Is the ecosystem services framework useful for river restoration in the Barcelona metropolitan region?

The ecosystem services framework may provide a useful entry point for addressing competing water needs in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region. In the spring of 2008 the Barcelona Metropolitan Region confronted its worst droughts in recent history. The Catalan Government implemented severe water restrictions and initiated emergency plans including the importation of desalinated water on boats from southern Spain. Authorities were concerned that water restrictions would exacerbate citizen discontent and destabilize a weak economy dependent on tourism revenue. At the same time, the European Union has mandated watershed restoration plans to obtain “good ecological status” in all water bodies including rivers (ACA 2006). The Catalan government is under pressure to meet the needs of its residents without further degrading riparian ecosystems.

Can ecosystem services help uncover win-win solutions to address Catalonia’s water problems? I begin my research open with the possibility that the ecosystem services framework is significantly more limited than advocates make it out to be. At least the literature on hydrologic services makes it clear that tradeoffs will be inevitable (Brauman et al. 2007). Furthermore, the links between water attributes such as quantity, quality, timing, and location are not easily translated into numerical values for policy makers. Perhaps surface water quality provides one of the clearest links between restoring “good ecological status” and human well-being.

Another more complex connection between ecosystem functions and human well-being relates land use, water quality and water treatment. The urbanization of a watershed with impervious surfaces is closely related to diminished water quality (Moglen & Kim 2007). This creates an incentive for water users, treatment managers and service providers to minimize development impacts on the hydrologic cycle. Are water users, treatment managers and service providers willing to pay for land conservation to protect their watershed and reduce (or stabilize) water treatment expenses? A study on this question with water service providers in California found that land was too expensive to offset the ecosystem benefits gained from protection (Thompson 2007). They concluded that for conservation to make financial sense, the hydrologic services alone are not enough. To make a convincing case for land conservation, the ecosystem services will need to be bundled. Attempts to calculate the bundled value of ecosystem services across a landscape are still preliminary. Only recently have researchers used this approach to identify and prioritize areas for conservation (Chan et. al 2006; Naidoo & Ricketts 2006). Indeed, much of the discussion on ecosystem services has been in a conservation context. The degraded conditions of the Llobregat watershed will permit an exploration of the utility of the ecosystem services concept in a restoration context. Are the ecosystem services sufficient to merit their restoration?