The broad economic notion of Ecosystem Services (ES) refers to the benefits that humans derive,
directly or indirectly, from ecosystem functions. ES is directly related to Water Resources Management (WRM), as any catchment’s degradation is in fact a degradation of ES and the opposite. The concept initially had a pedagogical purpose, later it started being measured with economic methods, and has policy extensions, such as markets and payment schemes. ES’s valuation is an essential process for achieving environmental, economic, and sustainability goals, The Total Economic Value (TEV) of ecosystems includes market values (priced) and mainly non-market values (not explicit in any market), hence the difference valuation methods for their explicit valuation. This process involves also human preferences regarding the perception of nature’s contribution to the economy, services, or production processes. ES concept and relevant policies have been criticized on the technical weaknesses of valuation methods, the description of the human behavior, the interdisciplinary conflicts (e.g. ecological vs economic perception of value), and ethical aspects on the limits of the economic science, nature’s commodification, and the purpose of the policy extents. Since valuation affects the policies (markets and payment schemes), it is important to understand the way that humans decide and develop preferences under uncertainty. Those preferences are changing, our behavior is unpredictable under deep uncertainty (i.e. unknown policies, impacts, unknown probabilistic
events, and under climate change), particularly over longer-term important WRM decisions. Behavioral Economics attempt to understand human behavior and psychology, and in a way model our valuation system, under uncertainty. The purpose and use of the concept must be based on solid principles, aiming to the development of policies that will improve our ecosystems and lives, achieved by scientific and stakeholder
collaboration.
