Ecosystem Services Provisioning and Regulating Definitions

The sections below provide the definition and define the set-up for the indicators for Provisioning (PRO) and Regulation and Support (REG) under Ecosystem Services. The tables define the granularity of the spatial unit (SU) to be used for the calculation, the type of data that maybe used in calculation process as well as the minimum data that should be used for process. Finally, in line with the theoretical framework, the possible definitions for the objective (for determining threshold), scope (F1), frequency (F2) and amplitude (F3) are provided.

Provisioning (Pro) Services

Provisioning measures the material outputs from freshwater ecosystems that are used for human benefit.

Water supply reliability relative to demand (WaSD)

Water supply reliability relative to demand is calculated as the net water demand from various sectors (municipal, industry, agriculture, hydropower), the environmental and, where relevant, navigational flow requirements with respect to total freshwater availability. This indicator takes into account the reliability and variability, or seasonality, of freshwater supply relative to demand (Brown and Lall 2006; Grey and Sadoff 2007). The probability that an ecosystem meets demand is dependent on a combination of system attributes, inflows and demands whereby a system may, for example, be water-rich during wet seasons but water-deficient in dry seasons.

1. Environmental flow requirements and actual discharge at monitored points in the rivers.

Biomass for consumption (BiCN)

Biomass for consumption measures the availability of fisheries, wild food, fiber and other materials from freshwater systems for human consumption (TEEB 2011). The availability of these ecosystem services relies on the availability of adequate quantities and quality of fresh water, and may very likely be affected by seasonal patterns of flow (e.g., fisheries yields can be affected by the extent of flood-plain inundation).

Regulation And Support Services

Regulation and support services measure the regulating, maintenance and support aspects of freshwater ecosystems that provide benefits to people beyond provisioning (de Groot et al. 2002).

Sediment regulation (SeRG)

Sediment regulation measures the degree to which drainage basins regulate erosion and control sediment dynamics (transportation and deposition) as well the nutrients that may be bound to transported particles. This has important implications for agricultural productivity (especially of floodplains) and supply of particles to deltas and nutrients to coastal waters (Le et al. 2007). Conversely, high rates of erosion, siltation and sedimentation have negative impacts on in-stream habitat conditions, biodiversity and river infrastructure (Ward and Stanford 1995).

Deviation of water quality metrics from benchmarks (DvWQ)

Deviation of water quality metrics from benchmarks (water regulation) indicates the ability of the freshwater ecosystem to deliver water of the required water-quality standards for different sectors and, thus, can be used as a proxy measure of the regulatory service of filtration and water purification (de Groot et al. 2002).

Flood regulation (FlRG)

Flood regulation measures the extent to which the condition and functioning of a river basin is damaged through exposure to floods (MEA 2005) or its absence.

Exposure to water-associated diseases (ExWD)

Other notes:

As a broad heading, we are assessing water associated infectious diseases which can be classified into one of five categories (Yang et al. 2012):

• water-borne, enteric microorganisms (e.g., typhoid and cholera) that enter water sources through fecal contamination and cause infection through ingestion of contaminated water. Also includes water-borne pathogens (e.g., Cryptosporidium, Giardia) transmitted through ingestion of, or exposure to, contaminated water. They can be described as water-carried diseases and are a subset of water-borne diseases;

• water-based, caused by flukes or nematodes which have an aquatic phase to their life cycle, (e.g., schistosomiasis);

• water-related, transmitted by insect vectors that have an aquatic phase to their life cycle (e.g., malaria and trypanosomiasis);

• water-washed, transmission is due to poor personal and/or domestic hygiene resulting from a lack of appropriate water; and

• water-dispersed, infections of agents that proliferate in fresh water and enter the human body through the respiratory tract (e.g., Legionella).