Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: River ecosystems provide essential services that sustain human well-being and ecological integrity, yet their contributions are often underestimated in management and policy decisions. This study aims to develop and validate indicators for quantifying river ecosystem services to support evidence-based decision-making. A review of previous studies was conducted to compile a preliminary list of indicators. Expert evaluations were then applied using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and content validity ratio (CVR) analysis to assess their representativeness and reliability. The results identified priority indicators across provisioning, regulating, and cultural services. The findings revealed that, in the AHP analysis, regulating services received the highest weight (0.4567), followed by provisioning services (0.3811) and cultural services (0.1622). In the CVR analysis, four valid indicators were identified for provisioning services, sixteen for regulating services, and eight for cultural services. These findings highlight the importance of careful indicator selection and methodological transparency. The study contributes a refined set of indicators that can inform river restoration initiatives, sustainable water management, and integration into national ecosystem accounting systems.
Source: Land
DOI: 10.3390/land14102091
Authors: Hyun No Kim, Jiwoo Kim
Institution: Korea Environment Institute
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,137
Award: G4393260533
OpenAlex ID: W4415370765