About
Hear from Ken Bagstad (USGS), Katie Warnell (Duke University), Charles Rhodes (TBD Economics), and Marc Russell (US EPA) about "Testing ecosystem accounting in the United States: A case study for the Southeast" [DOI link] that details the first effort to develop Ecosystem Accounts for the U.S. at a broad scale. The team will describe the potential for U.S. ecosystem accounting and explain their pilot accounts for a 10-state region in the Southeast. The pilot accounts address air quality, water quality, biodiversity, carbon storage, recreation, and pollination for selected years from 2001 to 2015. Authors will explain how results can contribute to policy and decision making and describe a case study from Atlanta to show how ecosystem accounts can help give a more complete picture of a local area’s environmental-economic trends. Knowledge gaps that limit the inclusion of certain ecosystem services in the accounts and suggestions for future research that can close these gaps will also be discussed.
