Authors: Mary Kelly-Quinn, Michael Bruen, Craig Bullock, Mike Christie, Christian K. Feld, Jasper Kenter, Marcin Penk and Jeremy Piggott
Summary: The ESDecide project set out to build on the outputs of the previous EPA-funded ESManage project by developing the tools and guidance needed to advance the incorporation of ecosystem services and the concept of “nature’s contribution to people” (NCP) into decision-making for the protection and management of freshwater resources and other related policy goals. The project developed the interactive decision support tool ProgRES, which helps river resource managers estimate the probability of changes in biological responses and the associated ecosystem services/NCP changes in environmental conditions.
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Ecosystem services are commonly defined as “the benefits people obtain from ecosystems” (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment) or “the contributions that ecosystems make to human well-being” (Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services – CICES). The ESDecide project set out to build on the outputs of the ESManage project by developing the tools and guidance needed to advance the incorporation of ecosystem services and the concept of “nature’s contribution to people” (NCP) into decision-making for the protection and management of freshwater resources and other related policy goals. The inclusion of ecosystem services/NCP in decision support tools helps to evaluate the impacts of water quality pressures and related stressors on the freshwater biodiversity and biological processes underpinning the delivery of the goods, services and benefits that people depend on from freshwaters. Nutrients (phosphorus and nitrogen) and fine sediments are among the primary stressors on freshwater quality. Habitat degradation due to hydromorphological alterations (e.g. flow alteration, barriers or loss of riparian vegetation) is also a prominent stressor. River basin management requires tools that help inform strategies for protecting water quality and maintaining the flow and quality of ecosystem services/NCP.
The ESDecide project, through its focus on the links between ecosystem services/NCP and environmental quality, highlighted the need to incorporate these considerations into water resources monitoring and management, including river basin management plans. Although not always explicitly stated, ecosystem services/NCP protection and restoration are central to many global, European and national policies, including the Sustainable Development Goals, biodiversity strategies and the European Green Deal. Our research demonstrated that an approach that uses deliberation to explicitly discuss a broader range of values associated with rivers, nature and ecosystem services/NCP held by different stakeholders can lead to shared visions for future river management that can help reconcile value conflicts and result in policies that are more equitable and more widely accepted.
The project developed the interactive decision support tool ProgRES, which helps river resource managers estimate the probability of changes in biological responses and the associated ecosystem services/NCP changes in environmental conditions, with a particular focus on responses to nutrient and sediment stressors. The tool can help estimate the effects of stressor reductions or increases to identify suitable protection measures for the biological processes underpinning ecosystem services/NCP. An online demonstration version of ProgRES is based on current conditions in three rivers: the Dodder, Suir and Moy. A separate, stand-alone version of the tool can be applied and tested with baseline data for other rivers. This tool supports the integration of ecosystem services/NCP considerations into policy and practice relating to river resource management in Ireland.
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