Incorporating ecosystem services in the assessment of water framework directive programmes of measures
File(s)
Author(s)
Souliotis, Ioannis
Voulvoulis, Nikolaos
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The EU Water Framework Directive requires the development of management responses aimed towards improving water quality as a result of improving ecosystem health (system state). Ecosystems have potential to supply a range of services that are of fundamental importance to human well-being, health, livelihoods and survival, and their capacity to supply these services depends on the ecosystem condition (its structure and processes). According to the WFD, Programmes of Measures should be developed to improve overall water status by reducing anthropogenic catchment pressures to levels compatible with the achievement of the ecological objectives of the directive, and when designed and implemented properly should improve the ecological condition of aquatic ecosystems that the delivery of ecosystem services depends on. Monitoring and evaluation of implemented measures are crucial for assessing their effectiveness and creating the agenda for consecutive planning cycles. Considering the challenges of achieving water status improvements, and the difficulties of communicating these to the wider public, we develop a framework for the evaluation of measures cost-effectiveness that considers ecosystem services as the benefits from the reduction of pressures on water bodies. We demonstrate its application through a case study and discuss its potential to facilitate the economic analysis required by the directive, and that most European water authorities had problems with. Findings demonstrate the potential of the methodology to effectively incorporate ecosystem services in the assessment of costs and benefits of proposed actions, as well as its potential to engage stakeholders.
Date Issued
2021-07-01
Date Acceptance
2021-04-19
Citation
Environmental Management (New York): an international journal for decision-makers, scientists and environmental auditors, 2021, 68, pp.38-52
ISSN
0364-152X
Publisher
Springer
Start Page
38
End Page
52
Journal / Book Title
Environmental Management (New York): an international journal for decision-makers, scientists and environmental auditors
Volume
68
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Sponsor
Commission of the European Communities
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33978824
PII: 10.1007/s00267-021-01478-7
Grant Number
603629
Subjects
Ecosystem services
Effectiveness analysis
Programme of Measures
Water Framework Directive
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
United States
Date Publish Online
2021-05-12