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Presentation to ACES in Washington DC on Dec. 12-15, 2022 Science Inventory, CCTE products: https://cfpub.epa.gov/si/si_public_search_results.cfm?advSearch=true&showCriteria=2&keyword=CCTE&TIMSType=&TIMSSubTypeID=&epaNumber=&ombCat=Any&dateBeginPublishedPresented=07/01/2017&dateEndPublishedPresented=&dateBeginUpdated=&dateEndUpdated=&DEID=&personName=&personID=&role=Any&journalName=&journalID=&publisherName=&publisherID=&sortBy=pubDate&count=25

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uses a water quality index (WQI) to estimate the benefits of proposed regulations. However, the existing WQI focuses mainly on metrics related to human use values, such as recreation, and fails to capture aspects important to nonuse values of aquatic ecosystems, such as existence values. Here, we identify an appropriate index of biological health for use in stated preference (SP) surveys that seek to quantify the nonuse value of streams and lakes anywhere within the conterminous US (CONUS). We used a literature review and focus groups to evaluate two aquatic indices that are regularly reported by the EPA’s National Aquatic Resources Surveys: (1) multimetric indices (MMIs) and (2) the observed-to-expected ratio of taxonomic composition (O/E). Focus group participants had difficulty interpreting the meaning of a hypothetical 5-point change in MMI values on a 100-point scale in response to changes in water or habitat quality. This difficulty arose because a 5-point change can occur due to many unique combinations of the individual metrics that compose an MMI. In contrast, participants found it easier to interpret loss in native taxa (O/E) as an index of biological condition. We chose the O/E index because of this superior interpretability when assessed against MMIs. In addition to index selection, we modeled and interpolated the values of O/E to 1.1 million stream segments and 297,071 lakes across the CONUS to provide data for SP studies at any scope or scale, from local watersheds to the entire lower 48 states. As part of this effort, we also modeled and interpolated the areas of streams 2 (m2) to place them in the same unit as lakes to describe the quantity of resources affected by policy scenarios. Focus groups found comparisons of management scenarios easier to interpret when aquatic resources were placed into the same units and especially when presented as percentages of area. Finally, we discuss future work to link O/E with water quality and habitat models that will allow us to forecast changes in the metric resulting from regulatory action.

People depend upon ecosystems to supply a range of services necessary for their survival and well-being. Ecosystem service indicators are critical for knowing whether or not these essential services are being maintained and used in a sustainable manner, thus enabling policy makers to identify the policies and other interventions needed to better manage them. As a result, ecosystem service indicators are of increasing interest and importance to governmental and inter-governmental processes, including amongst others the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Aichi Targets contained within its strategic plan for 2011-2020, as well as the emerging Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Despite this growing demand, assessing ecosystem service status and trends and developing robust indicators is o!en hindered by a lack of information and data, resulting in few available indicators. In response, the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), together with a wide range of international partners and supported by the Swedish International Biodiversity Programme (SwedBio)*, undertook a project to take stock of the key lessons that have been learnt in developing and using ecosystem service indicators in a range of assessment contexts. The project examined the methodologies, metrics and data sources employed in delivering ecosystem service indicators, so as to inform future indicator development. This report presents the principal results of this project.