Policy for sustainable development can be more equitable and more effective when based on the available scientific evidence.
CO$TINGNATURE – ecosystem services provided by natural environments
- Maps spatial distribution of 13 ecosystem services
- Maps spatial distribution of biodiversity, current human pressure on the land and future threats.
- Spatial resolution, local to global, 1ha, 1km, 10km
- Characterises conservation priority spatially
- Ties ecosystem services provided per pixel to SDGs
- Uses global datasets from ESA, NASA and JAXA
Applications
Policy for sustainable development can be more equitable and more effective when based on the available scientific evidence. Co$tingNature is a freely available web-based tool for analysing the ecosystem services provided by natural environments.
The model incorporates satellite data providing the latest detailed (global) spatial datasets at high resolution, combined with spatial models for biophysical and socio-economic processes along with scenarios for climate, land use and economic change.
Co$tingNature uses the best available global datasets on land, climate, water and human activity from ESA, NASA and JAXA to map ecosystem services (the benefits provided by nature) and tie these to the SDGs at goal level
The tool is already used all over the world by conservation and development NGOs, policy analysts, various sectors and for academic research.
UK expertise
King’s College London is bridging the gap between scientific data and knowledge to support policy and management decision-making by building and deploying data-intensive, science-based spatial policy support systems in support of UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The SDGs index allocates each ecosystem service into one or more of the SDG goals and, for each of the goals, sums the ecosystem service provision across these services into a normalised index of those services serving the goal.
About the map
The map shows for each pixel the SDG to which nature in that pixel provides the greatest support. For much of the tropics this is carbon but where there are dense populations close to nature then other ecosystem services such as water (quantity, quality, regulation), grazing, fuelwood etc become important.
For very remote areas with few people and spatially homogeneous environment it is spatial equality and beneficiary cohort equality that becomes most important.