Ecosystem services valuation for improved water resource management under climate change in Africa.

Abstract

The present thesis is entitled "Ecosystem services valuation for improved water resource management under climate change in Africa". Through four chapters, ecosystem services valuation is used as a tool to inform water resource management. After a first chapter at continent-level, the geographic focus of the remainder chapters shifts to Ghana and its northern region.The research draws links to the existing literature on ecosystem based adaptation, smallholder farmers' livelihoods strategies and risk coping, poverty alleviation, nature based-solutions, climate change adaptation and the political economy of water resource management.Given the pressures water related ecosystem are under, ES valuation can play a role in providing economic evidence to policy-makers. The main objective of the present work is to apply ES valuation and use its results to produce tailored evidence that is of value in specific policy contexts.