In the management of federal waterways (BWaStr), the need for the recording and evaluation of ecosystem services (ÖSL) is currently great and is expected to grow. In the planning and evaluation of water management maintenance and expansion measures, there is a great desire to present the value of the ecosystem services provided by the BWaStr for society in addition to the purely economic benefit, in order to take into account the positive effects of a measure on the water body on its ecosystem and on the surrounding area. Similarly, it is desirable for the assessment to add costs resulting from limited ecosystem services to the material investment costs. Such an extended utility analysis represents an important contribution to the integrated assessment and communication of waterway-related measures and promotes a more objective dialogue between different stakeholders. Benefit-cost analyses, which take into account not only economic but also ecosystem benefit-cost aspects and monetize them, make it possible to economically quantify the effects of measures in relation to all aspects with the same scale, which ultimately contributes to improved decision-making in the planning and implementation of measures.

For many years, the Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG) has been dealing with the topic of ÖSL on and for waterways and their integration into the planning practice of the Waterways and Shipping Administration (WSV), the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV) and other affected ministries (e.g. Ministry of the Environment BMUV). The coordination of the work on the ESSLs is carried out within the BfG by the "Coordination Round on Ecosystem Services and Environmental Assessments of Socio-Economic Changes" (KR-ÖSUS). The R&D project AMBERS "Approaches to a Multi-Criteria Assessment of Measures on Federal Waterways", initiated by KR-ÖSUS and currently ongoing, aims to compile the knowledge gained on the subject of ÖSL within and outside the BfG and to put it into practice.

The requirement is to develop monetization approaches for 15 ÖSLs operationalized by AMBERS and to apply them to an exemplary waterway-related measure within the framework of a benefit-cost analysis. The exemplary application refers only to the 15 ÖSLs considered (not a complete benefit-cost analysis).

Pos 1. Monetisation of ecosystem services on federal waterways

1.1 State of Science and Technology - Monetization of ESSL in Practice

1.2 Exemplary application and evaluation of the researched methods

1.3 Revision and development of monetization procedures

1.4 Technical implementation of the selected monetization methods

1.5 Manual Monetization of ÖSL

Pos 2. Integration of ecosystem services on federal waterways into benefit-cost analyses

Pos 3. Communication and Reporting

3.1 Project organization

3.2 Meetings and workshop

3.3 Documentation and evaluation

Demand item: Case study and ÖSL selection

Please refer to the tender documents for a detailed description of the services to be provided.