Ecosystem Valuation in Southwest Riparian Areas

Co-investigators: Craig D. Broadbent, Illinois Wesleyan University; David S. Brookshire, University of New Mexico; and, investigators from more than 50 institutions, agencies, and NGOs

Date/Time: Wednesday, Oct. 8 / 12 - 1:30 p.m.

Decision-makers and natural resource managers increasingly require much more sophisticated levels of expert findings and scientific results, coupled with economic information, to make informed decisions.  No single scientific discipline is typically capable of providing integrated solutions for decision-makers and managers. Significant effort beyond the traditional scientific method is required to conduct interdisciplinary science across the physical, ecological, and economic sciences. Even greater effort is required to effectively integrate this research with policy and decision makers for effective management and monetary valuation of natural resources and the ecosystem services they provide. A brief overview of the evolution of interdisciplinary science and its integration with decision-makers in the San Pedro Basin will be presented. It will then cover a general introduction to ecosystem services and several approaches for monetary valuation of these services to valuation studies on the San Pedro and Rio Grande. With the strong scientific foundation in the San Pedro the typical reliance on vague program descriptions and imperfect measures of the change in resource quality or quantity in stated-preference valuation studies can be overcome.

Dave Goodrich is a Lead Scientist and Research Hydraulic Engineer with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service at the Southwest Watershed Research Center in Tucson, Ariz., where he has worked since 1988. He also serves as an Associate Adjunct Professor in the Dept. of Hydrology and Water Resources of the University of Arizona, where he received his Ph.D.