Ecosystem service models are indeed being validated: a response to Pereira et al

James Bullock; Danny Hooftman; John Redhead; Simon Willcock

doi:10.1016/j.geosus.2026.100412

Ecosystem service models are indeed being validated: a response to Pereira et al

James Bullock
, Danny Hooftman
, John Redhead
, Simon Willcock

School of Environmental & Natural Sciences

Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford
Lactuca: Environmental Data Analyses and Modelling, Diemen, The Netherlands

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

In their recent paper Pereira et al. (2025) claim that validation is overlooked in mapping and modelling of ecosystem services. They state that “many studies lack critical evaluation of the results and no validation is provided” and that “the validation step is largely overlooked”. This assertion may have been true several years ago, for example, when Ochoa and Urbina-Cardona (2017) made a similar observation. However, there has been much work on ES model validation over the last decade.

Original language	English
Article number	100412
Number of pages	2
Journal	Geography and Sustainability
Volume	7
Issue number	1
Early online date	10 Jan 2026
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geosus.2026.100412
Publication status	Published - 1 Feb 2026

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1-s2.0-S2666683926000076-mainFinal published version, 258 KBLicence: CC BY

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Ecosystem service models are indeed being validated: a response to Pereira et al

Abstract

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