What are the water-related ecosystem services (WRES)?

Water-related ES in a broader meaning are presented in the table (after Hawkins et al. 2009)

Water-related ES are the benefits to people that are produced by the effects of terrestrial ecosystems on freshwater (Brauman et al., 2007).  From this point of view, they include mainly provisioning and regulating services. Water regulation, as one key regulating ES, includes water retention, storm, and high water protection (including flood control at rivers and coasts) and is also closely related to other regulating ES such as erosion and sedimentation control as well as water purification. In this project, we are focused especially on flood regulation and water purification.

The mapping and assessment of water-related ecosystem services (WRES) in Bulgaria have been studied in various projects and other activities during the last 15 years.