Appendix I: Even More Ecosystem Services with InVEST

1 Purpose of this appendix

Appendices G and H showed how InVEST operationalizes:

  • water,
  • carbon,
  • pollination,
  • floods,
  • sediment and nutrients,
  • coastal protection,
  • fisheries,
  • recreation.

This appendix completes the picture by introducing additional InVEST models that:

  • connect ecosystems to urban life,
  • translate land into direct production,
  • and formalize habitat itself as a system component.

Together, these services make clear that Earth–economy modeling is not about a few “green add-ons.”
It is about embedding all the ways nature supports society.

2 Urban cooling

The InVEST Urban Cooling model estimates:

  • how land cover affects surface temperature,
  • how vegetation reduces heat exposure,
  • and where people face the greatest thermal risk.

Inputs include:

  • land cover,
  • tree canopy,
  • albedo,
  • evapotranspiration capacity,
  • population distribution.

Conceptually:

UrbanHeat = f(BuiltSurface, Vegetation, Albedo) HeatExposure = UrbanHeat × Population CoolingService = BaselineHeat − UrbanHeat

Vegetation cools cities by:

  • shading,
  • evaporative cooling,
  • and altering surface reflectivity.

Outputs:

  • maps of relative heat,
  • population-weighted exposure,
  • cooling benefits of green infrastructure.

Earth–economy use:

  • integrate heat risk into urban planning,
  • evaluate tree planting programs,
  • connect climate adaptation to equity,
  • translate “green space” into public health capital.

Here, trees become infrastructure for survival.

3 Urban flood risk mitigation

Distinct from watershed flood models, the InVEST Urban Flood Risk model focuses on:

  • impervious surfaces,
  • stormwater flow,
  • and neighborhood-scale flooding.

Inputs:

  • land cover,
  • drainage capacity,
  • rainfall events,
  • building footprints,
  • population.

Conceptually:

Runoff = f(Imperviousness, Rainfall) Damage = Runoff × Exposure × Vulnerability GreenInfrastructure → ↓ Runoff → ↓ Damage

Outputs:

  • flood depth maps,
  • avoided damages,
  • neighborhood risk profiles.

Earth–economy use:

  • compare gray vs green stormwater systems,
  • value permeable surfaces,
  • integrate land cover into insurance and planning,
  • connect zoning to climate resilience.

This is Earth–economy modeling at the street scale.

4 Crop production

The InVEST Crop Production models estimate:

  • expected yields for major crops,
  • based on climate, soil, and land cover,
  • using empirical global relationships.

Inputs:

  • crop maps,
  • climate variables,
  • yield statistics,
  • management assumptions.

Conceptually:

Yield = f(Climate, Soil, CropType) Production = Yield × Area

Outputs:

  • spatial yield maps,
  • production totals,
  • changes under land or climate scenarios.

Earth–economy use:

  • link climate change to food supply,
  • translate land-use change into calories,
  • connect ecological shifts to prices,
  • anchor food security in biophysical reality.

This model ties photosynthesis to markets.

5 Timber production

The InVEST Timber model estimates:

  • forest growth,
  • harvest schedules,
  • and long-run yield.

Inputs:

  • forest type,
  • growth rates,
  • management rules,
  • rotation lengths,
  • harvest intensity.

Conceptually:

Stock_{t+1} = Stock_t + Growth − Harvest Revenue_t = Price × Harvest_t

Outputs:

  • standing timber,
  • harvest volumes,
  • net present value,
  • sustainable yield paths.

Earth–economy use:

  • treat forests as renewable capital,
  • test harvest regimes,
  • connect conservation to income,
  • integrate forestry into inclusive wealth.

This is the bridge between classical resource economics and spatial ecology.

6 Habitat quality

The InVEST Habitat Quality model estimates:

  • how land use and threats affect biodiversity,
  • relative habitat suitability,
  • and fragmentation impacts.

Inputs:

  • land cover,
  • threat layers (roads, cities, agriculture),
  • sensitivity tables,
  • decay distances.

Conceptually:

HabitatQuality = f(LandType, ThreatIntensity, Distance)

Outputs:

  • habitat quality maps,
  • degradation indices,
  • change under scenarios.

Earth–economy use:

  • represent biodiversity as a stock,
  • link land conversion to ecological loss,
  • support conservation prioritization,
  • translate “development” into habitat debt.

This is how biodiversity enters system dynamics.

7 Energy siting: Wind and wave

InVEST also includes models for:

  • Wind energy potential
  • Wave energy potential

These estimate:

  • resource availability,
  • spatial constraints,
  • and development suitability.

Inputs:

  • wind or wave climate,
  • bathymetry or elevation,
  • exclusion zones,
  • infrastructure proximity.

Outputs:

  • energy potential maps,
  • feasible development areas,
  • tradeoffs with ecosystems.

Earth–economy use:

  • co-locate energy and conservation,
  • avoid habitat conflict,
  • integrate renewables into land systems,
  • treat energy transition as spatial design.

Even “clean” energy is a land-use question.

8 Why this breadth matters

Across Appendices G–I, InVEST now covers services that:

  • regulate risk (floods, heat, coasts),
  • produce goods (crops, timber, fish),
  • sustain life (water, soil, pollination),
  • protect capital (sediment, nutrients),
  • support culture and health (recreation),
  • maintain biodiversity (habitat),
  • and enable transition (energy siting).

This reveals a central truth:

Ecosystems are multi-output machines.

A hectare is never “just” forest, farm, or wetland.

It is a portfolio of services.

Earth–economy modeling exists to manage portfolios, not pixels.

9 Exercises

  1. Service stacking.
    Choose one land parcel (urban park, mangrove, farm, forest).
    List at least five services it provides using InVEST categories.

  2. Conflict identification.
    Pick two services from this appendix that could conflict on the same land.
    Describe a policy that could balance them.

  3. Model coupling.
    Sketch how one InVEST service from this appendix could:

    • affect production,
    • alter prices,
    • and change land allocation in an Earth–economy model.

With these appendices, InVEST becomes legible as:

  • a library of ecological production functions,
  • feeding into economic systems,
  • governing the evolution of futures.

Earth–economy modeling is what happens
when all of these services begin to talk to markets.