A framework for developing an environmental accounting system for freshwater ecosystem services in the Waikato region

Report: TR 2022/20

Authors: Richard T Yao and David J Palmer (Scion)

Waikato Regional Council is undertaking a long-term project to assess ecosystem services (ES) from freshwater resources in the Waikato region.

The first two phases of this project involved a desktop assessment of selected freshwater bodies in the Waikato and Waihou river systems to identify, quantify and value (where possible) the freshwater ES. The third phase assessed 57 ES provided by the rivers and streams in the region’s Ohinemuri catchment. This project extends previous research by evaluating the impact of land use change on water availability related ES in a river catchment in the region.

The objective of this study (Phase 4) was to evaluate the impacts of land-use change on five water availability related ES consisting of water yield, hydropower generation, quick flow, local recharge and baseflow.

This study aims to develop a framework to quantify freshwater values that may be impacted by land-use change and enable their representation in policy discussions and the development of freshwater environmental/natural capital accounting system for the Waikato region.