Methodological innovations within the RAWES framework for use in development scenarios

Cianchi, Ben; Everard, Mark; McInnes, Robert; Cooke, Robert

Abstract

Built development changes the nature of land and its ecosystems, with diverse ramifications for human well-being and the resilience of the socioecological system. Robust and replicable approaches are required to assess ecosystem services generated by sites both predevelopment and for evaluation of postdevelopment options, to assess change and to support a paradigm shift from a “do less harm” to a “regenerative” approach. The Rapid Assessment of Wetland Ecosystem Services (RAWES) approach provides an internationally recognized methodology for systemic assessment of the ecosystem services generated by a site, taking account of all ecosystem services and service categories across multiple spatial scales. The RAWES assessments of constituent ecosystem services can be combined into Ecosystem Service Index scores. This article outlines innovations in RAWES methods to assess changes in ecosystem services likely to result from differing development scenarios in the context of a case study site in eastern England. These adaptations of the RAWES approach include revised methods for the analysis of ecosystem service beneficiaries across multiple spatial scales, the establishment of a common baseline against which to compare likely ecosystem service outcomes under a range of development scenarios, and a standardized method for accounting for supporting services through their contributions to other more directly exploited services. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2023;00:1–12. © 2023 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 16, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Jun 21, 2023
• Publication Date: Jan 31, 2024
• Deposit Date: Jun 21, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 17, 2024
• Journal: Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management
• Print ISSN: 1551-3777
• Electronic ISSN: 1551-3793
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 20
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 189-200
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ieam.4799
• Keywords: RAWES, ecosytem services, assessment, beneficiaries
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10881376
• Publisher URL: https://setac.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ieam.4799