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Ecosystem services -- Economic aspects

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Ecosystem Services: The Making Of A Metaphor We Live (?) By, Richard B. Norgaard Feb 2012

Ecosystem Services: The Making Of A Metaphor We Live (?) By, Richard B. Norgaard

Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

What started as a humble metaphor to help us think about our relation to nature has become integral to how we are addressing the future of humanity and the course of biological evolution. The metaphor of nature as a stock that provides a flow of services is insufficient for the difficulties we are in or the task ahead. Indeed, combined with the mistaken presumption that we can analyze a global problem within a partial equilibrium economic framework and reach a new economy project-by-project without major institutional change, the simplicity of the stock-flow framework blinds us to the complexity of the …


Understanding, Modeling And Valuing Ecosystem Services, Robert Costanza Oct 2010

Understanding, Modeling And Valuing Ecosystem Services, Robert Costanza

Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

Ecosystem services (ES) are the direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems (in combination with other inputs) to human well-being. An ES-based approach can assess the trade-offs inherent in managing humans embedded in ecological systems. Evaluating trade-offs requires both an understanding of the biophysical magnitudes of ES changes that result from human actions, as well as an understanding of their impact on human well-being, broadly conceived. This talk discusses the state of the art of ES assessment, valuation, and modeling, including the potential of integrated ecological economic modeling. Valuation is about assessing trade-offs – not necessarily about trades (exchanges) in markets …