1. How can InVEST inform Bioeconomic Modeling?
InVEST Model
How can InVEST inform Bioeconomic Modeling?
Justin Andrew Johnson May 07, 2015

2. changes in benefits to people
Spatially explicit
production function models changes in ecosystems → changes in ecosystem services →
changes in benefits to people
Free & open source

3. Social-Ecological System
Biophysical
Human
Ecosystem Structure
Supply
Human locations & activities
Production Function
Service
Value
($ or not)
Social preferences
Tallis et al BioScience 2012

5. Forage & crop yield models coming soon!

6. InVEST Models & Linkages
Crop Production
Nutrient Retention (Water quality)
Marine Water Quality
Aquaculture
Wave Energy
Crop Pollination
Water Yield
Habitat Quality/Risk Assessment
Coastal Vulnerability
Aesthetic Quality
InVEST Models & Linkages
Managed Timber Production
Sediment Retention (Water quality, Avoided dredging)
Coastal Protection
Recreation
Carbon sequestration
Flood Risk Mitigation
Fisheries (including recreational)
Overlap Analysis
Non-Timber Forest Products
Blue Carbon
Terrestrial/freshwater model: Tier 1
Optional model linkage
Terrestrial/freshwater model: Tier 0
Required model linkage
Marine model: Tier 1
To do this I will use the spatially explicit model, InVEST. Many models, today I’m focus on the water quality models
Marine model: Tier 0
Model coming soon!

7. Implemented in many locations

8. Use of InVEST fits within a stakeholder driven decision process

9. Example Application Inputs to economic models
Direct impact on utility/welfare
Avoided costs (increased efficiency)
Change in “downstream” production function
Clean water
Soil quality
Pollination
Pests/diseases
Non-timber forest products
etc.

10. Specific process example: Nutrient & Sediment Retention
Nutrient/sediment load
Flow direction
Corn
Forest
export
Wheat
Forest
retention
Stream
Once we know how much sediment leaves a parcel, we then take into account what happens to it as it flows downslope until it reaches a stream. In this example, sediment leaves a parcel of corn, as it moves downslope the forest takes up some of it, and the rest keeps moving to a parcel of wheat, which also takes up some of it, as does another parcel of forest. Whatever does not get retained by the intervening landscape enters the stream and is considered export. The same thing happens with each parcel, and the final retention value for a parcel of land is the sum of how much that parcel retains from what comes to it from upstream.
to reservoir

11. 𝑺𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝑬𝒙𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕 (𝒕𝒐𝒏/𝒚𝒓)=𝑼𝑺𝑳𝑬 ×𝑺𝑫𝑹 Pixel of interest (SDR)
Concepts
Transport/retention
Downslope path
(retention)
Upslope area
(transport)
Per pixel:
𝑺𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝑬𝒙𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕 (𝒕𝒐𝒏/𝒚𝒓)=𝑼𝑺𝑳𝑬 ×𝑺𝑫𝑹
Pixel of interest (SDR)
Stream
Complete water cycle on the landscape. Transpiration is based on the plant type, leaf type, seasonality and root depth. Inflow is from upslope. Water availability is a soil property (PAWC). Final water yield is the result of all of these interactions.

12. Spatially Explicit Routing
Uses digital elevation model (DEM) results to understand how nutrients and sediments move across the landscape.

13. Invest User Interface
Simple enough for researchers or conservation planners to run on their own.

14. Impacts measured at multiple scales
1.) Household/farm-level:
Who exactly are the providers and beneficiaries of the services?
2.)The agricultural sector
What is the impact of ecosystem services on increasing sustainable agriculture yields?

15. Impacts measured at multiple scales
3.) Economy-wide, in order to explore tradeoffs and complementarities between productivity, nutrition and ecosystem services
Where there are conflicts between conservation and agriculture, how can they be optimized?

16. connections to Economics
Spatially Explicit understanding
Example: GTAP
InVEST provides high resolution spatial results
Expands analysis based on agro-ecological zones
Example: “Land-use change impacts on ecosystem services,” (Lawler et al. 2014)
Incorporation into dynamic calculable general equilibrium models
Transparent accounting of non-marketed values
Effect on downstream or future users

17. Conclusion
InVEST provides spatially explicit production function and ecosystem service models that can act as inputs to bioeconomic models.
Enables analysis of risks and tradeoffs in conservation and agriculture
Helps describe value to humans in non-marketed ecosystem services

18. Questions?