A meta-analysis of ecosystem services values of European floodplains: database setup and case study application

The concept of ecosystem services (ES) can help to build a bridge between hydrology, nature, and society. In recent decades, Europe experienced severe catastrophic flood events. Simultaneously, the Floods Directive calls for the inclusion of ES as additional decisional support in flood management. In order to implement flood risk prevention while maximizing the benefits of nature to the society, a better understanding of the floodplains’ ES is required.

The study on the added value of floodplains in Europe has the aim to provide scientific support and answers to the following questions:

• What are the most frequent ES in European flooding areas’ ecosystems? What are the differences and trends of investigated ES among the European countries?
• Which environmental and societal factors are significant to explain the monetary value of floodplains’ ES in areas where no studies haven’t been conducted yet?
• Can ES be used in real case studies to support decision-making in the field of flood risk management?

To answer these questions, a database containing ES studies and their assessed results in the last 20 years was set up and enriched with freely available geo-physical (e.g. land cover) and socio-economic (e.g. population) data. A meta-regression analysis is then applied to the ES values with the aim of extracting a value-transfer function for areas that haven’t been investigated yet. This allows estimating the ES monetary values of proposed floodplain restoration measures in different pilot areas of the Danube River Basin. The work done will help to prove the profitability of nature-based solutions to decision-makers and stakeholders affected by flood risk.