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Contribution of site assessment toward prioritising investment in natural capital
journal contribution
posted on 2011-01-01, 00:00 authored by N D Crossman, Brett BryanBrett Bryan, D KingIn prioritising investment in natural capital, site-scale indicators are increasingly used to capture fine-scale variation inherent in complex ecosystems. However, site assessment is costly, has high skill demand, and is time-consuming. We assess the marginal gain associated with including site-scale indicators in metrics typically used by agri-environmental stewardship schemes and payments for ecosystem services. We developed 18 landscape-scale and 14 site-scale indicators to prioritise sites for on-ground works in a real-world conservation auction in South Australia. We used the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to weight them and multi-attribute utility theory to combine them in quantifying site priority. Bid benefit was calculated as the product of impact of the proposed works and the site priority. Cost-utility analysis was used to rank and select bids with benefits calculated using: i) landscape-scale indicators, and; ii) both landscape- and site-scale indicators. We found that the inclusion of site-scale indicators has limited influence on the ranking and selection of bids for investment when cost of investment is included in the decision-making process. We suggest that, depending on the nature of costs and benefits, and if landholder engagement, information sharing, and trust-building can be achieved in more efficient ways, site assessment may not be necessary. Thereby a significant barrier to the adoption of cost-effective agri-environment schemes and payments for ecosystem services may be eliminated.
History
Journal
Environmental modelling and softwareVolume
26Issue
1Pagination
30 - 37Publisher
ElsevierLocation
Amsterdam, The NetherlandsPublisher DOI
ISSN
1364-8152Language
engPublication classification
C Journal article; C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
2010, Elsevier Ltd.Usage metrics
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Agri-environment schemesCost-effectiveAnalytical hierarchy processConservation investmentStewardshipGISScience & TechnologyTechnologyLife Sciences & BiomedicinePhysical SciencesComputer Science, Interdisciplinary ApplicationsEngineering, EnvironmentalEnvironmental SciencesWater ResourcesComputer ScienceEngineeringEnvironmental Sciences & EcologyANALYTIC HIERARCHY PROCESSECOSYSTEM SERVICESCONSERVATION CONTRACTSBIODIVERSITYDECISIONRESTORATIONFRAMEWORKFORESTRYPAYMENTSAUCTIONS
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