Ecosystems provide a wide range of services upon which society depends, such as oxygen production, carbon sequestration, provision of clean water, assimilation of wastes, and flood regulation. Ecosystem service valuation (ESV) is a holistic approach for inventorying and quantifying the dollar value of these services so that land owners, planners, and policy makers can better understand the tradeoffs when altering natural ecosystems. Using the Natural Assets Information System^tm , the EcoValuation Group can help clients identify key ecosystem services associated with an area, estimate the economic value of at least some of those services, and quantify how those services would change under different scenarios.

Above: A map of ecosystem service value flow by tributary basin for Massachusetts (click to enlarge)