Addressing the information gaps associated with valuing green infrastructure in west Michigan: INtegrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services Tool (INVEST)

Modelling regulating ecosystem services trade-offs across landscape scenarios in Třeboňsko Wetlands Biosphere Reserve, Czech Republic

“…This series of models was developed by the Natural Capital Project initiative at Stanford University (Kareiva et al, 2011) to enable ecosystem service assessment and evaluation on various landscape scales. InVEST has been proved to be a powerful tool for ecosystem service evaluation in various research projects worldwide, especially to compare different alternatives of potential future landscape development (Goldstein et al, 2012;Isely et al, 2010;Nelson et al, 2009;Tallis and Polasky, 2009). For the exact modelling procedures performed by each InVEST tool, see Tallis et al (2011) and Kareiva et al (2011).…”

Water level fluctuation and sediment–water nutrient exchange in Great Lakes coastal wetlands

“…Coastal wetlands are recognized as critical ecosystems in the Laurentian Great Lakes because they provide important habitat for fish and wildlife (Cooper et al, 2007;Niemi et al, 2007;Uzarski et al, 2005), providing essential ecosystem services with very high value (Isely et al, 2008;Krantzberg and DeBoer, 2008;Sierzen et al, 2012). These wetlands are estimated to cover~200,000 ha, and are especially subject to water level fluctuations given their locations.…”

Building partnerships to address conservation and management of western Michigan’s natural resources

“…The INtegrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services Tool (INVEST; http://www.INVEST.wri.gvsu.edu) gives conservative economic value estimates, at a coarse scale, for 11 different ecosystem services associated with 8 land use and cover categories found in western Michigan (Isely et al 2010).…”

“…Western Michigan's inventory of natural resources includes unique and common environmental features, including ∼20 km 2 of Great Lakes sand dunes and 122 km of shoreline; 1849 km 2 of grasslands; 1506 km 2 and 2523 km 2 of public and private forest lands, respectively; 237 km 2 of wetlands; 11,075 km of lakes, rivers, and streams; and 414 km 2 of the "most concentrated and richest large region[s] of orchard land" in the world (Versluis 2000, Isely et al 2010. These resources are under continuous threat of fragmentation and development, and many local and regional efforts have been undertaken to protect these assets.…”

“…Regional-level collaborations are seen as a strategy to add more stakeholders' perspectives. However, additional challenges include maintaining local enthusiasm, volunteer commitment, and community ownership; working within the framework of a multilevel system of community-based natural-resource management (Prager 2010); and applying regional resources at the local level (Isely et al 2010, Steinman et al 2011.…”