PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
The concept of ecosystem services, especially in combination with economic valuation, can illuminate trade-offs involved in soil management, policy and governance, and thus support decision making. In this paper, we investigate and highlight the potential and limitations of the economic valuation of soil-based ecosystem services to inform sustainable soil management and policy. We formulate a definition of soil-based ecosystem services as basis for conducting a review of existing soil valuation studies with a focus on the inclusion of ecosystem services and the choice of valuation methods. We find that, so far, the economic valuation of soil-based ecosystem services has covered only a small number of such services and most studies have employed cost-based methods rather than state-of-the-art preference-based valuation methods, even though the latter would better acknowledge the public good character of soil related services. Therefore, the relevance of existing valuation studies for political processes is low. Broadening the spectrum of analyzed ecosystem services as well as using preference-based methods would likely increase the informational quality and policy relevance of valuation results. We point out options for improvement based on recent advances in economic valuation theory and practice. We conclude by investigating the specific roles economic valuation results can play in different phases of the policy-making process, and the specific requirements for its usefulness in this context.
摘要：
生态系统服务的概念，特别是结合经济估值，可以阐明土壤管理中涉及的权衡，政策和治理，从而支持决策。在本文中,我们调查并强调了以土壤为基础的生态系统服务的经济评估的潜力和局限性，为可持续的土壤管理和政策提供信息。我们制定了基于土壤的生态系统服务的定义，作为对现有土壤评估研究进行回顾的基础，重点是纳入生态系统服务和评估方法的选择。我们发现,到目前为止,基于土壤的生态系统服务的经济评估仅涵盖了少数此类服务，并且大多数研究采用了基于成本的方法，而不是最先进的基于偏好的评估方法，即使后者会更好地承认土壤相关服务的公共利益。因此,现有的估值研究对政治进程的相关性很低。扩大分析的生态系统服务范围以及使用基于偏好的方法可能会提高评估结果的信息质量和政策相关性。我们根据经济估值理论和实践的最新进展，指出了改进的选择。最后，我们通过调查经济评估结果在决策过程的不同阶段可以发挥的具体作用，以及在这种情况下对其有用性的具体要求。
