BUILT ECOLOGICAL REFERENCE STANDARDS

ECOSYSTEM SERVICES TOOL

Terrapin Bright Green is the founder of the PHOEBE Framework that helps support design, planning, and construction professionals to create more sustainable eco-friendly environments. It does this by incorporating a focus on ecosystem service provision and advocates for specific design strategies that can enable healthier built and natural environments. Terrapin uses BERS (Built Ecological Reference Standards) within the PHOEBE Framework to define aspirational goals based on natural ecosystem structure and function. BERS will help a client recognize onsite diminished ecosystem services and address how to revive them for increased site performance, reduced costs, and improved resilience.

Contribution: Over the summer of 2014, I developed the research and logic of the BERS tool and resulting graphics to help explain to clients how utilizing design and construction strategies that address one ecosystem service have the potential to address many services at the same time. From this a client can see that utilizing even just one technique has the potential to generate far greater potential provision of ecosystem services then they originally thought.

The first step of our research involved assessing key ecosystem services affiliated with the four different categories of provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural services as defined by the UNEP MA. We assessed value based on need and the potential for provision of the service based on three different location types (urban, suburban, and rural).

The second step of our research and tool development involved considering key strategies that can be utilized for ecosystem service enhancement, preservation, or benefit in general. The results of this step of the research can be seen below.

The example below displays a selection of only “green infrastructure strategies” and their connection and ultimate potential impact with various ecosystem services.