ECOSYSTEM SERVICES CASCADE

A comprehensive model for measuring nature

The Ecosystem Intelligence platform is built on accepted Ecosystem Services (ES) principles and concepts, as well as the known relationships between landscape attributes, ecological functions and biogeophysical processes.

If we accept that nature has a quantifiable value, then to understand that value, we need to understand the production and flow of ecosystem service (ES) benefits across the landscape.

The implication of the ES cascade is that to model performance, production, flow, and value, it is necessary to first understand the attributes that comprise landscape conditions. These include the biophysical attributes (site features) which, when understood in combination, contribute to the landscape’s quantifiable performance of functions. Once this performance has been quantified, the outputs can in turn be used to further model ES production, and ultimately determine the benefit flows and value that nature provides.


  • The value of these benefits can be expressed as:

    Stakeholder priorities,

    Monetary asset accounts,

    Cost/benefit, etc.


  • Dissipation of benefits over time and distance:

    Serviceshed area

    Extent of benefit reaching stakeholders


  • Ecosystem benefits such as:

    Water quality control,

    Biodiversity support,

    Climate regulation, etc.


  • Ecological functions/processes such as:

    Infiltration,

    Habitat development,

    Nitrogen removal, etc.


  • Characteristics of the landscape such as:

    Vegetative structure,

    Soil composition,

    Water regime, etc.

Core metric categories.

The EI platform Core Metric Categories are pre-grouped metrics that provide an understanding of site performance from an ecological systems perspective. While these have been fixed initially by the EI platform designers to encourage holistic consideration of performance, as a user you can bundle these measures into custom groupings.

  • The ability of landscape and design features to filter and protect people from pollutants emitted or mobilized by wind, vehicles, or other forces.

  • Captures three different types of measures:

    Biodiversity Support The ability of landscape and design features to support life cycle requirements for a wide range of species groups. This measure incorporates performance values for insects/invertebrates, resident fish, amphibians, reptiles, songbirds, raptors, bats, small mammals, large mammals, and natural plant succession.  

    Pollinator Support The ability of landscape and design features to support feeding, breeding, and refugia requirements for important pollinator species.  

    Food Web Support The ability of landscape and design features to support the ecological food web, based on primary production and habitat suitability for each trophic level.  

  • Captures the movement of carbon through the landscape:

    Carbon Uptake The ability of the landscape to remove carbon from the atmosphere.

    Carbon Storage The ability of the landscape to store carbon as organic matter in soil and plant structures.

  • Captures general soil condition and ability to withstand erosion:

    Soil Quality General measure of soil condition, based primarily on soil particle sizes (e.g., combinations of clay, silt, sand, etc.), the ability of organic matter to become incorporated into the soil, and the protection of soil biota.

    Erosion Regulation The ability of soil to withstand the erosive forces of wind and water, which helps conserve key nutrients and protects water quality. Note that while an impervious surface may protect the soil within a selected survey area from exposure to erosive forces, it can also concentrate runoff from that survey area leading to increased erosion in downslope non-impervious areas.

  • Captures the general ability of the landscape to improve water quality:

    Water Quality (Particulate Removal) The ability of landscape and design features to remove particulates, including sediments and other suspended pollutants, from flowing water or runoff.

    Water Nitrogen Removal The ability of landscape and design features to remove bioavailable nitrogen from flowing or infiltrated water (in the root zone of plants) through vegetative metabolic processes and/or denitrification.

  • The ability of the landscape to manage and convey a selected storm event (e.g., a 25-year storm). This metric incorporates processes such as interception, evaporation, infiltration and surface storage to predict a landscape's potential for water retention.

  • Captures the ability of the landscape to help improve human comfort and wellbeing associated with thermal comfort, visual disturbances, and noise:

    Air Temperature Regulation The localized thermal benefits provided by shading, evaporative cooling, surface albedo, and other natural conditions that affect temperature within an immediate area.

    Aesthetics - Visual The extent to which visual disturbance from anthropogenic sources can be screened or blocked by the landscape and natural design features.

    Aesthetics - Noise The extent to which anthropogenic noise sources can be screened or masked by the landscape and natural design features.

Core metric categories.

Supplemental metrics.

The EI platform Supplemental Metrics include a suite of additional metrics that can help the user more fully understand ecosystem service benefit production, as well as the functional processes that underpin site performance.

Services

  • A measure of the landscape’s ability to provide the life history requirements for species survival (connectivity, cover/refugia, foraging, hibernation, nesting), as appropriate.

  • A measure of the landscape’s ability to provide the life history requirements for species survival (connectivity, cover/refugia, foraging, hibernation, nesting), as appropriate.

  • A measure of the landscape’s ability to provide the life history requirements for species survival (connectivity, cover/refugia, foraging, hibernation, nesting), as appropriate.

  • A measure of the landscape’s ability to provide the life history requirements for species survival (connectivity, cover/refugia, foraging, hibernation, nesting), as appropriate.

  • Geomorphic process by which soil, sand, and rock move downslope typically as a mass, largely under the force of gravity, but frequently affected by water and soil saturation.

  • Ability of natural vegetation communities to develop and advance over time. Natural plant succession involves factors that promote the predictable, gradual, and sequential change of a native terrestrial plant community towards a climax plant community particular to a specific ecoregion.

