Postgraduate Course: Ecosystem Service Values (PGGE11228)
Course Outline
| School | School of Geosciences |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course focuses on the concept of ecosystem services, its history and rise to prominence. We explore the ways in which ecosystem services can be valued, measured and monetized by society, across the spectrum from extractive to aesthetic values. Both theoretical and practical applications of ecosystem valuation are explored through case studies of policies and projects, as well as through fieldwork near Edinburgh. Real-world examples of ecosystem services being valued are presented, and current policy responses are examined including payment for ecosystem services projects, biodiversity offsets, certification schemes and REDD+. Students have the opportunity to explore a case study in depth in a group through both class work and assessment.
This course engages both critically and creatively with the idea of valuing ecosystem services, looking at the importance of governance and power structures, the difficulties in valuing complex and unpredictable ecosystems, and the trade-offs between efficiency and equity that often occur. Students will work in groups to design and implement an ecosystem assessment, a task that is typically too multidisciplinary and demanding to undertake as an individual. Strategies for effective group work will be explored and you will be able to reflect on your own participation and role within a learning community.
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| Course description |
Week 1: Ecosystem services in a historical and social context
Week 2: Practical valuation 1: Overview of monetary valuation
Week 3: Beyond monetary valuation: plural approaches to value
Week 4: Practical valuation 2: skills workshop focused around A2
Week 5: Integration of different types of ecosystem service values and discussion session for planning assignment 2
Week 6: 'Surgery': to provide feedback on study design and fieldwork plan for A2
Week 7: No ESV workshop this week, Fieldwork for A2
Week 8: Governing Ecosystem Services: Challenges
Week 9: Governing Ecosystem Services: Policies
Week 10: A2: Ecosystem service assessments: student presentations
Week 11: Test, course overview and feedback
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | Students must have taken the Ecology of Ecosystem Services (PGGE11229) and passed at MSc level. If you have not, and wish to take ESV, you will need to have taken ecosystem science/ecology or economics at honours level as part of a previous degree.
Note that, because the assessment forms an integral part of the course, students are not permitted to 'sit in' or 'audit' this course.
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Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2017/18, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 21 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 44,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
152 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Coursework: 100%
A1: Magazine article on key issue in ecosystem services (25%)
A2: Ecosystem assessment (group assignment), written report (40%) and presentation (10%): together composing 50% of module mark
T1: Short (closed book) test during workshop (25%) |
| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Understand the role that ecosystems play in terms of underpinning critical services for human wellbeing
- Critically analyse the ecosystem services paradigm and the application of these ideas in ecological assessments, and in public life more broadly.
- Apply and critique non-monetary and monetary assessments to various ecosystem services.
- Analyse the challenges to governing ecosystem services, from an ecological, social and economic perspective.
- Assess their work in a group context, and achieve effective collaboration with people from different backgrounds.
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Reading List
Key texts
Bateman, I.J. et al. (2010). Economic Analysis for Ecosystem Service Assessments.
Environmental and Resource Economics, 48(2), pp.177-218.
http://www.springerlink.com/index/10.1007/s10640-010-9418-x
Foster, J. (1997) Valuing nature? Ethics, economics and the environment.
Routledge, London.
MEA (2005). Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: Ecosystems and Human Wellbeing:
Synthesis. Washington, DC.
Potschin, M., R. Haines-Young, R. Fish and K. Turner, Eds. (2015). Routledge Handbook of Ecosystem Services. London, Routledge
TEEB (2009) The economics of ecosystems and biodiversity for national and
international policy makers. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity
Particularly Chapters 4 and 5. www.teebweb.org , full text at:
http://tinyurl.com/ae68gwt
UK National Ecosystem Assessment (2011) The UK National Ecosystem
Assessment Technical Report. UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge. http://uknea.unepwcmc.
org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=m%2BvhAV3c9uk%3D&tabid=82] and in
library
WBCD (2011): Guide to Corporate Ecosystem Services Valuation. World Business
Council for Sustainable Development.
http://www.wbcsd.org/Pages/EDocument/EDocumentDetails.aspx?ID=104
Beyond these core texts, each lecturer will provide links to reading materials for each
workshop.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Ecosystem services,monetary valuation,non-monetary valuation,payments for ecosystem services |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Janet Fisher
Tel: (0131 6)50 5097
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Susie Crocker
Tel: (0131 6)51 7126
Email: |
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