Assessing the impact of Ecosystem-based Adaptation measures

Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA), a Nature-based approach to climate change adaptation, harnesses ecosystem services to increase resilience and reduce the vulnerability of human communities and natural systems to the effects of climate change. These EbA measures can be integrated into adapted agriculture, forestry and environmental management.

When implemented in the right context and location (cf. Output 3 of PROWATER), EbA is considered an important approach to increase resilience against flooding and droughts, exacerbated by climate change and anthropogenic impact.

However, how do we know whether we restored sufficient natural diversity of ecosystems and created enough (semi-)natural opportunities for ecosystem service development that can compensate for climate change and anthropogenic impact? How can we demonstrate that the EbA measures will in fact deliver the ecosystem services we targetted?

An Ecosystem Service assessment tool, targeted especially at water resource related services

To provide guidance to such questions and the implementation of Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) measures, we applied the water retention and infiltration model of the University of Antwerp to the 2 Seas region, including catchments in the Netherlands, England, Flanders and France.

The resulting ecosystem service assessment tool can help model the impact on water resources as well as other co-benefits of 4 types of EbA measures in different types of catchments and in under different climate scenario's.

The tool, a QGIS plug-in, can be assembled by following instructions in the manual below.

Anybody wanting to obtain more information can contact jan.staes@uantwerpen.be

The PROWATER Impact Assessment Tool on this website has been developed by Dr. Dirk Vrebos and Dr. Jan Staes (University of Antwerp) in the framework of the Interreg 2 Seas project PROWATER. The tool can be used by citizens, consultants and government agencies. Adaptation or exploitation of the tool for commercial purposes beyond the use of the outputs in reports requires the prior written consent of the developers. Anyone wishing to exploit the tool should contact contact Jan Staes directly ( jan.staes@uantwerpen.be) .