or from human disturbances such as an oil spill, will in general alter the amount of various ecosystem services pro vided. For example, degradation of coastal marshes may reduce protection from storm surges and reduce nursery habitat for fish, among other services.
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From page 97... ...
Table 4.1 expands the basic damage assessment approach presented in Table 2.1 to include data collection and analyses necessary to establish ecological production functions for two key ecosystem services in the Gulf of Mexico, hazard moderation (in the form of storm protection) and food (in the form of nursery habitat for fisheries)
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From page 98... ...
Estimates of ability wave energy to plant height, density of the wetland likely reduction and extent to likely to reestablish in storm surge. height of storm surge.
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From page 99... ...
The conclusion is that friction by the plant canopy dissipates energy and reduces wave heights, but the effect of the wetland surface depends on water depth. In the future, the effect of wetland surge dissipation will depend on the survival of the wetlands, because wetland survival will have a great effect on the height of the storm surge relative to mean sea level.
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From page 100... ...
That said, utilizing the extensive data that have been collected for the damage assessment process in the GoM and the existing ecosystem models for the GoM presents a unique opportunity for enhancing our understanding of ecological production functions and the provision of ecosystem services in the GoM. Finding 4.2: An ecosystem services approach to damage assessment and valuation offers great promise but accurate estimates may be limited to cases in which there is a mechanistic understanding of the service's production function and environmental conditions are not highly variable.
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From page 101... ...
" The next component of the ecosystem services approach focuses on establishing the value of ecosystem services. The value of an ecosystem service is the contribution of the service to human well-being.
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From page 102... ...
The scope of the ecosystem services valuation exercises for a spill of this size could be challenging for the current practice of stated preference methods. Many ecosystem services are public goods.
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From page 103... ...
To assess the value of changes in ecosystem services from environmental impacts such as an oil spill, economic valuation methods need to be combined with ecological assessments of impacts. For example, changes in marsh, seagrass, oyster reefs, mangroves, and other habitats impacted by the oil spill could have a direct impact on ecosystem services supplied by these systems.
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From page 104... ...
Because replacement costs measures costs not benefits, some economists do not include these approaches as a valid way to measure the value of ecosystem services. However, many economists view replacement costs as a valid approach to measuring what is lost when ecosystem services are lost or diminished as long as certain restrictive conditions, discussed below, are met.
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From page 105... ...
In some cases, the value of these non-marketed ecosystem services can be estimated using data on observed behavior of how much of a service is utilized and the cost to the individual of utilizing the service (e.g., travel cost methods) , or by using data on related goods and services such as housing values (e.g., hedonic property price methods)
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From page 106... ...
A dramatic shift in recreational fishing took place as a result of the oil spill, based on data from the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP) of the National Marine Fisheries Service for charter boat trips during May-August each year.
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From page 107... ...
, neighborhood characteristics, and environmental characteristics to estimate a multiple regression equation that predicts property price as a function of a change in a characteristic that affects property value. The results of the analysis can be used to assess how property values will likely change if environmental quality is changed, holding other characteristics that affect property value fixed.
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From page 108... ...
. Hedonic property price analysis could be used to assess whether the DWH oil spill has had a negative impact on the value of coastal properties, but otherwise this method may be of limited utility in the case of the DWH spill.
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From page 109... ...
. Another use of CVM to quantify economic value of ecosystem services is conjoint analysis.
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From page 110... ...
. The value of coastal protection afforded by coastal wetlands is estimated by finding the difference in likely damages to coastal communities from a hurricane or other storm event in the case with intact coastal marshes versus degraded or no coastal marshes to absorb wave energy and reduce storm surge.
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From page 111... ...
For the Gulf of Mexico an additional major limitation of using benefit transfer is the lack of primary studies applicable to the habitats and ecosystem services for the
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From page 112... ...
Valuation Studies of Previous Oil Spills Valuation studies of previous oil spills provide a foundation from which to discuss valuation methodologies for ecosystem services potentially im pacted by the DWH spill. The Exxon Valdez spill was the starting point for the application and evaluation of non-market valuation techniques for natural resource damage impacts.
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From page 113... ...
They note the limitations of this approach in linking changes on landings to the Prestige oil spill and conclude that landings are sensitive to fishing effort, predator-prey interaction, and species sensitivity to oil. Finding 4.4: Both market and non-market approaches to valuing eco system services have become accepted and established practice over the past two decades since the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
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From page 114... ...
Saltwater Waste $681 per hectare/ Benefit transfer Kazmierczak (2001) Wetland Regulation per year Valuation Methods Applied to the Gulf of Mexico Table 4.2 summarizes some of the studies mentioned above and pro vides a limited number of examples and results of where monetary valuation techniques have been used in the GoM region.
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From page 115... ...
Hedonic property price studies could be used to measure changes in values to coastal communities as a result of the DWH oil spill, but their use is limited to capturing only the impacts felt by property owners in coastal communities. Stated-preference methods can be used for virtually any ecosystem service, including nutrient regulation, storm protection, and erosion control, but careful attention needs to be paid to survey design to get reliable answers to valuation questions.
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From page 116... ...
Food 1. Measures of fishery (commercial fisheries)
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From page 117... ...
infrastructure. ecosystem service is NRDA but other data 2.
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From page 118... ...
While complete ecosystem models might be ideal, they are not essential for making progress on evaluating ecosystem services. As a practical matter, reasonable estimates of ecosystem services can be made with simpler existing models that focus on particular aspects of ecosystems.
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From page 119... ...
Since many services emanate from public resources, for example national parks for recreation and oyster beds for food, it is important that the benefits of ecosystem services are enjoyed by as many as possible without excluding or negatively impacting one segment of the population. An ecosystem services approach focuses not only on the restoration of damaged resources, but also on maintaining the usefulness of those resources to the public.
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From page 120... ...
of applying an ecosystem services approach to damage assessment, as well as those associated with restoring (and perhaps increasing) ecosystem resil ience for GoM, will be a focus in the production of its final report.
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