Impacts of land-cover change on the water flow regulation ecosystem service: Invasive alien plants, fire and their policy implications

This study presents a methodology to address the challenge of objectively demonstrating Ecosystem Hydrological Services (EHS). A case study is used in the region of the La Guajira Peninsula (Colombia), with a focus on the EHS of water flow regulation. The proposed methodology hypothesizes that EHS that have not been objectively demonstrated lead to failures in the implementation of guidelines of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES). Following this idea, we have tried to understand and quantify the relationship between vegetation coverage and streamflow regulation. To prove this relationship and the existence of the mentioned EHS in the La Guajira Ecosystem, we determined land cover changes from 2000 to 2013 using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and we also quantified the streamflow regulation using hydrological and meteorological time series in the study area. The analysis methods used were insufficient to determine the influence of vegetation on hydric regulation EHS; nevertheless, a greater influence of morphometry was observed in medium‑and large-sized basins. Another important finding shows the relevance of selecting an adequate spatial and time resolution when quantifying water flow regulation services and its relationship with land cover characteristics. In this way, this exercise shows the complexity of quantifying EHS. Furthermore, we highlight some aspects that must be taken into account to properly quantify streamflow regulation due to vegetation coverage.

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Minimum forest cover for sustainable water flow regulation in a watershed under rapid expansion of oil palm and rubber plantations

10.5194/hess-2017-116-sc4 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Anonymous

Keyword(s):

Water Flow ◽

Oil Palm ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Flow Regulation ◽

Rapid Expansion ◽

Rubber Plantations ◽

Water Flow Regulation

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Evaluation of the Effects of Land Cover Change on Ecosystem Service Values in the Upper Reaches of the Heihe River Basin, Northwestern China

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su10124700 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (12) ◽

pp. 4700 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Minmin Zhao ◽

Zhibin He

Keyword(s):

Land Cover ◽

Land Cover Change ◽

River Basin ◽

Ecosystem Service ◽

Heihe River Basin ◽

Northwestern China ◽

Heihe River ◽

Ecological Management ◽

Ecological Protection ◽

The Heihe River Basin

Ecological protection and restoration results in a series of complicated changes in land cover. Lack of research on the historical and potential effects of land cover change on ecosystem service value (ESV) hinders decision-making on trade-offs involved in environmental management. To address this gap, the effects of land cover change on ESV in the upper reaches of the Heihe River Basin in northwestern China were evaluated. First, on the basis of land cover maps for 2001, 2008 and 2015, the land cover map for 2029 was predicted with CA-Markov model. Then, the changes in ESV resulting from land cover change were valuated with the benefit transfer method. The results showed that the total ESV increased from $1207.33 million (USD) in 2001 to $1479.48 million (USD) in 2015, and the value was expected to reach $1574.53 million (USD) in 2029. The increase in ESV can be mainly attributed to expansion in areas of wetland. In this study, the elastic index was applied to identify areas that were more sensitive to ecological management, aiding in selecting sites for investment in ecological protection and restoration programs. Furthermore, the potential effects of land cover change on ESV was evaluated. The results are of great importance for guiding future ecological management.

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