Bagstad, K.J. and R. Shammin. 2012. Can the Genuine Progress Indicator better inform sustainable regional progress? - A case study for Northeast Ohio. Ecological Indicators 18:330-341.
Kenneth J Bagstad, Ph.D.
Biography
Ken Bagstad is a Research Economist working with the USGS’ Geosciences & Environmental Change Science Center in Denver. He uses GIS and modeling to quantify, map, and value ecosystem service flows across the United States and internationally. Ken is co-leading work to construct natural capital accounts in the United States at national and regional scales. He is also interested in the integration of biophysically models of ecosystem services, primarily using the Artificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services (ARIES) tool with cultural ecosystem services obtained using the Social Values for Ecosystem Services (SolVES) tool in support of resource management for federal government agencies. Ken has led the development of data and models for the ARIES project, which has developed web-accessible and stand-alone software tools to assess ecosystem services for environmental decision-making.
From 2015-2016 Ken was seconded to the World Bank's Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) Program as a Senior Environmental Specialist. He coordinated the development of ecosystem accounts and their application to national economic accounts in Colombia, Costa Rica, and Rwanda, and assisted with their development elsewhere. For the last several years he has co-taught an ecosystem services modeling course in Spain, and in 2015 he worked in Japan as a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science research fellow.
Ken received his Ph.D. (Natural Resources, certificate in ecological economics) from the University of Vermont, studying ecosystem services mapping and valuation, measures of economic progress, and the effects of taxes and subsidies on coastal development. For his M.S. research at from Arizona State University (Plant Biology, concentration in ecology), he studied the effects of water management on riverine plant communities of the San Pedro River in southeastern Arizona. Ken holds a B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan University (Botany and Environmental Studies).
Science and Products
Date published: October 1, 2019
Status: Active Reanalyzing and Predicting U.S. Water Use using Economic History and Forecast Data; an experiment in short-range national hydro-economic data synthesis
Water in the United States is used for myriad activities on a daily basis, such as for food (irrigation, aquaculture, livestock), energy (thermoelectric power or hydropower generation), and public water supply for domestic, commercial or industrial purposes. Yet, we lack an national accounting of how and where water is used on a temporal scale more frequent than every 5 years, and a spatial...
Contacts: Molly A Maupin, Kenneth J Bagstad, Ph.D.
Attribution: John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis
Date published: May 10, 2019
Status: Active Accounting for natural capital: building the numbers to track and sustain the nation’s natural resources
Accounting for ecosystem services - the benefits that nature provides to society and the economy - is gaining increasing traction worldwide as governments and the private sector use them to monitor integrated environmental and economic trends. When they are well understood and managed, ecosystems can provide these long-term benefits to people - such as clean air and water, flood control, crop...
Contacts: Kenneth J Bagstad, Ph.D., Carl D Shapiro, Ph.D., Jane Carter Ingram
Date published: July 14, 2017
Status: Active Ecosystem Services Assessment and Valuation
Ecosystem services are the benefits that nature provides to human well-being: clean air and water, protection from natural disasters, fisheries, crop pollination and control of pests and disease, and outdoor places for recreation, solitude, and renewal. Ecosystem services underlie the functioning of our entire economy. They are neither worthless nor priceless, and by integrating the physical...
Contacts: Darius Semmens, Kenneth J Bagstad, Ph.D.
Date published: July 14, 2017
Status: Active Ecosystem Services Valuation Pilot Study
This project will use newly-collected data on human use and values, paired with existing ecological data and open source software tools to map what, where, and how people value the Cape Lookout National Seashore, North Carolina (CALO) landscape for a variety of different social value types. In addition, we will model and map biophysical features, the provision and use of key ecosystem services...
Contacts: Darius Semmens, Kenneth J Bagstad, Ph.D.
Attribution: Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center
Date published: October 1, 2016
Status: Active Accounting for U.S. ecosystem services at national and subnational scales
Ecosystem services - the benefits that nature provides to society and the economy - are gaining increasing traction worldwide as governments and the private sector use them to monitor integrated environmental and economic trends. When they are well understood and managed, ecosystems can provide these long-term benefits to people - such as clean air and water, flood control, crop pollination,...
