The increasing pressure from land cover change exacerbates the negative effect on ecosystems and ecosystem services (ES). One approach to inform holistic and sustainable management is to quantify the ES provided by the landscape. Using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model, this study quantified the sediment retention capacity and water yield potential of different land cover in the Santee River Basin Network in South Carolina, USA. Results showed that vegetated areas provided the highest sediment retention capacity and lowest water yield potential. Also, the simulations demonstrated that keeping the offseason crop areas vegetated by planting cover crops improves the monthly ES provision of the landscape. Retaining the soil within the land area prevents possible contamination and siltation of rivers and streams. On the other hand, low water yield potential translates to low occurrence of surface runoff, which indicates better soil erosion control, regulated soil nutrient absorption and gradual infiltration. The results of this study can be used for landscape sustainability management to assess the possible tradeoffs between ecological conservation and economic development. Furthermore, the generated map of ES can be used to pinpoint the areas where ES are best provided within the landscape.

Ecosystem services (ES), commonly defined as the benefits people get from ecosystems, are key components in improving human well-being. However, as land utilization transitions from forest and agricultural land to urban areas and industrial complexes, the continuous provision of ES is affected. To ensure sustainable development, conservation programs should be implemented that consider both the stakeholders' well-being while also maintaining ecosystem health and integrity. Consequently, to improve the strategic implementation of conservation programs, it is critical to understand stakeholders' preferences.Using an online survey, we elicited South Carolina residents' preference in prioritizing the target ecosystems and ecosystem services in the state. The results identified that the priority ecosystem service is water quality regulation. However, the residents' preference for water quality regulation does not discredit the importance of maintaining the continuous water supply provision. In terms of ecosystem preference, residents indicated that the forest ecosystem is the priority ecosystem to be conserved, particularly for younger residents, respondents with high income, and those in the midland and the upstate. This could be attributed to the forest's effect on the ecosystem services that these respondents receive, particularly towards water-related ecosystem services. Understanding the residents' preference provides information that could improve the state water plans and other potential policy implications to land use-land cover planning and landscape sustainability management.

Riverine ecosystems play a crucial role in providing essential services such as drinking water, food, recreation, and other aquatic resources. Yet, their capacity to deliver ecosystem services is threatened by rapid land use which modifies their ecological functions. While freshwater monitoring and restoration programs became more robust with technological advancement, the technical ecosystem indicators monitored by experts do not typically resonate with the public. Since public sentiments and preferences are crucial in conservation planning, we quantified households' mean willingness to pay (WTP) for riverine ecosystem services in South Carolina (SC) using a payment card approach. This technique in conducting a contingent valuation method allowed us to estimate mean WTP for five aquatic indicators. Findings revealed that households' monthly mean WTP is higher for indicators that can enhance recreational benefits, such as fish catch ($5.89- $6.58), species richness ($6.28- $6.72) and access ($6.75) compared to IBI ($5.74- $6.26) and instream flow quality ($5.34-6.06). When extrapolated to entire SC, the improvement of each indicator would translate to total benefits ranging between $131 to $165 million annually. The values computed from this study could serve as inputs for the computation of benefit-cost ratios of proposed freshwater programs. By incorporating households' WTP in the policy analysis, decision makers can prioritize programs that offer the greatest public benefit, while enhancing freshwater quality across the state.

Fluvial dynamics are an important aspect of land-use planning as well as ecosystem conservation. Lack of floodplain and flood inundation maps can cause severe implication on land-use planning and development as well as in disaster management. However, flood hazard delineation traditionally involves hydrologic models and uses hydraulic data or historical flooding frequency. This entails intensive data gathering, which leads to extensive amount of cost, time, and complex models, while typically only covers a small portion of the landscape. Therefore, alternative approaches had to be explored. This study explores an alternative approach in delineating flood hazard areas through a straightforward interpolation process while using high-resolution LiDAR-based datasets. The objectives of this study are: (1) to delineate flood hazard areas through a straightforward, nonhydraulic, and interpolation procedure using high-resolution (LiDAR-based) datasets and (2) to determine whether using high-resolution data, coupled with a straightforward interpolation procedure, will yield reliable potential flood hazard maps. Results showed that a straightforward interpolation method using LiDAR-based data produces a reliable potential flood zone map. The resulting map can be used as supplementary information for rapid analysis of the topography which could have implications in area development planning and ecological management and best practices.