The ecosystem services (ES) matrix is used to assess the potential supply of ES of agroecosystems following an expert-based qualitative evaluation. Essentially, the ES matrix presents the grassland and arable land classes on the rows (see Viva Grass basemap) and the ES under evaluation on the columns. Once the matrix is constructed, the experts evaluate the potential supply of ES on a qualitative scale from 0 to 5 scale, where 0 represents no relevant supply of ES and 5 represents very high supply of ES. The valuation of ES potential supply was structured as a two-step iterative process: in the first step, experts individually scored the provision of ES by the land class whereas in the second step experts came to an agreement on the ES supply values in a series of focus group discussions (FGDs). During FDGs, each expert contrasts his answers with the rest of the group and has the opportunity to re-score the ES. The matrix provided to the experts for the valuation, included not only the grassland types and ES, but also one biophysical indicator per ecosystem service in order to help build a common understanding of the ES under assessment.
Once the ES values have been assigned to the land classes in the matrix, they can be easily transferred to the Viva Grass basemap, allowing further spatial calculations.
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