  • A measure of the landscape’s ability to provide the life history requirements for species survival (connectivity, cover/refugia, foraging, hibernation, nesting), as appropriate.

  • A measure of the landscape’s ability to provide the life history requirements for species survival (connectivity, cover/refugia, foraging, hibernation, nesting), as appropriate

  • A measure of the landscape’s ability to provide the life history requirements for species survival (connectivity, cover/refugia, foraging, hibernation, nesting), as appropriate.

  • A measure of the landscape’s ability to provide the life history requirements for species survival (connectivity, cover/refugia, foraging, hibernation, nesting), as appropriate.

  • The capacity of the landscape to limit the redistribution and loss of soil resources by wind and water. Attributes used to estimate soil stability include dominant soil particle sizes, canopy and basal vegetative cover, slope, and soil disturbance characteristics. This model contributes significantly to the EI erosion regulation model.

  • A measure of the landscape’s ability to provide the life history requirements for species survival (connectivity, cover/refugia, foraging, hibernation, nesting), as appropriate.

  • A estimate of a landscape’s ability to convey ordinary high water (OHW) from one location to another through channelized stream systems. Water conveyance evaluates the difference between a channelized map unit’s bankfull dimensions and its dimensions at OHW levels. The difference suggests the system’s capacity to convey water through the system during periods of elevated flow.

  • A measure of the landscape’s potential to provide stored water for use by humans. Whether water is being adequately provisioned depends, in part, on what the desired use is for the water. This measure is based on a minimum volume and depth of naturally stored water to make it easily useful for a variety of purposes (e.g., pumping for use in fire suppression).

  • A measure of the landscape’s ability to maintain cool surface water temperatures.

Functions

  • A measure of the landscape’s potential to improve air quality through the removal of airborne nitrogen.

  • A measure of the landscape’s potential to improve air quality through the removal of airborne particulate matter.

  • The ability of the landscape to store carbon as organic matter in soil and plant structures.

  • The ability of the landscape to remove carbon from the atmosphere.

  • A measure of the degree to which forces acting upon a stream channel are balanced by geomorphic changes to that channel.

  • A measure of the ability to remove nitrogen from the water cycle due to plant uptake, filtration of sediments, or gaseous volatilization.

  • A measure of the potential to lose water to the atmosphere (from open bodies of water, exposed soil, ground cover and canopy cover).

  • A measure of the ability of free‐standing water on the ground surface to move vertically downward through the soil.

  • A measure of the ability to capture and accumulate precipitation falling on foliage, stems, branches, organic litter and inorganic surfaces such as rock, pavement, structures, etc. This function is viewed in terms of how these landscape conditions prevent rainfall from immediately reaching soil and either infiltrating or running off.

  • A measure of the ability of a landscape to store nitrogen.

  • The production of carbon compounds in aboveground biomass, detritus, and belowground biomass.

  • Processes and properties that provide for the movement of organisms, and especially seeds/propagules, from one location to another for reproduction/colonization of new areas and daily/seasonal/annual migrations necessary for population viability.

  • A measure of the landscape’s ability to transfer soil moisture into the atmosphere as a function of photosynthesis.

Other measures coming soon.

  • Access to Nature A measure of a person’s ability to access natural vegetation and natural features, in both the natural and built environments. 

  • Aesthetic Production A measure of a landscape’s ability to create sensory inputs that are generally pleasant to humans.  

  • Atmospheric Cleansing The process by which air pollution, including ozone, nitrous oxides, sulfur oxides, and carbon dioxide are absorbed from the atmosphere by vegetation. 

  • Desertification Avoidance  A measure of site integrity in regard to minimizing the degradation of land in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas. 

  • Full Water Cycle A comprehensive measure of the water cycle, including evaporation, transpiration, precipitation, and runoff from the perspective of balancing the water cycle to reduce the risk of both drought and flooding. 

  • Groundwater Recharge The maintenance of connectivity between surface water infiltration and groundwater. 

  • Passive Recreation A measure of the landscape’s ability to provide passive recreation activities such as birdwatching and walking/hiking. This measure is heavily dependent upon site access and the presence of natural vegetation, waterways, or landforms.  

  • Phosphorous Retention A measure of the landscape’s ability to retain dissolved phosphorus and restrict its transport into surface waters where excess inputs of phosphorus can cause eutrophication. 

  • Sense of Place  A measure of a site’s consistency with the surrounding natural and cultural environment. 

  • Storage Capacity Ability of the landscape to store water below ground and in substrates, as opposed to surface water storage. 

Additional resources on ecosystem services

UN

Ecosystem Services & Biodiversity (ESB)

Earth.org

What are Ecosystem Services?

White House

Accounting for Nature on Earth Day 2022

Executive Order on Strengthening the Nation’s Forests, Communities, and Local Economies

White House Aims to Reflect the Environment in Economic Data

USGS

Ecosystem Services Assessment and Valuation

EPA

Measuring Ecosystem Health: 50 Years of Science to Protect America’s Ecosystems

Win-Win: Using Green Infrastructure to Maximize Ecosystem Benefits

Nature’s Gifts – Ecosystem Goods and Services

Climate Change Impacts on Ecosystems

Ecosystem Services Research

US Forest Service

Ecosystem Services

More About Ecosystem Services

National Ecosystem Services Partnership

Integrating Ecosystem Services into Federal Resource Management