Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-r7xzm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T13:10:48.355Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 November 2009

Jeroen C. J. M. Bergh
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
Aat Barendregt
Affiliation:
Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands
Alison J. Gilbert
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
Get access

Summary

Problems, policy and management of wetlands

It is now widely recognised that wetlands provide many important goods and services to human societies. Examples include drinking water, flood mitigation, water quality control, fish products and recreational and residential opportunities. The non-use values that society attributes to wetland species and ecosystems can also be significant (Turner et al., 1998a). Wetland ecosystems are, however, under stress from human activities, in particular changes in land use with concomitant habitat loss and fragmentation, resource extraction, drainage and reclamation, and pollution. Not surprisingly, wetlands are currently receiving considerable attention in environmental science and policy.

Wetlands all over the world are threatened, in spite of various international agreements and national policies to protect them. There are a number of fundamental reasons for this (see also Turner et al., 2000). Market failures exist because of the public good aspects of many wetlands and consequent lack of property rights for certain wetland goods and services. In addition, economic activities such as agriculture, industry and water abstraction trigger externalities for other stakeholders. These stakeholders include direct, indirect and even non-users of wetland goods and services. Next, there is a failure of information and a lack of understanding of the multitude of values associated with wetlands as a result of the complexity and ‘invisibility’ of spatial relationships between groundwater, surface water and wetland vegetation.

Type
Chapter
Information
Spatial Ecological-Economic Analysis for Wetland Management
Modelling and Scenario Evaluation of Land Use
, pp. 1 - 14
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Introduction
  • Jeroen C. J. M. Bergh, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Aat Barendregt, Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands, Alison J. Gilbert, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
  • Book: Spatial Ecological-Economic Analysis for Wetland Management
  • Online publication: 24 November 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511542213.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Introduction
  • Jeroen C. J. M. Bergh, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Aat Barendregt, Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands, Alison J. Gilbert, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
  • Book: Spatial Ecological-Economic Analysis for Wetland Management
  • Online publication: 24 November 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511542213.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Jeroen C. J. M. Bergh, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Aat Barendregt, Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands, Alison J. Gilbert, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
  • Book: Spatial Ecological-Economic Analysis for Wetland Management
  • Online publication: 24 November 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511542213.002
Available formats
×