2019E

Problem E: What is the Cost of Environmental Degradation?

环境退化的代价是什么？

Economic theory often disregards the impact of its decisions on the biosphere or assumes unlimited resources or capacity for its needs.

经济理论往往忽视其决定对生物圈的影响，或假定无限制的资源或满足其需要的能力。

There is a flaw in this viewpoint, and the environment is now facing the consequences.

这种观点有一个缺陷，环境现在正面临着后果。

The biosphere provides many natural processes to maintain a healthy and sustainable environment for human life, which are known as ecosystem services.

生物圈提供许多自然过程，为人类生活维持一个健康和可持续的环境，这被称为生态系统服务。

Examples include turning waste into food, water filtration, growing food, pollinating plants, and converting carbon dioxide into oxygen.

例子包括将废物转化为食物、水过滤、种植食物、授粉植物以及将二氧化碳转化为氧气。

However, whenever humans alter the ecosystem, we potentially limit or remove ecosystem services.

然而，无论何时人类改变生态系统，我们都有可能限制或删除生态系统服务。

The impact of local small-scale changes in land use, such as building a few roads, sewers, bridges, houses, or factories may seem negligible.

当地土地利用的小规模变化，如修建几条道路、下水道、桥梁、房屋或工厂，其影响似乎可以忽略不计。

Add to these small projects, large-scale projects such as building or relocating a large corporate headquarters, building a pipeline across the country, or expanding or altering waterways for extended commercial use.

除了这些小项目外，还包括建造或搬迁大型公司总部、在全国各地修建管道、扩大或改变水道，以扩大商业用途。

Now think about the impact of many of these projects across a region, country, and the world.

现在想想这些项目对一个地区、国家和世界的影响。

While individually these activities may seem inconsequential to the total ability of the biosphere’s functioning potential, cumulatively they are directly impacting the biodiversity and causing environmental degradation.

虽然单独地这些活动似乎对生物圈的整体能力没有什么影响，它们累积起来直接影响到生物多样性并造成环境退化。

Traditionally, most land use projects do not consider the impact of, or account for changes to, ecosystem services.

传统上，大多数土地利用项目不考虑生态系统服务的影响或变化。

The economic costs to mitigate negative results of land use changes:

减轻土地利用变化负面后果的经济代价：

polluted rivers, poor air quality, hazardous waste sites, poorly treated waste water, climate changes, etc., are often not included in the plan.

污染的河流、恶劣的空气质量、危险的废物场址、处理不善的废水、气候变化等，往往没有列入计划。

Is it possible to put a value on the environmental cost of land use development projects?

土地用途发展项目的环境成本，是否可以计算出来呢？

How would environmental degradation be accounted for in these project costs?

这些项目费用如何核算环境退化？

Once ecosystem services are accounted for in the cost-benefit ratio of a project, then the true and comprehensive valuation of the project can be determined and assessed.

一旦将生态系统服务计入项目的成本效益比，就可以确定和评估项目的真实和全面价值。

Your ICM team has been hired to create an ecological services valuation model to understand the true economic costs of land use projects when ecosystem services are considered.

您的ICM团队已经被雇来创建一个生态服务评估模型，以了解在考虑生态系统服务时土地使用项目的真正经济成本。

Use your model to perform a cost benefit analysis of land use development projects of varying sizes, from small community-based projects to large national projects.

使用您的模型对不同规模的土地利用开发项目进行成本效益分析，从小型社区项目到大型国家项目。

Evaluate the effectiveness of your model based on your analyses and model design.

根据您的分析和模型设计评估您的模型的有效性

What are the implications of your modeling on land use project planners and managers? How might your model need to change over time?

你的模型对土地利用项目规划者和管理者有什么影响？随着时间的推移，您的模型可能需要如何改变？

Your submission should consist of:

· One-page Summary Sheet,

· Your solution of no more than 20 pages, for a maximum of 21 pages with your summary.

· Judges expect a complete list of references with in-text citations, but may not consider

appendices in the judging process.

· Note: Reference list and any appendices do not count toward the 21-page limit and

should appear after your completed solution.

你提交的材料应包括：

一页摘要表，

·您的解决方案不超过20页，包括你的摘要最多为21页。

·法官期望有一份完整的引文引用列表，但评审过程中可能不会考虑附录的信息。

·注：参考文献和任何附录不包括在21页的限制，并且应该出现在您完成的解决方案之后。

References:

参考文献

Chee, Y., 2004. An ecological perspective on the valuation of ecosystem services.

Biological Conservation 120, 549-565.

Costanza, R., d’Arge, R., de Groot, R., Farber, S., Grasso, M., Hannon, B., Limburg, K.,

Naeem, S., O’Neill, R.V., Paruelo, J., Raskin, R.G., Sutton, P., van den Belt, M., 1997.

The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital. Nature 387, 253– 260.

Gómez-Baggethuna, E., de Groot, R., Lomas, P., Montesa, C., 1 April 2010. The history

of ecosystem services in economic theory and practice: From early notions to markets

and payment schemes. Ecological Economics 69 (6), 1209-1218.

Norgaard, R., 1 April 2010. Ecosystem services: From eye-opening metaphor to

complexity blinder. Ecological Economics 69 (6), 1219-1227.

Richmond, A., Kaufmann R., Myneni, R., 2007, Valuing ecosystem services: A shadow

price for net primary production. Ecological Economics 64, 454-462.

Yang, Q., Liu, G., Casazza, M., Campbell, E., Giannettia, B., Brown, M., December

2018. Development of a new framework for non-monetary accounting on ecosystem

services valuation. Ecosystem Services 34A, 37-54.

数据来源（无法连接）

Data sources:
US based data: https://www.data.gov/ecosystems/

Satellite data:
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/satellite-data/satellite-data-access?datasets

词汇表
Glossary:

Biodiversity - refers to the variety of life in an ecosystem; all of the living organisms within a given area.

生物多样性-指在一个生态系统中的生物多样性；一个特定区域内的所有生物。

Biosphere - the part of the Earth that is occupied by living organisms and generally includes the interaction between these organisms and their physical environment.

生物圈-地球上被生物占据的部分，通常包括这些生物与其物理环境之间的相互作用。

Ecosystem - a subset of the biosphere that primarily focuses on the interaction between living things and their physical environment.

生态系统-生物圈的一个子集，主要关注生物与其物理环境之间的相互作用。

Ecosystem Services – the many benefits and assets that humans receive freely from our natural environment and a fully functioning ecosystem.

生态系统服务-人类从自然环境和充分运作的生态系统中自由获得的许多好处和资产。

Environmental Degradation – the deterioration or compromise of the natural environment through consumption of assets either by natural processes or human activities.

环境退化-通过自然过程或人类活动消耗资产而使自然环境恶化或损害。

Mitigate – to make less severe, painful, or impactful.

减轻-使不那么严重、痛苦或影响。

Valuation - refers to the estimating or determining the current worth of something.

估价-指的是对某物当前价值的估计或确定。