Mapping Ecosystem Services to Human Well‐being: a toolkit to support integrated landscape management for the SDGs

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) emphasize the global and multidimensional nature of sustainability and thus require improving our capacity to articulate and trace the impact of ecosystem change to measures of human well-being. Yet, the integrated nature of these goals is challenging to assess without similarly integrated assessment tools. We present a new modeling toolkit, "Mapping Ecosystem Services to Human well-being" (MESH), that integrates commonly used, stand-alone ecosystem services (ES) models from the InVEST suite of models to quantify and illustrate the trade-offs and synergies across five ecosystem services and up to 10 associated SDGs. Development of the software and its functionality were informed by a broad stakeholder consultation with ministries, non-governmental organizations and civil society groups in West Africa to identify common barriers to uptake and application of modeling tools in developing countries. In light of this process, key features included in MESH are (1) integration of multiple ecosystem service (ES) models into a common modeling framework supported by a curated base data set, (2) built-in scenario generation capacity to support policy analysis, (3) visualization of outcomes and trade-offs, and (4) mapping of ecosystem service change to SDG targets and goals. We illustrate the use of MESH in a case study in the Volta basin of West Africa comparing the effectiveness of three alternative conservation prioritization approaches: (1) land cover-based, (2) topographic-based, and (3) an ecosystem service-based approach to minimize the impact of agricultural expansion. We evaluate these approaches by linking changes in service supply to potential impacts on achievement of specific SDG goals and targets.

Soil-derived Nature's Contributions to People and their contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals

“…Johnson et al . [39] described a modelling toolkit to link ecosystem services described in the InVEST suite of models to delivery of the SDGs. For soils specifically, Keesstra et al .…”

“…Yang et al [37] used an expert elicitation exercise to assess the contribution of ecosystem services to the SDGs and Anderson et al [38] used a similar approach to assess the contribution of NCP to the SDGs. Johnson et al [39] described a modelling toolkit to link ecosystem services described in the InVEST suite of models to delivery of the SDGs. For soils specifically, Keesstra et al [27] and Smith et al [29] used ecosystem services and NCP framings, respectively, to examine the role of soils, or soil carbon sequestration specifically in the case of Smith et al [29], in contributing to the delivery on the SDGs.…”

Prioritizing actions: spatial action maps for conservation

“…Over the past century, ecosystems have been in decline, placing one million species at risk of extinction and jeopardizing the wellbeing of people worldwide 1,2 . The economic and human resources for reversing these trends and achieving conservation outcomes are limited, 3–5 requiring prioritization of efforts to maximize conservation returns on investments 6–10 . Conservation planning practices emerged to support such prioritization.…”

A Conceptual Model Framework for Mapping, Analyzing and Managing Supply–Demand Mismatches of Ecosystem Services in Agricultural Landscapes

“…However, the challenge remains in assessing how actions at the regional and landscape level align with achieving the global SDG targets [76]. Some studies have addressed this topic through modelling frameworks [77][78][79][80]. However, in most studies, uncertainties are rarely explicitly taken into account when assessing impacts, which is especially relevant in terms of data scarcity [81].…”