Ecosystem services approaches for water management

The James Hutton Institute has a full programme of research and knowledge exchange activities that focus on the understanding of the relations of society and individuals with water ecosystem services.

Since the release of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, ecosystems have become widely recognised as natural capital assets supporting and supplying services which are highly valuable to humans.

There is a growing appreciation of the important role that ecosystems play in providing goods and services that contribute to human wellbeing, and recognition of the impact of human actions on ecosystems.

The estimation of the economic value of ecosystem services plays a crucial role in ecosystem-based management, and is increasingly important for local, national, and global policy design and decision-making.

The James Hutton Institute has a full programme of research and knowledge exchange activities that focus on the understanding of the relations of society and individuals with water ecosystem services, and on how can this be used to address current and future water challenges at the catchment and global levels.

For further information, please contact: Dr Julia Martin-Ortega [1].

Programme of research

• Exploring ways for the application of an ecosystems services approaches at the catchment level [2]
• Cost-effectiveness, disproportionality analysis and multiple benefits of the EU Water Framework Directive [3]
• Payment for water ecosystem services [4]
• Assessing and valuing peatland ecosystem services for sustainable management [5]
• Valuing the impacts of ecosystem service interactions for policy effectiveness [6]
• Water Futures: Towards Equitable Resource Management Strategies [7]

Water Ecosystem Services: A Global Perspective

• The James Hutton Institute has been in collaboration with UNESCO, to produce a multi-cultured publication on Water Ecosystem Services [8]

Phd project

A Multi-Stakeholder Perspective on the Value of Water in the Brazilian Cuiabá River Basin and in the Pantanal to Inform Water Governance across Brazil and Scotland: PhD project by Christopher Schulz [9]

This project aims to explore new strategies to incorporate non-monetary values of water resources into policy making and water governance. The geographical focus of the research project will be the Brazilian Pantanal, the world’s largest freshwater wetland. It will include the perspectives of a wide range of stakeholder groups on the value of water and furthermore intends to strengthen co-operation between Scottish and international researchers on water-related topics.

Knowledge exchange

Experts from the Centre of Expertise for Waters (CREW) produced a summary note "The Value of Scotland’s Water Resources" to support the Water Resources (Scotland) Bill in the Scottish Parliament.

"The Value of Scotland’s Water Resources" note seeks to summarise current academic thinking and evidence on the value of water resources. It considers the Scottish context and examines how the value of water resources might be developed. The full note can be read below.

• PDF file: The Value of Scotland’s Water Resources [10] (1.5 MB)