NINA WUR partnership: Spatial ecological-economic modelling of ecosystem services, the case of Telemark province Mobile researcher:

The provision of ecosystem services (ES) constitutes a considerable part of human well-being. Both biophysical quantities and monetary values of ES are spatially explicit, but the role of spatial patterns in supply and demand of ES has not yet been studie d empirically. Spatially explicit ES value maps are of high importance to decision makers on a provincial level. The knowledge on economic costs and benefits of ES can help to develop fiscal transfer schemes from a national to a provincial level. Trade-of fs of different forms of ecosystem management and land use can be untangled, so that decision makers know what is given up or gained when land use decisions are made. The overall objective of the PhD research project Ecospace is to develop a spatially exp licit approach of modelling quantities and monetary values of multiple ES in order to support decision making and ecosystem accounting on a provincial level. To explore this empirically, we chose the province of Telemark as a case study area. Part of this research should be conducted together with experts in the NINA project POLICYMIX. During two research stays of each four months, synergies between the research projects Ecospace and POLICYMIX can be generated. The first phase of the research stay (August to November 2012) will be used to complete data collection at different Norwegian research institutions and together with stakeholder groups in order to improve the models. Assumptions in the models will be checked with different stakeholder groups. Outc omes of the models will be validated with field work (ground truthing). The second phase of the project (August to November 2013) will be used for preparing the economic valuation of ES in close cooperation with economists from NINA. This includes testing the feasibility of interview-based valuation of bundles of different ES, preparing a valuation questionnaire for the non-market ES, and economic data collection.