Ecosystem services research has gained much recognition in the U.S. since the publication and widespread awareness of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA 2002). Many federal agencies have adopted a multi-disciplinary approach to incorporate ecosystem services into their research programs. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) defines ecosystem services as “the products of ecological functions or processes that directly or indirectly contribute to human well-being, or have the potential to do so in the future.” Understanding the relationship between ecosystem services and human well-being is essential to the development of effective environmental policy. These relationships are being evaluated by (1) identifying existing measures of well-being (2) comparing these measures and methodologies to discern core indicators which can be applied at multiple scales and (3) evaluating the utility of indices and or their components for gauging changes in ecosystem services.

Results/Conclusions

We present a review of existing measures that have potential application in the development of an Index of Well-Being for ecosystem services research.