WalES: an integrated database to assess ecosytem services

While the significance and needs of Ecosystem Services (ES) valuation is now more pregnant in decision processes, the design of operational tools remains complex because of the multiplicity and diversity of information sources, indicator types, scales of interest and the variety of managers. The most important challenges are 1) to build strong links between administrations responsible for information flows and scientists working on ES emerging definitions and valuations and 2) to re-organize these flows to link biodiversity assessment, environmental monitoring and social expectations to provide a common reference system.
In Wallonia, the heads of several regional administration and academic institutions proposed to the Government to mutualize theirs skills and means to build WalES: a transdisciplinary Walloon platform on ES.
Its conceptual model for ES assessment is based on a Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework promoted by European Environment Agency to disentangle biodiversity and environment (state indicators) from ecosystem services (impact indicators). Ecosystem biocapacity is approached by a combination of ecological conditions (e.g. soil type and moisture, topography), main land use classes and management methods (pressures/responses indicators). ES indicators, proxy and models are declined along these three potential dimensions at different levels of precision and related to providing, benefiting, and negatively impacted stakeholders.
We will present the original Walloon approach of a common and shared information system detailing data and data flows useful to assess ES, collecting relevant experiences and methods on ES valuation. The comparison of these information sources allows us to identify best practices, to combine the various data in order to improve their accuracy and to highlight missing data and methods needing further development. In this way, this operational database supports an integrated assessment of ES by measuring their diversity of components (capacity, flow and demand), values (biophysical and social) and their interactions at different scales.