Ecosystem Services: Quantification, Valuation, and Markets

Photo courtesy of USDA/NRCS

RTI provides a seamless integration of economic and ecological experience and capabilities to analyze ecosystem services. Our ongoing support to the Environmental Protection Agency (including the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, Office of Research and Development, and the Climate Change Division) as well as the Department of the Interior lays the foundation for building defensible ecosystem services quantification and valuation methodologies and models, and tools for developing and evaluating markets for ecosystem services.

Focus Areas

Great waters restoration strategies
Ecological risk and exposure assessment
Economic valuation of ecosystem services
Atmospheric deposition impacts, including acidification and eutrophication
Nutrients impacts on freshwater, estuarine, and terrestrial ecosystems
Water resources management
Climate change impacts and carbon sequestration services
Markets and payments for ecosystem services

Capabilities

Quantification and valuation of ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, recreation, forest production, aesthetics, water storage, and habitat provision
Economic analysis and optimization modeling, integrating costs and ecosystem services
Application of COLE (Carbon [sequestration] On-line Estimator) and FORCARB (U.S. Forest Carbon Budget Model) models to estimate carbon sequestration services
Water quality modeling, including application of statistical (e.g., the USGS's SPAtially Referenced Regressions On Watershed attributes [SPARROW] model), intermediate (e.g., Generalized Watershed Loading Function [GWLF]), and process (e.g., Hydrologic Simulation Program – FORTRAN [HSPF] and Soil and Water Assessment Tool [SWAT]) models
Watershed flow and allocation modeling for ecological flow development and classification over EPA's enhanced National Hydrography Dataset (NHDPlus) hydrologic network
Forest ecosystem modeling, including predictive modeling of acidifying atmospheric deposition critical loads and soil chemistry modeling using PROFILE to predict base-cation weathering
Development of ecosystem service evaluation tool to determine cumulative ecosystem service values offered by a watershed or defined land area
GIS-based impacts analysis of land use land classification (LULC) changes, including spatial statistical analysis
Environmental standards development support
Defense installations sustainability research and strategic planning

Projects

Quantification and Valuation of Ecosystem Services for the NOx and SOx National Ambient Air Quality Standards Review
An Optimization Approach to Evaluate the Role of Ecosystem Services in Chesapeake Bay Restoration Strategies
Valuation Survey for Klamath Basin Restoration
Assessment Ecosystem Service Credit Stacking Involving Carbon Offsets
Valuation Survey for Reducing Nutrients in Lakes
Defense Coastal Estuarine Research Program – Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune

Current Research Papers, Publications, and Reports

Considering Ecosystem Services Co-benefits in Strategies to Restore the Chesapeake Bay, presented at A Community on Ecosystem Services conference, Hila River Reservations, AZ, December 6-9, 2010. (RTI coauthor to U.S. EPA's Office of Research and Development).
U.S. EPA's Risk and Exposure Assessment for Review of the Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Oxides of Nitrogen and Oxides of Sulfur: Main Content–Final Report [www.epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/standards/no2so2sec/cr_rea.html].
U.S. EPA., 2010. A Framework Incorporating Community Preferences in Use Attainment and Related Water Quality Decision-Making [cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/cfm/recordisplay.cfm?deid=75214].

Related Research

Marion E. Deerhake
med rti.org
919-316-3410
George L. Van Houtven
gvh rti.org
919-541-7150

Helping Livestock and Poultry Operations Manage Nutrients

RTI's Marion Deerhake and NC State's Mark Rice collaborated to help farmers improve nutrient management practices and better understand the environmental effects of their operations.

RTI and North Carolina State University's Animal and Poultry Waste Management Center helped livestock and poultry farmers better understand the potential for environmental impacts from their facilities and identify best management practices they can use.