Contacts: Kenneth J Bagstad, Ph.D.
Attribution: John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis
Date published: September 20, 2013
Status: Active Animal Migration and Spatial Subsidies: Establishing a Framework for Conservation Markets
Migratory species may provide more ecosystem goods and services to humans in certain parts of their range than others. These areas may or may not coincide with the locations of habitat on which the species is most dependent for its continued population viability. This situation can present significant policy challenges, as locations that most support a given species may be in effect...
Attribution: John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis
Year Published: 2021
Book review: "Replacing GDP by 2030: Towards a common language for the well-being and sustainability community" by Rutger Hoekstra
No abstract available.
Fox, Mairi-Jane; Bagstad, Kenneth J.
Year Published: 2021
Book review: Replacing GDP by 2030: Towards a common language for the well-being and sustainability community, Rutger Hoekstra, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2019)
Critiques of gross domestic product (GDP) as the economy's primary measuring stick have emanated from the feminist and ecological economics communities for decades (Kubiszewski et al., 2013) and have grown to include mainstream economists (Stiglitz, Sen, and Fitousi, 2009) and national accountants (Coyle, 2015). To the casual observer, such...
Bagstad, Kenneth J.; Fox, Mairi-Jane
Year Published: 2021
Piloting urban ecosystem accounting for the United States
In this study, we develop urban ecosystem accounts in the U.S., using the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EEA) framework. Most ecosystem accounts focus on regional and national scales, which are appropriate for many ecosystem services. However, ecosystems provide substantial services in cities,...
Heris, Mehdi; Bagstad, Kenneth J.; Rhodes, Charles R.; Troy, Austin; Middel, Ariane; Hopkins, Kristina G.; Matuszak, John
Year Published: 2020
Accounting for land in the United States: Integrating physical land cover, land use, and monetary valuation
Land plays a critical role in both economic and environmental accounting. As an asset, it occupies a unique position at the intersection of the System of National Accounts (SNA), the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Central Framework (SEEA-CF), and (as a spatial unit) SEEA Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EEA), making land a...
Wentland, Scott A.; Ancona, Zachary H.; Bagstad, Kenneth J.; Boyd, James W.; Hass, Julie L.; Gindelsky, Marina; Moulton, Jeremy G.
Year Published: 2020
Integrating physical and economic data into experimental water accounts for the United States: Lessons and opportunities
Water management increasingly involves tradeoffs, making its accounting highly relevant in our interconnected world. Physical and economic data about water in many nations are becoming more widely integrated through application of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounts for Water (SEEA-Water), which enables the tracking of linkages between...
Bagstad, Kenneth J.; Ancona, Zachary H.; Hass, Julie L.; Glynn, Pierre D.; Wentland, Scott; Vardon, Michael; Fay, John P.
Year Published: 2020
Linking land and sea through an ecological-economic model of coral reef recreation
Coastal zones are popular recreational areas that substantially contribute to social welfare. Managers can use information about specific environmental features that people value, and how these might change under different management scenarios, to spatially target actions to areas of high current or potential value. We explored how snorkelers’...
Oleson, Kirsten L. L.; Bagstad, Kenneth J.; Fezzi, Carlo; Barnes, Megan; Donovan, Mary; Falinski, Kim A.; Gorospe, Kelvin; Htun, Hla; Lecky, Joey; Villa, Ferdinando; Wong, Tamara
Year Published: 2020
A rasterized building footprint dataset for the United States
Microsoft released a U.S.-wide vector building dataset in 2018. Although the vector building layers provide relatively accurate geometries, their use in large-extent geospatial analysis comes at a high computational cost. We used High-Performance Computing (HPC) to develop an algorithm that calculates six summary values for each cell in a raster...
Pourpeikari Heris, Mehdi; Foks, Nathan Leon; Bagstad, Kenneth J.; Troy, Austin; Ancona, Zachary H.
Year Published: 2020
Economic, land use, and ecosystem services impacts of Rwanda's Green Growth Strategy: An application of the IEEM+ESM platform
We develop and link the Integrated Economic-Environmental Modeling (IEEM) Platform to ecosystem services modeling (ESM). The IEEM+ESM Platform is an innovative decision-making framework for exploring complex public policy goals and elucidating synergies and trade-offs between alternative policy portfolios. The IEEM+ESM approach is powerful in its...
