RBMA Block 1: Systems Thinking and System Analysis

1.3 – Ecosystem Services & Ecological Engineering

Understanding the division of ecosystem services, relation ecosystem services & human well-being, and making use of ecosystem services in river basin planning and management.

Recognition of how ecosystems could provide more complex services to mankind date back to at least Plato (c. 400 BC) who understood that deforestation could lead to soil erosion and the drying of springs.

Terrestrial ecosystems play a key role in the production of hydrologic services because the quantity, quality, location, and timing of water is affected as it moves across the landscape before it comes into contact with users.

There are simultaneous, and sometimes conflicting, effects of the landscape on water. Some hydrologic services are closely tied to specific attributes. When water is used for domestic purposes, water quality may be most important; when people are concerned about flooding, timing is the key issue.

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