Ecosystem Services: Chapter 20. EBI—An Index for Delivery of Ecosystem Service Bundles

Katrien Van der Biest · Rob D’Hondt · Sander Jacobs · Dries Landuyt · Jan Staes · Peter Goethals · Patrick Meire

oct 2013 · Elsevier Inc. Chapters

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The Ecosystem service Bundle Index (EBI) was developed in response to the urgent need for tools that allow rapid and transparent, yet scientific underpinned assessment of ecosystem services. The index is based on a Bayesian network environment in which data on the biophysical conditions and land use properties that drive service delivery are combined to determine the level of service provision. The index points out service optimization opportunities as discrepancies between actual land use and the ecosystem’s biophysical potential. The model can be used for scenario building and offers opportunities to spatially distribute services in a most beneficial way. The EBI was developed as a prototype and tested in a pilot study area using three interacting ecosystem services: carbon sequestration, agricultural production and wood production.