Ecosystem Services Approach for Decision-Making
The global benchmark sustainability course ‘Ecosystem Services Approach for Decision-Making’ will explore the link between ecosystem services and development goals, and demonstrates how to incorporate an Ecosystem Services Approach into existing decision-making processes.
Students will acquire insight how an Ecosystem Services Approach expands the focus beyond how development affects ecosystems, to how development depends on ecosystems. Rather than focusing on how to protect ecosystems from development, the student will learn how to invest in managing ecosystems for development.
Central Framework for Ecosystem Accounting
The course ’Central Framework for Ecosystem Accounting’ will acquaint students with the essentials of the SEEA Central Framework, which will help him/her to understand the interactions between the economy and the environment, and enables the student to describe stocks and changes in stocks of environmental assets.
The student will learn how to use a wide range of information, which enables him/her to compare and contrast source data, and allows for the development of aggregates, indicators and trends across a broad spectrum of environmental and economic issues.
Particular examples include the assessment of trends in the use and availability of natural resources and the extent of emissions and discharges to the environment resulting from economic activity.
Biomodelling for Ecosystem Accounting
The ‘Biomodelling for Ecosystem Accounting’ course provides students with the essentials of biophysical modelling, which will allow him/her to compile ecosystem accounts where statistical or field information is not readily available.
While most biophysical models are not developed specifically for accounting purposes, many models either produce results that can be used directly in SEEA EA or produce results that can be modified for use in SEEA EA. In this course the student will learn identifying tools and modelling platforms that produce results aligned with SEEA EA, as well as associated best practices that will facilitate the compilation of ecosystem accounts.
System of National Accounts for Ecosystem Accounting
The course ‘System of National Account for Ecosystem Accounting’ provide students with core knowledge of the internationally agreed set of recommendations on how to compile measures of economic activity in accordance with strict accounting conventions based on economic principles.
The accounting framework of the System of National Accounts presents in a condensed way a great mass of detailed information, organised according to economic principles and perceptions, about the working of an economy. The student will learn how to apply the framework that will provide him/her with a comprehensive and detailed record of the complex economic activities taking place within an economy and of the interaction between the different economic agents, and groups of agents, that takes place on markets or elsewhere.