Accounting for U.S. ecosystem services at national and subnational scales

Ecosystem services - the benefits that nature provides to society and the economy - are gaining increasing traction worldwide as governments and the private sector use them to monitor integrated environmental and economic trends. When they are well understood and managed, ecosystems can provide these long-term benefits to people - such as clean air and water, flood control, crop pollination, and recreational, cultural, and aesthetic benefits. Within the U.S. government, a memo issued by the White House Council on Environmental Quality in October 2015 charged agencies with incorporating these values in planning, investment, and regulatory processes.

Natural capital accounting - a tool being used in dozens of countries globally and by the private sector - tracks changes in ecosystem services and directly ties these changes to costs and benefits across different economic sectors. Yet, the compilation of a data, modeling, and valuation infrastructure to support natural capital accounting in the U.S. has not yet occurred. This working group will build on these international standards, completing three synthesis activities that build a foundation for a national natural capital accounting system. We will first compile existing natural capital accounting-relevant data nationwide, linking and quantifying environmental-economic trends over time. We will next run national scale biophysical models of ecosystem services using a cloud-based modeling system linked to national spatial datasets hosted by USGS and others. Finally, we will apply natural capital accounting at the subnational scale, within a landscape managed by multiple Federal agencies and for which economic data to value ecosystem services are available and policy applications are apparent.

Our approach will provide a rigorous and replicable assessment process to support more sustainable natural resource management for Federal agencies and the private sector. Finally, we will identify uncertainties, data and methodological gaps, and next steps needed to advance natural capital accounting science and policy applications in the U.S. and beyond.

This group is co-sponsored by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center.

Publications:

Bagstad, K,J., Zachary H. Ancona, Julie Hass, Pierre D. Glynn, Scott Wentland, Michael Vardon, John Fay, Integrating physical and economic data into experimental water accounts for the United States: Lessons and opportunities, Ecosystem Services, Volume 45, 2020,101182, ISSN 2212-0416 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2020.101182.
          Related Data Release.

Bagstad, K.J., Ingram, J.C., Shapiro, C.D., La Notte, A., Maes, J., Vallecillo, S., Casey, C.F., Glynn, P.D., Heris, M.P., Johnson, J.A., Lauer, C., Matuszak, J., Oleson, K.L.L., Posner, S.M., Rhodes, C., and Voigt, B. 2021. Lessons learned from development of natural capital accounts in the United States and European Union, Ecosystem Services, 52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2021.101359. 

Boyd JW, Bagstad KJ, Carter Ingram, J, Shapiro CD, Adkins JE, Casey CF, Duke CS, Glynn PD, Goldman E, Grasso M, Hass JI, Johnson JA, Lange GM, Matuszak J, Miller A, Oleson KI, Posner SM, Rhodes C, Soulard F, Vardon M, Villa F, Voigt B, and Wentland S; The Natural Capital Accounting Opportunity: Let's Really Do the Numbers, BioScience, , biy135, https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biy135

Heris, M., K.J. Bagstad, C. Rhodes, A. Troy, A. Middel, K.G. Hopkins, and J. Matszak. 2021. Piloting urban ecosystem accounting for the United States. Ecosystem Services 48:101226. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212041620301686
          Related Data Release.

Russell M., Rhodes C., Van Houtven G., Sinha P., Warnell K., Harwell M.C. (2020) Ecosystem-Based Management and Natural Capital Accounting. In: O’Higgins T., Lago M., DeWitt T. (eds) Ecosystem-Based Management, Ecosystem Services and Aquatic Biodiversity. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45843-0_8

Warnell, K., Russell, M., Rhodes, C., Bagstad, K.J., Olander, L.P., Nowak, D.J., Poudel, R., Glynn, P.D., Hass, J.L., Hirabayashi, S., Ingram, J.C., Matuszak, J., Oleson, K.L.L., Posner, S.M., and Villa, F., 2020, Testing ecosystem accounting in the United States: A case study for the Southeast: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9MF0K9X
          Related Data Release.

Wentland, S., Z. Ancona, K.J. Bagstad, J. Boyd, J.L. Hass, M. Gindelsky, and J.G. Moulton. 2020. Accounting for land in the United States: Integrating land cover, land use, and monetary valuation. Ecosystem Services 46:101178.  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212041620301200
          Related Data Release.