Problem and Knowledge Gap: Sandy landscapes are currently highly vulnerable to droughts, floods, pollution, and losses in soil carbon and biodiversity, which result in significant welfare and well-being losses for human populations across watersheds. Additionally, existing water and landscape configurations lead to rising socio-economic costs due to the suboptimal and unsustainable distribution of water supply and quality among various locations and users within a watershed. Understanding the economic values of a wide range of ecosystem services provided by watersheds is crucial for transforming towards more sustainable landscapes. However, we lack comprehensive knowledge on:
- The values (costs and benefits) of ecosystem (dis)services related to water supply and quality under climate change.
- The spatial distribution and dependencies of these costs and benefits among different water users within a watershed.
- The economic incentives and instruments necessary to regulate the sustainable allocation of water-related ecosystem (dis)services amidst increasing climate extremes.
Research Questions:
- What are the effects of water excess, scarcity, and quality on the monetary values of ecosystem (dis)services under various climate change projections and different water and land configurations?
- How do spatial dependencies within a water system influence the costs and benefits for different regions and water users within a watershed?
- What levels and types of economic incentives are required to ensure a sustainable spatial allocation of water among users during floods and droughts, and to enhance the adaptation and resilience of water users to these climate extremes?
By addressing these questions, we aim to develop strategies for a more sustainable and economically efficient management of water resources in sandy landscapes, enhancing resilience to climate change.