Banerjee, Onil; Bagstad, Kenneth J.; Cicowiecz, Martin; Dudek, Sebastian; Horridge, Mark; Alavalapati, Janaki; Masozera, Michel K.; Rukundo, Emmanuel; Rutebuka, Evariste
Year Published: 2020
Mapping perceived social values to support a respondent-defined restoration economy: Case study in southeastern Arizona, USA
Investment in conservation and ecological restoration depends on various socioeconomic factors and the social license for these activities. Our study demonstrates a method for targeting management of ecosystem services based on social values, identified by respondents through a collection of social survey data. We applied the Social Values for...
Lysaght, Oliver; Sherrouse, Benson C.; Semmens, Darius J.; Bagstad, Kenneth J.; Pritzlaff, Richard; Petrakis, Roy; Norman, Laura M.; Lysaght, Oliver; Sherrouse, Benson C.; Semmens, Darius J.; Bagstad, Kenneth J.; Pritzlaff, Richard
Year Published: 2020
Testing ecosystem accounting in the United States: A case study for the Southeast
Ecosystem accounts, as formalized by the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Experimental Ecosystem Accounts (SEEA EEA), have been compiled in a number of countries, yet there have been few attempts to develop them for the U.S. We explore the potential for U.S. ecosystem accounting by compiling ecosystem extent, condition, and ecosystem...
Warnell, Katie; Russell, Marc J.; Rhodes, Charles; Bagstad, Kenneth J.; Olander, Lydia P; Nowak, David J.; Poudel, Rajendra; Glynn, Pierre D.; Hass, Julie L.; Hiribayashi, Satoshi; Ingram, Jane Carter; Matuszak, John; Oleson, Kirsten L. L.; Posner, Stephen M.; Villa, Ferdinando
Year Published: 2020
Quantifying interregional flows of multiple ecosystem services – A case study for Germany
Despite a growing number of national-scale ecosystem service (ES) assessments, few studies consider the impacts of ES use and consumption beyond national or regional boundaries. Interregional ES flows – ecosystem services “imported” from and “exported” to other countries – are rarely analyzed and their importance for global sustainability is...
Kleeman, Janina; Schröter, Matthias; Bagstad, Kenneth J.; Kuhlicke, Christian; Kastner, Thomas; Fridman, Dor; Schulp, Catharina J. E.; Wolff, Sarah; Martinez-Lopez, Javier; Koellner, Thomas; Arnhold, Sebastian; Martin-Lopez, Berta; Marques, Alexandra; Lopez-Hoffman, Laura; Liu, Jianguo; Kissinger, Meidad; Guerra, Carlos; Bonn, Aletta
Year Published: 2020
Progress in natural capital accounting for ecosystems
Reversing the ongoing degradation of the planet's ecosystems requires timely and detailed monitoring of ecosystem change and uses. Yet, the System of National Accounts (SNA), first developed in response to the economic crisis of the 1930s and used by statistical offices worldwide to record economic activity (for example, production, consumption,...
Hein, Lars; Bagstad, Kenneth J.; Obst, Carl; Edens, Bram; Schenau, Sjoerd; Castillo, Gem; Soulard, Francois; Brown, Claire; Driver, Amanda; Bordt, Michael; Steurer, Anton; Harris, Rocky; Capparros, AlejandroPre-USGS Publications
Johnson, G.W., K.J. Bagstad, R. Snapp, and F. Villa. 2012. Service Path Attribution Networks (SPANs): A network flow approach to ecosystem service assessment. International Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Information Systems 3(2):54-71.
Johnson, G.W., R.R. Snapp, F. Villa, and K.J. Bagstad. 2012. Modelling ecosystem service flows under uncertainty with stochastic SPAN. Pp. 1021-1028 in: R. Seppelt, A.A. Voinov, S. Lange, and D. Bankamp, eds., Proceedings of the 2012 International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software. ISBN: 978-88-9035-742-8.
Villa, F., K.J. Bagstad, G. Johnson, and B. Voigt. 2011. Scientific instruments for climate change adaptation: Estimating and optimizing the efficiency of ecosystem services provision. Economia Agraria y Recursos Naturales 11(1):83-98.
