The Danube floodplains are shared by several countries and provide a c
omplex ecosystem with various habitats or biotopes. Three of them have
been selected, forests, grasslands and wetlands, which produce servic
es of value to society. Examples of the ecosystem's services are water
purification, biodiversity, flood control, wind protection and food s
upply. In order to make appropriate estimates of these services, ecosy
stem models are needed to describe how these services are produced and
how they are linked to the economies of the countries concerned. Such
models are not currently available. Therefore, this study makes rough
calculations of values by transferring results obtained in other stud
ies to the Danube floodplains. The services subjected to valuation are
provision of input resources, recreation and nutrient purification. T
he estimated total annual value of the existing Danube floodplains amo
unts to ECU 374/ha. The total annual value of the entire actual area o
f Danube floodplains corresponds to ECU 650 million per year. Approxim
ately two-thirds of this value is obtained in Romania. The value of th
e land as a nutrient sink accounts for about one-half of the total val
ue. It should be noted that the calculations are based on several simp
lified assumptions and the results must therefore be interpreted with
caution. (C) 1995 Academic Press Limited