Central Queensland University, School of Business and Law, Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia.
Central Queensland University, School of Business and Law, Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia.
Mar Pollut Bull. 2018 May;130:55-66. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2018.03.017. Epub 2018 Mar 15.
Water quality degradation in the Great Barrier Reef, associated with increased loads of nutrients, sediments and pesticides from agriculture, has become a major concern. Improved management practices and water quality targets were set in the Reef Plan 2013, but with limited success. The causality between water quality degradation, ecosystem health and benefits to society remains poorly understood, questioning the relevance of current water quality targets. We argue that ecosystem service valuation may help identify the benefits generated by ecosystems and help prioritise further investments in water quality improvement. We estimate the loss of benefits to society resulting from water quality reduction, concentrating on the influence of pollutants on mangroves, seagrass and coral reefs. Our results suggest that failing to meet Government's water quality targets by 1% would result in losses between AU$22 k/year and AU$6.9 M/year depending on the industry. We then discuss the implications stemming from these results for local policy-making.
大堡礁的水质退化与农业中增加的营养物质、沉积物和农药负荷有关，已成为一个主要关注点。《2013 年大堡礁计划》制定了改进管理做法和水质目标，但收效有限。水质退化、生态系统健康和对社会的好处之间的因果关系仍了解甚少，这使得当前的水质目标受到质疑。我们认为，生态系统服务价值评估可能有助于确定生态系统产生的效益，并有助于确定进一步投资改善水质的优先次序。我们估算了水质下降对社会造成的效益损失，重点关注污染物对红树林、海草和珊瑚礁的影响。我们的研究结果表明，如果政府未能达到 1%的水质目标，那么根据行业的不同，每年将损失 22000 澳元至 690 万澳元不等。然后，我们讨论了这些结果对地方决策的影响。
