Our publications

ARIES background and theory

For a citation of the overall ARIES ecosystem services modeling methodology, please use: Villa, F., et al. 2014. A methodology for adaptable and robust ecosystem services assessment. PLOS ONE: 9(3):e91001 (full citation below).


Balbi, S., Bagstad, K.J., Magrach, A.,Sanz, M.J., Aguilar-Amuchastegui, N.,Giupponi, C., Villa, F. 2022. The global environmental agenda urgently needs a semantic web of knowledge. Environmental Evidence 11, 5, doi.org/10.1186/s13750-022-00258-y 

Martínez-López, J., K.J. Bagstad, S. Balbi, A. Magrach, B. Voigt, I. Athanasiadis, M. Pascual, S. Willcock, and F. Villa. 2019. Towards globally customizable ecosystem service models. Science of the Total Environment 650(2):2325-2336.

Villa, F., S. Balbi, I.N. Athanasiadis, and C. Caracciolo. 2017. Semantics for interoperability of distributed data and models: Foundations for better-connected information. F1000Research 6:686.

Barquin, J., L.E. Benda, F. Villa, L.E. Brown, N. Bonada, D.R. Vieites, T.J. Battin, J.D. Olden, S.J. Hughes, C. Gray, and G. Woodward. 2015. Coupling virtual watersheds with ecosystem services assessment: A 21st century platform to support river research and management. WIREs Water, doi:10.1002/wat2.1106.

Villa, F., K.J. Bagstad, B. Voigt, G.W. Johnson, I.N. Athanasiadis, and S. Balbi. 2014. The misconception of ecosystem disservices: How a catchy term may yield the wrong message for science and society. Ecosystem Services 10:52-53.

Villa, F., K.J. Bagstad, B. Voigt, G.W. Johnson, R. Portela, M. Honzak, and D. Batker. 2014. A methodology for adaptable and robust ecosystem services assessment. PLoS ONE 9(3):e91001.

Villa, F., B. Voigt, and J.D. Erickson. 2014. New perspectives in ecosystem services science as instruments to understand environmental securities. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 369(1639):20120286.

Athanasiadis, I. and F. Villa. 2013. A roadmap to domain specific programming languages for environmental modeling: key requirements and concepts. Proceedings of the 2013 ACM workshop on Domain-specific modeling. ASM: New York, ISBN: 978-1-4503-2600-1.

Bagstad, K.J., G.W. Johnson, B. Voigt, and F. Villa. 2013. Spatial dynamics of ecosystem service flows: A comprehensive approach to quantifying actual services. Ecosystem Services 4: 117-125.

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.

Johnson, G.W., K.J. Bagstad, R. Snapp, and F. Villa. 2012. Service Path Attribute Networks (SPANs): A network flow approach to ecosystem service assessment. International Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Information Systems 3 (2): 54-71.

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. Economía Agraria y Recursos Naturales 11 (1): 83-98.

Johnson, G., K.J. Bagstad, R.R. Snapp, and F. Villa. 2010. Service Path Attribute Networks (SPANs): Spatially quantifying the flow of ecosystem services from landscapes to people. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 6016: 238-253.

Mulligan, M. A. Guerry, K. Arkema, K. Bagstad and F. Villa. 2010. Capturing and quantifying the flow of ecosystem services. In: Silvestri S., Kershaw F., (eds.). Framing the flow: Innovative Approaches to Understand, Protect and Value Ecosystem Services Across Linked Habitats. UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Cambrdige, UK. ISBN 978-92-807-3065-4.

Villa, F., I. N. Athanasiadis, and A. E. Rizzoli. 2009. Modelling with knowledge: a review of emerging semantic approaches to environmental modelling. Environmental Modelling and Software 24:577-587.

ARIES case studies


Capriolo, A., Boschetto, R.G., Mascolo, R.A., Balbi, S., Villa, F. 2020. Biophysical and economic assessment of four ecosystem services for natural capital accounting in Italy. Ecosystem Services 46:101207.

Oleson, K.L.L., Bagstad, K.J., Fezzi, C., Barnes, M.D., Donovan,  M.K., Falinski, K.A., Gorospe, K.D., Htun, H.,  Lecky, J., Villa, F., and Wong. T.M. 2020. Linking Land and Sea Through an Ecological-Economic Model of Coral Reef Recreation. Ecological Economics 177:106788.

Balbi, S., O. Selomane, N. Sitas, R. Blanchard, I. Kotzee, P. O’Farrell, and F. Villa. 2019. Human dependence on natural resources in rapidly urbanizing South African regions. Environmental Research Letters 14:044008.

