TY - JOUR

T1 - Incorporating Ecosystem Services into Water Resources Management—Tools, Policies, Promising Pathways

AU - Vollmer, Derek

AU - Burkhard, Kremena

AU - Adem Esmail, Blal

AU - Guerrero, Paulina

AU - Nagabhatla, Nidhi

N1 - Funding Information: We would like to thank the Ecosystem Services Partnership for encouraging the formation of this Sectoral Working Group on Ecosystem Services in Water Management. KB is grateful for the funding support from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under grant no. 01LA1814A (project RUINS) and grant. no. 02WGR1423D (project ViWA), the Lower Saxony Ministry of Research and Culture (FKZ: 76251-17-5/19) and the Volkswagen Foundation (project Gute Küste Niedersachsen). PG is grateful for the funding support from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) through the Junior Research Group PlanSmart (funding code: 01UU1601A). NN acknowledges the Flemish Government (Kingdom of Belgium) and the working partner of UNU CRIS – the Ghent University and the Vrije Universiteit, Brussels. DV would like to thank the Betty and Gordon Moore Center for Science, and the Pisces Foundation, for funding support.

PY - 2022/4

Y1 - 2022/4

N2 - Ecosystems provide a range of services, including water purification, erosion prevention, and flood risk mitigation, that are important to water resource managers. But as a sector, water resources management has been slow to incorporate ecosystem protection and restoration, for a variety of reasons, although related concepts such as nature-based solutions and green infrastructure are gaining traction. We explain some of the existing challenges to wider uptake of the ecosystem services concept in water resources management and introduce some promising avenues for research and practice, elaborated in more detail through 12 papers, spanning five continents and a variety of contexts, which make up a Special Issue on “Incorporating Ecosystem Services into Water Resources Management”. Cross-cutting themes include (A) ecosystem services as a flexible concept to communicate with stakeholders; (B) participatory processes to involve stakeholders in research; (C) multiple values, and valuation methods, of water-related services; and (D) applications of decision-support tools. We conclude with a summary of research gaps and emphasize the importance of co-producing knowledge with decision makers and other stakeholders, in order to improve water resources management through the integration of ecosystem services.

AB - Ecosystems provide a range of services, including water purification, erosion prevention, and flood risk mitigation, that are important to water resource managers. But as a sector, water resources management has been slow to incorporate ecosystem protection and restoration, for a variety of reasons, although related concepts such as nature-based solutions and green infrastructure are gaining traction. We explain some of the existing challenges to wider uptake of the ecosystem services concept in water resources management and introduce some promising avenues for research and practice, elaborated in more detail through 12 papers, spanning five continents and a variety of contexts, which make up a Special Issue on “Incorporating Ecosystem Services into Water Resources Management”. Cross-cutting themes include (A) ecosystem services as a flexible concept to communicate with stakeholders; (B) participatory processes to involve stakeholders in research; (C) multiple values, and valuation methods, of water-related services; and (D) applications of decision-support tools. We conclude with a summary of research gaps and emphasize the importance of co-producing knowledge with decision makers and other stakeholders, in order to improve water resources management through the integration of ecosystem services.

KW - Adaptive water management

KW - Blue and green infrastructure

KW - Ecosystem based adaptation

KW - IWRM

KW - Nature-based solutions

KW - Water security

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85127548848&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s00267-022-01640-9

DO - 10.1007/s00267-022-01640-9

M3 - Article

VL - 69

SP - 627

EP - 635

JO - Environmental management

JF - Environmental management

SN - 1432-1009

IS - 4

ER -