Assessment of pressures as the first step in economic valuation of changes in ecosystems services
Închide
Articolul precedent
Articolul urmator
427 3
Ultima descărcare din IBN:
2022-05-25 09:49
Căutarea după subiecte
similare conform CZU
502:33 (1)
Natura. Studiul și conservarea naturii. Protecția naturii și a animalelor sălbatice. (659)
Economie. Științe economice (9276)
SM ISO690:2012
COROBOV, Roman, TROMBITSKY, Ilya, ENE, Antoaneta. Assessment of pressures as the first step in economic valuation of changes in ecosystems services. In: Environmental Challenges in the Black Sea Basin: Impact on Human Health, 23-26 septembrie 2020, Galaţi. Cluj-Napoca, România: Universitatea „Dunarea de Jos”, Galați, 2020, pp. 34-35. ISBN 978-606-17-1691-3.
EXPORT metadate:
Google Scholar
Crossref
CERIF

DataCite
Dublin Core
Environmental Challenges in the Black Sea Basin: Impact on Human Health 2020
Conferința "Environmental Challenges in the Black Sea Basin: Impact on Human Health"
Galaţi, Romania, 23-26 septembrie 2020

Assessment of pressures as the first step in economic valuation of changes in ecosystems services

CZU: 502:33

Pag. 34-35

Corobov Roman1, Trombitsky Ilya1, Ene Antoaneta2
 
1 ONG „Eco-Tiras Environmental Association of Dniester River Keepers",
2 "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati
 
Disponibil în IBN: 7 decembrie 2020


Rezumat

Different conservation organizations, governments and donor agencies make intensive efforts to save life on the Earth. An accomplishment of this urgent task is consistent with another challenging mission − conservation of ecosystems and their biodiversity. Despite numerous actions, the biodiversity is continuing to lost, ecosystems are degrading and a consequent decline in ecosystem services threatens to undermine human health and well-being. These processes are a challenge for ecosystems both in the terrestrial and aquatic environments, especially for river systems that everywhere are being fragmented by natural forces such as changes in streamflow, extreme water events or due to human activities. To date, the knowledge in this sphere is quite enough to describe the physical disruptions in river flow and biogeochemical alterations or to carry out the economic valuation of the observed effects on ecosystems and their services that provide benefits to people. Likewise, any damage to ecosystems as well as their losses can be also evaluated economically. In the last case, any assessment or valuation of changes in ecosystems services, caused by a new status of the environment, should begin from the assessment of drivers, or impacts, which have caused these changes. In particular, in Project BSB165 “HYDROECONEX” the impacts under study include the hydropower development and climate change in the transboundary Dniester and Prut River basins.
Climate change studies were based on historical observations of air temperature and precipitation at weather stations located in the lower parts of these basins below the Dniester hydropower complex (DHPC) and Costesti-Stanca Hydropower Plant (HPP), respectively. To identify climate change evidences, two climatic periods have been compared: 1961-1990, which reflects a relatively “normal” basin-wide climate, and 1991-2018, which characterizes the period of intensive global warming. The statistical analysis of change in selected variables included the comparison of their trends and seasonal/annual averages in these periods. In the last decades, in both river basins there is observed a sharp increase of temperature against their very small positive trends in 1961-1990. Changes in precipitation are not significant to be taken into account for practical purposes. A resulting increase of aridity in both basins should be considered as unfavorable for their ecosystems functioning.
Hydrological studies were based on the long-term observations of Dniester and Prut Rivers flow at hydrological posts located upstream and downstream of the corresponding HPPs. The upstream posts record the rivers’ flow in upper parts of their basins that is not disturbed by the HPPs construction and functioning; such position allows also assessing the possible contribution of climate change in water discharge. The downstream posts register hydropower impacts on streamflow total volume and annual regime. To assess their transformation under HPPs operation there were chosen time periods characterizing the river flow before and after HPP reservoirs filling and beginning of their operation: 1951-1980 vs. 1991-2015 in the case of DHPC and 1950-1975 vs. 1980-2017 − in the case of Costesti-Stanca.
A slight increase in both river water discharge, observed in the 1950-1990s, over next decades has changed on a decrease that is in good agreement with changes in climate. However, in the absence of statistical significance, there is no reason to argue about stability of this decrease (by 3.6% of the Dniester annual flow and by 1.8% − of the Prut). The assessment of a hydropower impact on two rivers streamflow showed that it depends on the HPPs capacities. In particular, the creation of Dniester reservoir and construction of DHPC, with its HPP-1 design capacity of 702 MW, has led to a decrease in the Dniester flow annual volumes by above 6% in close proximity to its dam and by about 9% − in the Lower Dniester. At the same time, the creation of a reservoir and construction of a mean-capacity HPP (32 MW) did not showed statistically significant effect on Prut downstream water discharge. However, HPPs operation has transformed the seasonal distribution of both rivers streamflow due to interests of certain water users.