Natural Capital: a survey of Ecosystem Services
Our well-being, physical, psychological, as well as economic and social, depends on the good state of Natural Capital, including ecosystems that provide essential goods and services. The sea, fertility of the land, drinking water, pure air, pollination, flood prevention, as well as climate regulation-just to name a few-are those essential goods and services that provide us with this well-being within the human-nature ecosystem. In essence, Natural Capital is what enables us to have a good quality of life.
Together with the fundamental contribution of the University of Florence, we have conducted new research on the value of greenery by exploiting the alliance between culture, technology and environmental sustainability that analyzes the products obtained from the ecosystem made up of these goods and services.
These products are called Ecosystem Services and there are several types. We decided to investigate some of them, starting with the most recent classification that divides them into Ecosystem Services:
- Regulation and maintenance, that is, the ways in which living organisms can mediate or moderate the environment that influences human performance
- Cultural, i.e., the non-material, nonconsumptive benefits that influence people’s physical and mental states
- of supply such as nutritional and material outputs
- support the ecosystem itself in order to function as the nutrient cycle
Thus, the values of Ecosystem Services are not only environmental but also social and economic. These are embedded in a complex socio-environmental system by which they are in turn influenced. For this reason, the research conducted is named “Estimating the Wealth of Nature”: it is indeed through this wealth that consequences are generated for the quality of life, both in urban and suburban settings.
But what is this wealth made of? The degree to which people are satisfied with green areas and the cultural and recreational activities that can take place in these areas constitutes a perimeter of sustainability, both environmental and social, that acts at a systemic level. In essence, what affects and conditions people’s perception of quality of life in these areas can be measured through Ecosystem Services.
Estimating richness therefore means using the Ecosystem Services framework, which we applied, in this case, to the study of the Nazzano – Tevere Farfa Nature Reserve. Just 40 km northeast of Rome, it is the largest reserve near an urban setting in Lazio.
What we analyzed: regulatory Ecosystem Services, we estimated the contribution of the Nazzano Tevere – Farfa Nature Reserve in order to measure the importance of the park’s trees in the process of absorbing pollutants such as CO2 and PM10. While for Cultural Ecosystem Services, we analyzed the possibility of practicing sports activities, enjoying a walk surrounded by nature or the numerous educational and spiritual paths organized for schools and others. And isn’t it these services, along with the easy accessibility and proximity to the city of Rome-in the case study of Farfa-that make the Reserve an attractor of ecotourist flows in the area.
How we measured these Cultural Ecosystem Services: we monitored over time – from January to September 2022 – what was spontaneously shared within rating platforms such as Google Local Guides, Tripadvisor, Twitter, Instagram and Flickr. This content was enriched through artificial intelligence that analyzed the level of liking and the content of the images, allowing us to classify the activity performed. Regarding Regulatory Ecosystem Services: we used satellite imagery and classification of tree species prevalent in different areas to estimate the average annual uptake of the two pollutants.
So what comes out of it? Articulate and innovative research, which we will present at an event in the coming weeks and give new previews of shortly.