Understanding the economic value of nature and the services it provides to humanity has become increasingly important. In this paper we review the progress to date on both the necessary conceptual framework and empirical valuation studies required to bolster decision support systems targeted at integrated coastal zone management goals. We first review definitions of ecosystem services. We then highlight and discuss the importance of: spatial explicitness; marginal changes; double-counting; non-linearities; and threshold effects. Finally, using UK case studies on managed coastal realignment, we highlight the usefulness of an ecosystem services sequential decision support system to environmental valuation and policy assessment.