Modeling on comparison of ecosystem services concepts, tools, methods and their ecological-economic implications: a review

The paper aims to identify the gaps in the assessment and modeling of ecosystem services to help researchers, resource managers, and decision-makers develop a holistic understanding of the ecosystem service assessments' foundations. This review proposes that to efficiently assess the ecosystem services, methodologies that are region-specific and standardized in the terminologies are useful in determining the valuation component in the ecosystem services assessments' goal to explain trade-offs between development and conservation priorities for implementation of conservation policies. Ecosystem service assessments are critical for the sustainable future of Earth. Numerous scholarly studies have been conducted in the field of ecosystem services (ES) that have laid down the foundation of their valuation, mapping, and quantification. We reviewed 103 peer-reviewed publications using the SCOPUS database, perhaps the most extensive database of peer-reviewed research literature as well WoS, PUBMED, and Google Scholar databases based on certain criteria. Our review revealed that different definitions of the ES concept and the non-standardization of the economic concepts for assigning market values to the ecosystem services had shown conflicting results. Further, we also found that ES assessment methodologies depend upon the evaluation purpose and vary from qualitative approaches to modeling and integrated ones. ES assessment has considerable implications in understanding the earth's surface processes and the pursuing benefits in the form of balanced trade-offs between sustainability and development. To attain sustainable development goals, we propose shifting towards a green economy to balance the trade-off between conservation and development.

Automated summary

The paper aims to identify gaps in ecosystem services assessment and modeling, emphasizing the need for region-specific and standardized methodologies to determine valuation components for understanding trade-offs between development and conservation priorities. Ecosystem service assessments are critical for the sustainable future of Earth.