Natural Capital Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services, Karnataka State, India: Ecosystem Services

This book describes the valuation of services of ecosystems (forests, agriculture and aquatic) for Karnataka State, India, as per the validated statistical framework for natural capital accounting – SEEA: System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA.un.org). According to SEEA protocol, ecosystem services are defined as the contributions of ecosystems to the benefits that are used in economic and other human activities. The valuation of ecosystem services (VES) provides an unbiased framework to value unaccounted ecosystem benefits and helps in developing meaningful policy interventions. The approach allows for adjusted regional or national accounts which reflect the output of ecosystem services as well as the depletion of natural resources and the degradation costs (externalized costs of the loss of ecosystem services) of ecosystems in economic terms.

In this perspective, the current publication, focusing on the natural capital accounting and valuation of ecosystem services in Karnataka, India, can help raise awareness and provide a quantitative tool to evaluate the sustainability of policies.

The book would aid as knowledge base for many professionals, institutions and government agencies taking up the task of natural capital accounting and valuation of ecosystem services across the countries worldwide.

Dr. T.V. Ramachandra, FIE, FIEE (UK), FNIE obtained Ph.D. in Ecology and Energy from the Indian Institute of Science. At present, he is the Coordinator of the Energy and Wetlands Research Group (EWRG), Convener of Environmental Information System (ENVIS) at the Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES). During the past twenty-five years, he has established an active school of research in the area of energy and environment. He is a Member of Karnataka State Wetland Authority (2018), Kerala Wetland Authority (2022), National Wetland Committee, GoI., and Karnataka State Audit Advisory Committee. He was a Member of the Karnataka State-level Environment Expert Appraisal Committee (2007-2010), appointed by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, and a Member of the Western Ghats task force appointed by the Government of Karnataka. Apart from this, TVR is serving on many committees of the NGT (National Green Tribunal) related to wetlands in Bangalore.

TVR features in the recent global ranking of the top 2% of scientists (developed by Stanford University) with ranking in Environment: 0.1887, Energy: 0.2138, Enabling & strategic technologies: 0.2642 ). He is an honorary fellow, Karnataka  Science and Technology Academy (2022), Elected Fellow of International Association for Advanced Materials (2024), International Society for Development and Sustainability (2024), National Institute of Ecology (2011), Indian Association of Hydrologists (India; 2006), Indian Social Science Academy (ISSA), Institution of Engineers (IE, India; 2003), the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE, UK; 2005), and a Senior Member, IEEE (USA; 2000) and Association of Energy Engineers (USA; 2000).  TVR’s research interests are in the area of aquatic ecosystems, biodiversity, ecological modeling, ecosystem services, Western Ghats ecology, energy systems, renewable energy, energy conservation, energy planning, geo-informatics, environmental engineering education research and curriculum development at the tertiary level. He teaches courses (i) Environmental Management and (ii) Principles and application of GIS and Remote Sensing for masters and doctoral students.

Dr. Bharath H. Aithal is currently Associate Professor in Ranbir and Chitra Gupta school of Infrastructure Design and Management at Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He obtained his Ph.D. from Indian Institute of Science. His area of interest is spatial pattern analysis, urban growth modeling, natural disasters, geoinformatics, landscape modeling, urban planning, open-source GIS, and digital image processing.

Dr. Bharath Setturu is currently Associate Professor at Chankya University (School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences) and Post-doctoral Fellow at Energy and Wetlands Research Group (EWRG), Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. His work has received a large appreciation across the globe. He is a recipient of “Sahyadri Ecologist (2016 & 2020)” Award. He has received the best research paper awards during NSRS-2019 Conference at Bengaluru, CCIVA-2019 Conference at IIT-Kharagpur, BDCC-2018 Conference at IIT-Kharagpur, and WEIZ-2017 Conference at Kolkata by IIT-Kharagpur. He has also received “Dr Parameshwaran Research Grant” in the year 2016.                   

Dr. Vinay Shivamurthy is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, Alva’s Institute of Engineering and technology, Moodbidri, Karnataka, India. He has received his bachelor’s in Civil Engineering from RV College of Engineering, Bengaluru, India, and master’s in Geoinformatics from Karnataka State Remote Sensing Centre―VTU RRC, Bengaluru, India, and Ph.D. from Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belagavi, India. He was Post-doctoral Fellow at RCGSIDM, IIT Kharagpur, India. Since 2013 he is associated as Researcher at EWRG, CES, IISc. His research interest areas are environmental flows, hydrology, applications of remote sensing and GIS in disaster risk assessment, visualization of landscape, spatial modeling for forecasting, climate, and environment aspects.

Asulabha KS is currently Research Scholar in Ecoinformatics working in the Microalgae spatial decision support system at the Energy and Wetlands Research Group, CES TE15,  Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Her areas of interest are monitoring aquatic ecosystems, water quality assessment, wetland ecosystem evaluation, soil quality assessment, algal culturing, algae, fish, and zooplankton documentation, and open-source GIS.

Sincy Varghese is currently Research Scholar in Ecoinformatics working in the Ichthyofauna spatial decision support system at the Energy and Wetlands research Group, CES TE15,  Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Her areas of interest are wetland ecosystem evaluation, monitoring of aquatic ecosystems, water quality assessment, soil quality assessment, algal culturing in wastewater, fish, algae, and zooplankton, and open-source GIS.