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The Natural Capital Measurement Catalogue (NCMC) is an open, scientifically rigorous resource for users to identify suitable metrics, methods and data sources for the measurement of natural capital assets, flows of services or benefits, and organisational impacts or dependencies on nature.
Terms and Conditions: The Natural Capital Measurement Catalogue is presented for the purpose of disseminating information free of charge for the benefit of the public.
Given the research nature of the NCMC, this content is not and should not be used as a substitute for consultation with professional advisors. This website is not a substitute for independent professional advice and users should obtain any appropriate professional advice relevant to their particular circumstances.
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Ecosystem capacity is the ability of an ecosystem to generate an ecosystem service under current ecosystem condition, management and uses, at the highest yield or use level that does not negatively affect the future supply of the same or other ecosystem services from that ecosystem.
Source/reference: SEEA-EA 2021, para. 6.141.
“ecosystem assets are contiguous spaces of a specific ecosystem type characterized by a distinct set of biotic and abiotic components and their interactions.”
Source/reference: SEEA-EA 2021, para. 2.11.
Note: Ecosystem assets are a type of environmental asset, where the focus is on interactions between individual environmental assets within ecosystems.
“the geographical territory for which an ecosystem account is compiled.”
Source/reference: SEEA-EA 2021, para. 2.12.
“An ecosystem is a dynamic complex of plant, animal and micro-organism communities and their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit”
Source/reference: SEEA-EA, para. 2.6.
Natural capital can be measured in many different ways, by different users for different purposes. The Catalogue allocates methods and data sources to three tiers, corresponding to different user needs and approaches to measurement.
The term ‘monetary flows’ is used in this Catalogue to refer to monetary equivalents of physical flows.
The term ‘physical flows’ is used in this Catalogue to refer to physical measures of the supply by environmental or ecosystem assets and use by economic units such as households, business or government of both physical goods (such as minerals, energy, water, or biological products) and intangible services (such as water purification or flood control services).
Ecosystem condition is the quality of an ecosystem measured in terms of its abiotic and biotic characteristics.
Ecosystem extent means the size of an ecosystem asset in terms of spatial area.
Quality of an environmental asset can refer to any physical characteristics of the asset that are relevant to its use or value.
Quantity of an environmental asset means the physical amount of the asset at a given point in time.
Suggested examples are not prescriptive. Data sources should be selected that are appropriate to the context of what is being measured, and the desired purpose.
Suggested examples are not prescriptive. Measurement methods should be selected that are appropriate to the context of what is being measured, and the desired purpose.
Ecosystem services can be classified as intermediate or final depending on whether the user of the ecosystem service is an ecosystem asset (intermediate ecosystem services) or an economic unit such as households, business or government (final ecosystem services).
Ecosystem services are generally categorised into three broad categories: provisioning services, regulating and maintenance services, and cultural services. These are further subdivided into various types and sub-types, as per Table 6.3 in SEEA-EA 2021.
The SEEA Ecosystem Condition Typology (SEEA ECT) is a hierarchical classification system for organising data on ecosystem condition, consisting of six classes grouped into three main groups (abiotic, biotic and landscape-level ecosystem characteristics).
Suggested examples are not prescriptive. Targets should be selected that are appropriate to the context of what is being measured, and the desired purpose.
Suggestions for units are not prescriptive. Specific units and the scale of units should be selected that are appropriate to the context of what is being measured.
Type of impact metric refers to the stage of the impact pathway that a metric relates to, such as whether it is a pressure, impact driver, state or response metric.
Type of ecosystem condition metric includes ecosystem condition variables (quantitative metrics describing individual characteristics of an ecosystem asset), indicators (rescaled versions of variables) and indices (composite or aggregate indicators).
Type of ecosystem condition metric includes ecosystem condition variables (quantitative metrics describing individual characteristics of an ecosystem asset), indicators (rescaled versions of variables) and indices (composite or aggregate indicators).
Stocks and flows are fundamental, related concepts in accounting. Stocks refer to the total quantity of something at a given point in time, whereas flows are quantities measured over a period of time.
Stocks and flows are fundamental, related concepts in accounting. Stocks refer to the total quantity of something at a given point in time, whereas flows are quantities measured over a period of time.
New features include: