Skip to main content
Center for Coastal Resources Management

Marsh Ecosystem Benefits Map Viewer

There can be tremendous spatial variation in the value of ecosystem services provided by natural and restored marshes. Local environmental conditions together with human perception, preferences, and behavior ultimately determine the value of natural capital, like marshes. Consideration of physical, environmental, and human drivers of ecosystem service value is paramount in resiliency planning to optimize the use of scarce financial resources.   

This map viewer displays the current and future (2050) value of ecosystem services provided by marshes within the Middle Peninsula, Virginia. Economic values of services can be viewed at small tidal watershed or county scales. To assess potential future distributions of ecosystem services provided by marshes, we projected future marsh distributions by 2050 for the study area on the basis of expected changes in water levels with sea level rise, erosion rates and the presence of barriers to landward migration (e.g. shoreline armoring, development). In addition, we depicted potential future living shorelines on the basis of a Virginia Shoreline Management Model that provides spatially explicit locations of sites suitable for living shorelines. The projected future value in 2050 (30 years from 2020 present valuation) for each benefit is presented with a 2% discount factor that adjusts (i.e., lowers) future values to today's dollars.  

[Marsh Ecosystem Benefits Map Viewer]

 

NOAA Logo This research was supported by The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under Grant Number NA21NMF4570524-T1-01.