Regional Value of Provisioning and Regulating Services from Water in Japan

Abstract

This study aims to demonstrate factors of changes in ecosystem services in Japan by quantifying the value of those ecosystem services. We focus on ecosystem services related to water and evaluate their economic value by region in 1985, 1995 and 2005. Our results show their economic value in Japan to have nearly doubled from 1985 to 2005. In addition, we found that regulating services, especially flood control, account for high percentages of the total economic value (TEV) and have become the major factor boosting TEV from 1985 to 2005 in Japan.