How to calculate the spatial distribution of ecosystem services — Natural attenuation as example from The Netherlands

Maps play an important role during the entire process of spatial planning and bring ecosystem services to the attention of stakeholders' negotiation more easily. As example we show the quantification of the ecosystem service ‘natural attenuation of pollutants’, which is a service necessary to keep the soil clean for production of safe food and provision of drinking water, and to provide a healthy habitat for soil organisms to support other ecosystem services. A method was developed to plot the relative measure of the natural attenuation capacity of the soil in a map. Several properties of Dutch soils were related to property-specific reference values and subsequently combined into one proxy for the natural attenuation of pollutants. This method can also be used to map other ecosystem services and to ultimately integrate suites of ecosystem services in one map.

Research highlights
► We developed a methodology to map ecosystem services.
► As an example, the natural attenuation of pollutants in the soil is mapped.
► These values are compared to optimal values.
► The map shows areas with optimal and areas with reduced natural attenuation capacity.