Payments for Ecosystem Services
Economic benefits of hydrologic services from watershed protection and restoration
Watershed protection and restoration provide a range of benefits including clean and ample water supplies, biodiversity, cultural connection to place, carbon sequestration, and a suite of other ecosystem services. Research by UHERO’s Environmental Policy and Planning Group demonstrates the economic benefits of native forest protection and restoration for groundwater recharge, pointing to the value of […]
Read MoreUHERO’s Leah Bremer on Supporting real-world watershed management
UHERO’s Leah Bremer’s recent publication in Water Resources Research was featured in the Global Water Forum this week. She and a team of interdisciplinary colleagues worked with on-the-ground managers of watershed protection programs in Brazil to identify real-world decision contexts where hydrologic modeling and monitoring can support planning and decision making. They demonstrate the importance […]
Read MoreWho are we measuring and modeling for? Supporting real-world watershed management
By Leah Bremer and Kate Brauman (In Press at the Global Water Forum) Watershed management programs that promote land management like reforestation, conservation, and lower-intensity grazing to enhance clean and ample water supplies downstream are becoming more common around the world. To achieve their water goals, they often need hydrologic information, usually generated through field measurements and hydrologic models. However, hard work by the hydrologic community […]
Read MorePublication: Who Are we Measuring and Modeling for? Supporting Multilevel Decision‐Making in Watershed Management
UHERO and an international partnership, ClimateWise, tackled the question of how hydrological ecosystem service information is actually used in decision making in watershed management programs. Linking hydrological monitoring and modeling efforts to actual user needs increases the relevance and uptake of these studies and has important implications for where researchers should focus their energy. As […]
Read MoreRecovery of Lost Nexus Synergy via Payment for Environmental Services in Kumamoto, Japan
The objective of this study is to characterize and quantify the “trans-spatial nexus synergy” benefit of subsidized water ponding in the water-energy-food nexus in Kumamoto, Japan. After years of decreased rice production in upstream areas and associated declines in groundwater levels, the Kumamoto city government implemented a subsidy program whereby farmers in the Shira River […]
Read MoreIdentifying Areas of Cost-effective Watershed Management for Groundwater Recharge Protection on Hawai‘i island
In collaboration with the County of Hawai‘i Department of Water Supply (DWS), we identified three priority management areas on Hawai‘i Island: Kohala, Kona, and Kaʻū. These critical recharge areas were identified by DWS as important recharge areas for four aquifers where current withdrawals are near current or future sustainable yield limits: Mahukona, Waimea, Keauhou, and […]
Read MorePayments for Watershed Services as Adaptation to Climate Change: Upstream Conservation and Downstream Aquifer Management
Economically optimal groundwater extraction allocates water over space and time to its highest and best social use. But optimal management of water resources also requires optimal investment in watershed capital, even as the climate is changing. We augment a standard coastal groundwater management model with stock-dependent extraction costs to include recharge-enhancing natural and produced capital […]
Read MoreIncentivizing interdependent resource management: watersheds, groundwater, and coastal ecology
Managing water resources independently may result in substantial economic losses when those resources are interdependent with each other and with other environmental resources. We first develop general principles for using resources with spillovers, including corrective taxes (subsidies) for incentivizing private resource users. We then analyze specific cases of managing water resources, in particular the interaction […]
Read MoreA dynamic approach to PES pricing and finance of interlinked ecosystem services: Watershed conservation and groundwater management
A theory of payment for ecosystem services (PES) pricing consistent with dynamic efficiency and sustainable income requires optimized shadow prices. Since ecosystem services are generally interdependent, this requires joint optimization across multiple resource stocks. We develop such a theory in the context of watershed conservation and groundwater extraction.
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