Barbosa, A., B. Martin, V. Hermoso, J. Arevalo-Torres, J. Barbiere, J. Martinez-López, S. Domisch, S.D. Langhans, S. Balbi, F. Villa, G. Delacamara, H. Teixeira, A.J.A. Nogueira, A.I., Lillebo, Y. Gil-Jimenez, H. McDonald, and A. Iglesias-Campos. 2019. Cost-effective restoration and conservation planning in Green and Blue Infrastructure designs. A case study on the Intercontinental Biosphere Reserve of the Mediterranean: Andalusia (Spain)-Morocco. Science of the Total Environment 652:1463-1473.

Domisch, S., S.C. Jahnig, K. Kakouei, S.D. Langhans, J. Martínez-López, K.J. Bagstad, A. Magrach, S. Balbi, F. Villa, A. Funk, T. Hein, F. Pletterbauer, and V. Hermosa. 2019. Social equity shapes zone selection: Balancing aquatic biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services delivery in the trans-national Danube River Basin. Science of the Total Environment 656:797-807.

Funk, A., J. Martínez-López, F. Borgwardt, D. Trauner, K.J. Bagstad, S. Balbi, A. Magrach, F. Villa, and T. Hein. 2019. Identification of conservation and restoration priority areas in the Danube River based on multi-functionality of river-floodplain systems. Science of the Total Environment 654:763-777.

Kerebel, A., N. Gélinas, S. Déry, B. Voigt, and A. Munson. 2019. Landscape aesthetic modelling using Bayesian networks: Conceptual framework and participatory indicator weighting. Landscape and Urban Planning 185:258-171.

Willcock, S., J. Martínez-López, D.A.P. Hooftman, K.J. Bagstad, S. Balbi, A. Marzo, C. Prato, S. Sciandrello, G. Signorello, B. Voigt, F. Villa, J.M. Bullock, and I.N. Athanasiadis. 2018. Machine-learning for ecosystem services. Ecosystem Services 33:165-174.

Bagstad, K.J., D.J. Semmens, Z.H. Ancona, and B.C. Sherrouse. 2017. Evaluating alternative methods for biophysical and cultural ecosystem services hotspot mapping in natural resource planning. Landscape Ecology 32(1):77-97.

Bagstad, K.J., J. Reed, D. Semmens, B. Sherrouse, and A.R. Troy. 2016. Linking biophysical models and public preferences for ecosystem service assessments: A case study for the Southern Rocky Mountains. Regional Environmental Change 16(7):2005-2018.

Zank, B., K.J. Bagstad, B. Voigt, and F. Villa. 2016. Modeling the effects of urban expansion on natural capital stocks and ecosystem service flows: A case study for Puget Sound, Washington, USA. Landscape and Urban Planning 149:31-42.

Balbi, S., Villa, F., Mojtahed, V., Hegetschweiler, K.T. and Giupponi, C., 2016. A spatial Bayesian network model to assess the benefits of early warning for urban flood risk to people. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences16(6), pp.1323-1337.

Balbi, S., A. del Prado, P. Gallejones, C.P. Geevan, G. Pardo, E. Perez-Minana, R. Manrique, C. Hernandez-Santiago, and F. Villa. 2015. Modeling trade-offs among ecosystem services in agricultural production systems. Environmental Modelling and Software 72:314-326.

La Notte, A., S. Marongiu, M. Masiero, P. Molfetta, R. Molignoni, and L. Cesaro. 2015. Livestock and ecosystem services: An exploratory approach to assess agri-environmental climate payments of RDP in Trentino. Land 4(3):688-710.

Villa, F., R. Portela, L. Onofri, P.A.L.D. Nunes, and G. Lange. 2015. Assessing biophysical and economic dimensions of societal value: An example for water ecosystem services in Madagascar. Pp. 110-118 in: Water ecosystem services: A global perspective. J. Martin-Ortega, R.C. Ferrier, I.J. Gordon, and S. Khan, eds. Cambridge: Cambridge, UK.

Bagstad, K.J., D. Semmens, F. Villa, and G.W. Johnson. 2014. Quantifying and valuing ecosystem services: An application of ARIES to the San Pedro River Basin, USA. Pp. 169-192 in: Handbook on the Economics of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. P.A.L.D. Nunes, P. Kumar, and T. Dedeurwaerdere, eds. Edward Elgar: Cheltenham, UK.

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 to map and quantify ecosystem services. Ecology and Society 19(2):64.

Grȇt-Regamey, A., B. Weibel, K.J. Bagstad, M. Ferrari, D. Geneletti, H. Klug, U. Schirpke, and U. Tappeiner. 2014. On the effects of scale for ecosystem services mapping. PLoS ONE 9(12):e112601.

Bagstad, K.J., D.J. Semmens, and R. Winthrop. 2013. Comparing approaches to spatially explicit ecosystem service modeling: A case study from the San Pedro River, Arizona. Ecosystem Services 5: 40-50.

Share This