Adapting ecosystem service assessment tools: Experiences and lessons learned

Aside from TESSA, there are other tools that are used to measure and valuate ecosystem services. Two of them are the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) and Rapid Assessment of Wetland Ecosystem Services (RAWES). InVEST models are spatially-explicit, utilizing maps as information sources as well as allowing the production of maps as outputs. InVEST outputs can yield either biophysical terms (e.g., tons of carbon sequestered) or economic terms (e.g., net present value of that sequestered carbon). Meanwhile, RAWES, compared with other tools, attempts to simplify the process, understanding that practitioners and decision-makers need genuinely rapid and widely-applicable across different wetlands juxtaposed with resource constraints.