Batker, D., de la Torre, I., Costanza, R., Swedeen, P., Day, J., Boumans, R., and Bagstad, K.J. 2010. Gaining ground: Wetlands, hurricanes, and the economy: The value of restoring the Mississippi River Delta. Environmental Law Reporter 40 ELR 11106-11110.
Daniels, A.E., Bagstad, K.J., Esposito, V., Moulaert, A., and Manuel Rodriguez, C. 2010. Understanding the impacts of Costa Rica’s PES: Are we asking the right questions?: Ecological Economics 69(11):2116-2126.
Stromberg, J.C., K.J. Bagstad, and E. Makings. 2009. Floristic Diversity. In: Ecology and conservation of the San Pedro River. J.C. Stromberg and B. Tellman, eds. University of Arizona Press: Tucson.
Bagstad, K.J. and M. Ceroni. 2008. The Genuine Progress Indicator: A new measure of economic development for the Northern Forest. Adirondack Journal of Environmental Studies 15(1):21-29.
Bagstad, K.J. and M. Ceroni. 2007. Opportunities and challenges in applying the GPI/ISEW at local scales. International Journal of Environment, Workplace, and Employment 3(2):132-153.
Bagstad, K.J., K. Stapleton, and J.R. D’Agostino. 2007. Taxes, subsidies, and insurance as drivers of United States coastal development. Ecological Economics 63:285-298.
Bagstad, K.J. 2006. Valuing ecosystem services in the Chicago region. Chicago Wilderness Journal 4(2):18-26.
Bagstad, K.J., S.J. Lite, and J.C. Stromberg. 2006. Vegetation and hydro-geomorphology of riparian patch types of a dryland river. Western North American Naturalist 66:23-44.
Bagstad, K.J., J.C. Stromberg, and S.J. Lite. 2005. Response of herbaceous riparian plant functional groups to flooding of the San Pedro River, Arizona. Wetlands 25(1):210-223.
Lite, S.J., K.J. Bagstad, and J.C. Stromberg. 2005. Riparian plant richness and abundance across gradients of water stress and flood disturbance, San Pedro River, Arizona, USA. Journal of Arid Environments 63(4):785-813.
Stromberg, J.C., K.J. Bagstad, E. Makings, S.J. Lite, and J. Leenhouts. 2005. Effect of decline in stream flow duration on channel vegetation of a semi-arid region river (San Pedro River, Arizona). River Research & Application 21(8):925-938.
Roberts, B.R., H.F. Decker, K.J. Bagstad, and K.A. Peterson. 2001. Bio-solid residues as soilless media for growing wildflower sod. HortTechnology 11(2):194-199.
Taxonomy of Xylopia barbata (Annonaceae) and related species from the Amazon/Orinoco region
Bagstad, K.J. and D.M. Johnson. 1999. Taxonomy of Xylopia barbata (Annonaceae) and related species from the Amazon/Orinoco region. Contributions of the University of Michigan Herbarium 22:21-29.
Bagstad, K.J., F. Villa, D. Batker, J. Harrison-Cox, B. Voigt, and G. Johnson. 2014. From theoretical to actual ecosystem services: Accounting for beneficiaries and spatial flows in ecosystem service assessments. Ecology and Society 19(2):64.
Batker, D., I. de la Torre, R. Costanza, J.W. Day, P. Swedeen, R. Boumans, and K.J. Bagstad. 2014. The threats to the value of ecosystem goods and services of the Mississippi Delta. Pp. 155-173 in: Perspectives on the restoration of the Mississippi Delta: The once and future delta. J. Day, G.P. Kemp, A. Freeman, and D.P. Muth, eds. Springer: New York.
Date published: December 3, 2020
Seminar Dec 8th at 1 pm ET – Natural Capital Accounting: Results and Lessons Learned from Building Nature’s Value into National and Subnational Economic Accounts
When: Tuesday December 8, 2020 at 1:00 pm ET
Who: Ken Bagstad (USGS Geosciences & Environmental Change Science Center), Carl Shapiro (USGS Science & Decisions Center), Carter Ingram (Ernst & Young)
Where:...
Attribution: John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis