EbA Tools Navigator

The Tools for Identifying, Assessing and Valuing Ecosystem Services report draws on an October 2010 roundtable discussion on emerging ecosystem service valuation tools. It provides concise tables of information and links to various tools and methods being currently used in the valuation of ecosystem services.

The Tools for measuring, modelling, and valuing ecosystem services: Guidance for Key Biodiversity Areas, natural World Heritage Sites, and protected areas is a guidance document that builds on existing reviews of ecosystem services (ES) assessment tools, and has an explicit focus on assessing ES for sites of importance for biodiversity and nature conservation (including Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs), natural World Heritage sites (WHS), and protected areas (PAs) as recognised by IUCN and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity). The authors compare a set of nine ES assessment tools that are (a) most commonly applied, (b) available to practitioners at no cost, and (c) can be applied in new contexts (i.e. they are not restricted to specific countries or case studies). Selecting an appropriate tool for ES assessment is informed by three factors: (1) purpose of the assessment, (2) required outputs (qualitative or quantitative, spatial or non-spatial, monetary or non-monetary), and (3) practical considerations such as time, budget and data availability. The document provides a series of comparisons of ES tools according to each of these considerations along with decision trees that can help guide a practitioner to a tool based on assessment objectives, practical considerations, and the type of output desired.

Though gender considerations are recognised as important to the success of EbA, there is limited evidence to date that EbA initiatives have systematically taken a gender-responsive approach, going beyond sensitivity to actively address gender inequalities.

Tracking Adaptation and Measuring Development proposes an approach to the evaluation of adaptation ‘success’ that combines assessment of how well climate risks to development are managed by institutions (‘upstream’ indicators), with assessment of how successful adaptation interventions are in reducing vulnerability and keeping development ‘on track’ in the face of changing climate risks (‘downstream’ indicators). The aim is to provide a framework that defines indicators’ categories or ‘domains’ that can be tailored to specific contexts, rather than a ‘toolkit’ for monitoring and evaluation that prescribes particular indicators.

The ‘Integrating Ecosystem-based Adaptation into Planning and Decision Making’ training course was developed by GIZ for a wide range of stakeholders. It combines theoretical and practical elements ofan EbA mainstreaming cycle and guides users through the application of each phase. It is based on the Harvard Case Methodology, which conveys teaching messages through interactive practical work. The training deals with the fictitious country of Bakul, a situation closely based on real life conditions and challenges. Moreover, as an alternative to the fictitious country Bakul, real life case studies can be adapted to suit specific training purposes

The valuation training is designed as an add-on module to the GIZ course “Mainstreaming Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) to Climate Change into Development Planning”. Its duration is approximately 2.5 days, although the content be shortened or lengthened as needed (for example a field trip and/or additional groupwork can be incorporated, and one or two ‘cornerstone’ lectures can be extracted as summaries). The course is divided into three components, seven lectures and five case study/groupwork sessions.
1) Identifying needs, opportunities & frameworks for EbA valuation goes over the basics of valuation (key terms, concepts and categories) and focuses on defining the purpose of valuation studies (why and when to value EbA benefits, costs and impacts) and; 2) Choosing valuation methods addresses key issues, approaches and methods for valuing EbA biophysical effects, risk exposure and vulnerability, economic costs and benefits, livelihood and wellbeing impacts, social and institutional outcomes; 3) Delivering decision-support looks at tools and approaches that can be used to enhance the strategic impact of valuation, and leverage decision change. It also works with participants to identify how valuation can be taken forward in the context of their own work.

The U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit is a website designed to help people find and use tools, information, and subject matter expertise to build climate resilience. The Toolkit offers information from all across the U.S. federal government in one easy-to-use location.

The UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP) Adaptation Wizard is an online risk-based adaptation resource based on a 5-step process to help you assess vulnerability to current climate and future climate change, identify options to address key climate risks and help the user develop and implement a climate change adaptation strategy.

UNEP Coastal EbA Decision Support Tool and associated guide provides a broad understanding of the principles and concepts of coastal EBA, presents a range of different coastal EBA options, illustrated with examples, and discusses the issues and challenges that need addressing in EBA implementation through step-by-step guidance. The key steps covered are: 1. Understanding EbA; 2. Understanding the planning context; 3. Understanding the adaptation context; 4. selecting adaptation options; 5. Developing an implementation strategy; 6. Monitoring and adaptive management; 7. Capacity building and mainstreaming. Each step also includes useful resources and materials for extra information.

The Adaptation Knowledge Portal builds on the worldwide contributions of policy-makers, practitioners and researchers to offer first-hand information and actionable knowledge on climate change adaptation. The Adaptation Knowledge Portal is developed under the Nairobi Work Programme (NWP), which is a UNFCCC knowledge-for-action network on climate resilience. On the portal, users will find: adaptation case studies; methods and tools; other knowledge resources including relevant publications, technical documents, training material and online portals; and latest news on adaptation under UNFCCC process, and from NWP partner organisations.

The Urban Adaptation Support Tool is an online information platform and tool that has been developed as an off-shoot of the general Adaptation Support Tool on the European Union Climate-ADAPT platform, recognising the need of European urban adaptation decision-makers and practitioners in cities to be guided through the main steps of the adaptation process. It provides access to relevant adaptation information, data, tools and guidance specifically tailored for urban settings.

The Urban Ecosystem Analysis report focuses on the emerging urban ecosystems analysis (UEA) approach to highlight its merits and to share information on new tools and methods in which UEA can be applied to provide useful information to decision makers.

The Urban Heat Tool Kit is an analytical tool for consideration/combination of four methods (for heat stress reduction) related to built-environments – cool roofs, green roofs, cool pavements, and urban forestry – and explains how and when local governments can adopt each method.

The Urban Vulnerability Map Book is an online, interactive map book that aims to provide a Europe-wide overview of the potential vulnerability of major cities to climate change. The maps pinpoint possible weaknesses or problematic areas. They present single indicators or variables that indicate certain vulnerabilities of major European cities to climate change, specifically to the climatic threats of heatwaves, water scarcity and droughts, floods and forest fires.

Urban Water Optioneering Tool (UWOT) is a model that simulates the generation and routing of urban water demands to facilitate the planning and assessment of distributed interventions in the urban water cycle. The planning and assessment is based on various metrics estimated by UWOT, such as potable water demand, runoff volume and required energy.

Using Ecological Thresholds to Inform Resource Management: Current Options and Future Possibilities is a research paper that highlights the need to better understand thresholds and non-linear dynamics in ecological systems to help set management targets in the face of growing human impacts on ecosystems. Although our understanding of the factors that drive threshold dynamics, and when and how rapidly thresholds will be crossed is currently limited in many systems, there are approaches available to practitioners today—including ecosystem monitoring, statistical methods to identify thresholds and indicators, and threshold-based adaptive management—that can be used to help avoid reaching ecological thresholds or restore systems that have crossed them.

The ‘Using Logic Models’ guide provides an overview of the underlying principles of logic modelling to enhance programme planning, implementation and dissemination. The guide supports the development of programme logic, helping link activities to outcomes.

Using the Open Standards-Based Framework for Planning and Implementing Ecosystem-Based Adaptation Projects in the High Mountainous Regions of Central Asia is a paper describing a framework used by a BMUB, IKI, and GIZ-led consortium to explore the use of an Ecosystem-based Adaptation approach to help people adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change. The project used a modified form of the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation to systematically develop and test an integrated planning framework that used climate risk information to identify key vulnerabilities of people and ecosystem services under several plausible climate change scenarios and developed potential adaptation options. The elaboration and implementation of the EbA planning framework has been piloted in two watersheds in Tajikistan’s and Kyrgyzstan’s mountainous areas, one in the Naryn Province of Kyrgyzstan, and the other in the Bartang Valley of Tajikistan. The results of the project consist of a climate-informed Open Standards-based design, planning and management framework for local EbA measures, and of the lessons learned during the pilot application of this framework in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

ValuES is an online platform that analyses existing approaches to ecosystem service assessment and valuation and identifies best practice case studies and generate lessons learned. It also hosts an inventory of methods, tools and indicators to guide practitioners and decision makers in the selection of approaches to integrating ecosystem services into different sectoral and other policies. ValuES also provides country-specific advisory services to practitioners and decision makers to identify and include the value of ecosystem services in specific policies and projects. It also develops and facilitates trainings regarding the selection and application of methods and tools for the as-sessment and valuation of ecosystem services and how to integrate them into decision-making processes.

Valuing Ecosystem Services as Productive Inputs is a research paper that explores two methods for valuing ecosystems by valuing the services that they yield to various categories of user and that are not directly valued in the market, and illustrates the usefulness of these methods with an application to the valuation of mangrove ecosystems in Thailand.

The sourcebook on Valuing the Benefits, Costs and Impacts of Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) Measures offers a resource to guide the design, delivery and use of EbA valuation studies to inform and influence decision-making. The focus is on facilitating more inclusive, effective and sustainable adaptation planning and implementation. The sourcebook deals with the process of thinking through how to undertake the process of EbA valuation, and how to use the results effectively and convincingly to strengthen adaptation planning.

The voluntary guidelines for the design and effective implementation of ecosystem-based approaches to climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction was prepared for participants of the twenty-second meeting of the CBD Conference of the Parties (COP) Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice, held on 2-7 July 2018 in Montreal, Canada. The guidelines are organised into three main components, including a primer for policymakers, a list of relevant tools for practitioners, and sectoral briefs to support advocacy by EbA and Eco-DRR practitioners for the integration of EbA and Eco-DRR into sectoral policies and plans. The main audience for the guidelines are policy-makers and implementers including subnational governments (regions, provinces, cities and municipalities), indigenous peoples and local communities, NGOs, private sectors, research institutions and funders. The guidelines can also be consulted when implementing related practices, such as community-based adaptation and public works programmes with an ecosystem focus. The guidelines may also be useful for different sectors in planning and implementing ecosystem-based solutions, and can be applied in other contexts, such as the application of ecosystembased approaches into the development, humanitarian, aid, disaster relief, water management, construction, or health.

Various participatory tools (i.e. PRA & SWOT techniques) are used to carry out a VCA in order to determine people’s exposure to and capacity to resist natural hazards. VCA entails collecting, analysing and systematising information on a community’s vulnerability to hazards in a structured and meaningful way. “It enables local priorities to be identified and appropriate action taken to reduce disaster risk and assists in the design and development of programmes that are mutually supportive and responsive to the needs of the people most closely concerned”. (IFRC, 2014-website).

The Vulnerability and Risk Assessment (VRA) Methodology develops a holistic, landscape-wide understanding of vulnerability and links up actors across various levels of governance to jointly identify and analyse root causes of vulnerabilities for distinct social groups and later design programmes and risk reduction initiatives accordingly, ensuring that they are equitable, gender-sensitive and effective.

Vulnerability Assessments for Ecosystem based Adaptation: Lessons from the Nor Yauyos Cochas Landscape Reserve in Peru is a research paper describing the application of three different Vulnerability Assessment (VA) approaches carried out simultaneously in the same location: the Nor Yauyos Cochas Landscape Reserve in Peru. All three approaches shared the goal of identifying Ecosystem-based Adaptation measures based on the ecological and social vulnerabilities the VAs helped to identify in the target area. Thecase study describes the application of a participatory VA approach, a model-based VA approach and a deductive VA
approach, using a set of descriptors in a custom designed matrix. It also presents a narrative description of each approach to explain in more detail the process undertaken by each Vulnerability Assessment.

WEAP is a user-friendly software tool that takes an integrated approach to water resources planning. It comprises a water balance database, a scenario generation tool and a policy analysis tool.

WaterWorld is a web based tool that can be used to understand the hydrological and water resources baseline and water risk factors associated with specific activities under current conditions and under scenarios for land use, land management and climate change.

WeADAPT is a collaborative online platform on climate adaptation issues. It allows practitioners, researchers and policy-makers to access credible, high-quality information and connect with one another.

This series of guidance notes on Mainstreaming Adaptation to Climate Change in Agriculture and Natural Resources Management Projects presents eight adaptation notes that provide lessons learned, best practices, recommendations, and useful resources for integrating climate risk management and adaptation to climate change in development projects, with a focus on the agriculture and natural resource management sectors. Each note focuses on specific technical, institutional, economic, or social aspects of adaptation.

Zonation is a framework and software for large-scale conservation planning. It identifies areas, or landscapes, that are important for retaining habitat quality and connectivity for multiple species, implicitly aiming at long term conservation of species. For example, for biodiversity offsetting it can help to find areas that best compensate for ecological damage, or how to expand the existing protected area network in a balanced manner to compensate for specific losses. For planning under climate change it can use present distributions and future distributions of biodiversity features, as well as connectivity between the present and future distributions, to identify current and future areas of relevance in the context of climate change.