This study departs from the hypothesis that ecosystem services are becoming
scarce by experiencing serious degradation in regard to their capability to provide
services efficiently in the Catalan coast, Spain. It constitutes a contribution to the
analysis of non-market natural capital in the Catalan coastal zone from an efficient
allocation perspective. The general objective of the study was to “assess the nonmarket
value of ecosystem services provided in the Catalan coastal zone, in monetary
terms.” The work starts providing a description of three main dimensions relevant to
Integrated Coastal Zone Management of the Catalan coast: socio-economic, natural
and administrative dimensions. The 12 littoral comarcas and their marine water extent
to a depth of 50 m constituted the operational definition and study area in this work.
The approach focused on natural and semi-natural, terrestrial and marine, functions
and services which are not counted in the economic markets. Results provide an
outlook of ecosystem functions and services provided by the Catalan coast and
available data on its value. The study provided a set of three methodologies which
contribute to estimating the ecosystem services value that should be considered
relevant in coastal and environmental management. First, it proposes an indicatorbased
method to identify the social-ecological spatial heterogeneity of the coast, which
led to the identification of homogeneous management units on which valuation of the
social-ecological system was carried out at the comarca level. Four different classes of
Homogeneous Environmental Management Units were obtained, ranging form highly
natural and less developed comarcas to less natural and highly developed comarcas.
Secondly, a benefit transfer spatial function was used in order to estimate the annual
contribution of ecosystem services value to citizens’ well-being. Based on individual
preferences value from more than 90 peer-reviewed studies, it was found that nonmarket
services of terrestrial and marine ecosystems in the study area provide at least
3.2 billion USD in 2004 (2,572 x 106 Euros). It was found that ecosystem services when
provided by different land cover types vary substantially in its economic value, and this
study reflects such variability. Single largest contribution to ESV flow was provided by
forest while larger coastal-marine contribution was provided by the continental shelf. To
replace the current ecosystem services, at least an annual increment of 2.7 % in the
Gross Domestic Product should take place in the study area. Furthermore, it was
assumed that the more efficient is an ecosystem in providing a service, the more
valuable will be to the society. Thus, ecological, human footprint and fragility indexes
were used in the construction of the Ecosystem Services’ Provision Capacity Index
which constituted the proxy of the capacity of ecosystems to deliver services to citizens
in the terrestrial part of the study area. Result showed that it accounted for a positive
capacity to provide services and its resulting geography represented a proxy of the
natural structure and processes. An integrated ecosystem services value flow of 3.37
billion USD/yr (2,712 x 106 Euros) was estimated. This new estimate represents more
than a 42 % increment to that of terrestrial individual preference value. Both valuation
processes kept close spatial relationship to that of Homogeneous Environmental
Management Units geography. Integrated valuation method was considered to reduce
human induced bias (via stated-preferences) and thus provide a more realistic estimate
of the ecosystem services flow. By estimating the economic value of ecosystem
services not traded in the marketplace, social costs or benefits that otherwise would
remain hidden or unappreciated are revealed. Therefore, this work can be useful in
evaluating tradeoffs between economic development and conservation in the coastal
zone. It was considered that making the contribution of ecosystem services to human
well-being and the ecosystem functions that underlie those services more explicit
should help motivate policy towards integrated sustainability.