The “Assessment and Inventory of Ecosystem Services and Environmental Threats” research project will deliver an inventory of existing ecosystem services assessments, products, and decision-support or visualization tools conducted within the Appalachian LCC boundary. The inventory will document and assess the classification, methodology used, describe priority ecosystem services and how they were identified, and provide economic valuations if available. Research will also involve a regional survey and workshops within our boundary to assemble a list of high priority economic goods and services and non‐monetized values and benefits that are dependent on Appalachia’s natural assets while identifying the associated resource that support these services and benefits (such as intact forests, clean rivers, etc.). Finally a geo‐referenced assessment of the location of key ecosystem services that are linked to specific priority economic products or uses will be developed. This will include assembling datasets and generating visualization-base maps that depict relevant natural assets and identify locations of key products and issues. This information would then be used to produce a spatial interpretation of areas within Appalachia that serve critical social and environmental functions, as well as identify those that are highly vulnerable to losses associated with key ecosystem stressors.
