A study on the economic valuation of ecosystem services in Singapore

• Main Author: Peh, Yuzheng
• Other Authors: Tiong Lee Kong, Robert
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Environmental engineering::Environmental protection
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/61163
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The importance of Earth’s ecosystems cannot be understated, as they provide a variety of services to mankind that are crucial to our existence. In recent years, ecosystems valuation has taken a big step forwards with the emergence of the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment (2007) by the UK National Environmental Agency. This, together with the framework on total economic value by Defra (2007), provides the foundation for more research and studies in this field. Henceforth, this Final Year Project first aims to provide a review of the United Kingdom’s Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA)’s framework approach to the ecosystem monetary valuation, followed by the various primary monetary valuation techniques from various sources, including their theoretical basis and limitations. These valuation techniques would then be sorted into recommended methods for the respective types of ecosystem services, followed by a section on the proposed guidelines developed based on DEFRA’s framework as well as the other reviewed literatures. Following that, case studies that demonstrate the application of the monetary valuation techniques will be presented and discussed, before exploring the possibility of doing the same in Singapore’s context. Due to the constraints of time and resources, the last section would be an attempt to valuate some of Singapore’s forest ecosystem services by economic value (benefit) transfer, which involves the mapping of the estimated value per hectare from a data source (the case studies) to our local study site i.e economic value transfer. This differs from the conventional value transfer in that it only takes into account the economical factors like Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), unlike the former, which takes into account the spatial and geographical comparisons of the 2 study sites. The long-term goal would be to set the foundation and encourage valuation of ecosystems in Singapore, which could potentially set the tone for future applications such as public policies, actuary, mitigation and prevention.