Environmental impact valuation using ecosystem services

Abstract

The harmful impacts of civilisation are observable in every activity nowadays. One of the main goals of environmental policy is to minimise harmful environmental impacts of human activity. The contribution of this study to macro-scale planning consists of a methodical frame for environmental appraisal based on the theory of ecosystem services, i. e. the multitude of benefits derived from resources and processes supplied by natural ecosystems. Difficulties connected with decision making in environmental politics are briefly analysed. The weaknesses of various environmental valuation methods are discussed, i. e. the number and structure of stakeholders, the hierarchy of impacts, the deliberation processes and the complexity of assessments. Former methods of environmental appraisal of macro-scale development policies and planning are presented and the theory of ecosystem services as well as their valuation methods are described. In the next part, a method is proposed and its potential application is demonstrated by a case study of renewable-energy-based technologies regarding their relative environmental impacts. The impacts of RES technologies were collected from pertinent literature. The most important result of the study is a potentially new method for environmental assessment [repetition]. It might be a useful tool for ex ante valuation of development plans and programmes as well as for prior environmental audits for various regional or national regulation purposes aiming at environmental protection or determining environmental impacts. Naturally, limits of the method have to be taken into account The results of the case study provide useful information about the value of the ecosystem services and the harmful environmental impacts of some renewable energy sources. In 2011, the value of ecosystem services in Hungary was 1640.18x10^10 HUF, which is 61.3 percent of Hungarian GDP (2674 x10^10 HUF in 2011). The utilisation of the energy of wind and sun is the most beneficial (10.2% and 11.8%, respectively) regarding environmental impacts connected with renewable energy sources. The utilisation of geothermal energy is characterised by a medium-level of environmental pressure (22.6%), while the most negative impacts are observed in the case of bioenergy and water energy utilisation (63.5% and 54.7%).