WEBVTT

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We all know that we receive
benefits from nature,

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but have you ever tried
to list them out?

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To identify them,
assign values to them

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or actually trace them back, to particular
landscapes that give rise to them.

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Most of us probably don't go
through this exercise

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on a regular basis if ever.

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But the answer to these questions
is fundamental to our ability

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to manage our landscapes,
for both sustainability

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and for improved quality of life.

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But to answer these questions,
I need to know,

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what values you assign

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to wetlands,

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streams, forests, fields?

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And this question isn't particularly
easy to answer,

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if you think about it.

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We all have familiarity with assigning
a value to a pint of maple syrup

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or a glass of water.

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But, what's the value of the maple trees
that produced that syrup,


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or the forest
where maple trees grow?

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Is the value of the forest equal
to the value of the maple syrup?

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Probably not.

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Forests produce
a lot of other services,

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and we could sit and think
about them for a minute.

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We can think whether it is –
board field lumber it produces,

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or they generate other food,
fuel-fiber type resources, firewood –

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These all have market values,

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so, again, it's relatively easy
to look up at the values


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or think about them,
or think about trading them.

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But what about the elements,



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the services that we get
from this ecosystems

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that aren't necessarily material,

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that aren't part or the structure,

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but rather functions

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of the greater structural complexity
of these systems?

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That is – what is the value
of a forest as a forest

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as opposed to the value
as a piece of lumber?

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So, that's an important question
to think about.

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So if we can think about things like,

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forests absorb carbon dioxide
from the air,

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thereby medicating greenhouse
gas emissions and climate change –

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they produce oxygen
that we can breathe,

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they retain nutrients,
like phosphorus and nitrogen,

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as well as sediment,
keeping them out from water ways

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to keep them clear.

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They provide habitat for biodiversity

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and they provide endless recreation
opportunities for us.

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We can think of all
these kinds of things.

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So, maybe we can get
at a lower bound for value

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for a given forest,
if we try to add up


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the individual contributions
of each of these different elements

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to our well being.

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So we can try and do that.

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But now we are still faced
with a more fundamental problem,

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which is that – we're talking
about questions of value,

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and we're talking about value,

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we're talking about
people's perceptions of worth,

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which, been held subjectively,
vary widely across populations,

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culture, generation, ethnicity,
any number of things,

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we can think about these axes.

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So, that means extremely,
extremely difficult to assign

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blanket values, generalized values
to a given landscape,

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because the services
that they generate are valued

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by different people in different places
at different times.

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So, that's the problem space
that we want to play with here.

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So, if we're thinking
about this localization of the problem,

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maybe a more important question,
or a different way to phrase this,

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is not to ask ourselves,
or is not to try and say,

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"The value of a service
from forest is x,"

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but rather to say,

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"The value of this service from this forest
is x to these people,"

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and to get specific.

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So, in that spirit,
for the last few decades,

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our researchers
in ecosystems services area

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have been traveling
around the world

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and surveying people
about the values


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they assign to the services of nature.

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But, obviously these things
are time consuming

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and they are expensive.

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So it's extremely difficult
to get very much data here.

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There are databases built up
on these things,

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specially in the last decade –

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we've started to see some
databases emerging that you can query

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and try to get an idea
of what the literature says


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about some of these
different kinds of values –

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these, again, socio-economic values
that we're playing with.

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But, we don't think even
remotely close to global coverage,

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nowhere near.
And at the same time,

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especially in the last five to six years,
we've seen a major upswell

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in institutions of both
the public and the private sector,

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begging for global coverage
of ecosystems service information

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that they can use
for their land management decisions,

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and run scenarios against.

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So, as we've already seen, we do have
a lot of [due] a spatial data now.

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That's kind of a new big fun thing
in ecosystems services world –

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we're not just limited to doing
these one off surveys,

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because we can actually do
these secondary

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meta-level evaluations of the data.

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And what we get to do with this –
we get all this geospatial data,

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we put it together, and now
what we can do in filling these gaps,

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is we can actually try
and create functions

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that go in and study the structure
in the data

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of the landscapes and the people,
the cities, the community centers,


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the roads,
all these kinds of structures,

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and try to pull out
with these signature functions,

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where services are likely
to be produced,

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and where there's probably
demand for them.

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But, once you've applied
these kinds of functions,

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you still don't necessarily know –

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if you know where
the supply might be,

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and you know where
the demand might be

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in any given landscape,
once you've run these functions –

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you still don't know
if any service is being delivered.

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So, what we have to do there –

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is we take the landscapes,
we project this information

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about likelihood of supply and demand
up on to a network,

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and then we start flowing around,
we simulate in our computers

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across all this geospatial data.

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We simulate the flow of,
what we call "service carriers",

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so things like bees
for pollination services,

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or carbon dioxide moving around,
water moving for flooding

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and wild-fire, water supply,
water quality, any number of things.

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You move it across the landscape
and you try actually see –

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given any particular
topographic variables,

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what is the service flow topology,
any given area,

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and thereby, you can finally answer
the question:

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Who receives services from where
in any given landscape?

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And that's extremely powerful,
if you have that kind of information.

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So, the kinds of things
you can answer with that, now –

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– that's not too bad –

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So, for example, you can finally
show maps like this,


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where the green areas here are like

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[repeated sound of] on the top,
and over here you have a mountaineer,

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and we're looking at scenic views –

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So the impact of scenic views
on different properties –


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for the red, on the top there,
is the city of Kent.

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And so you can try and see:


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Who receives services from where,
and to what degree?

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And the yellow stuff is visual blight –

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You can actually look at the degree
to which individual properties

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are being impacted in terms
of their service,

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because of the way
landscapes configure.

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And you can run scenarios against this


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to try and actually, really answer
questions about

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who wins and who looses
on different management scenarios?


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So you say,
on a development scenario one,

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this group of people gained something,

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a different group of people gains
a little bit more,

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and this third group of people
gets hurt.

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Whereas under development scenario two,
if I develop in this area,


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well, it turns out that everybody
gets hurt a little bit,

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but if I develop in the third area,
everyone benefits.

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This is really becoming
very interesting

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in the US, in particular,
the EPA has this entire research divisions

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entirely turned around
to ecosystem service research these days;


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the US GS has a very
big program in that;

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the US GA has an office
of ecosystem services and market –

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just started off a few years ago
under this administration,

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and so on and so forth.

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So, our government's all into it.

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We're seeing a lot of
ecosystem service work,

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starting to find its way
into public policy in the EU.

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And I'm participating in some projects
in Africa as well,

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for the Gund Institute right now,

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where this stuff is also
coming into play.

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So, we're hoping that taking this kind
of technology


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to finally connect people
to the landscapes,

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the actual landscapes,
which generate their services,

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will really help us to better inform,

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better land management
in the future for all of us.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)