Green Infrastructure

1
Green Infrastructure The Economic Benefits.

• Martin Moss.
• Natural England.
• Senior Advisor Green Infrastructure Operations
  England.

2
Why is GI of interest to you?

• A view from Cumbria.
• Cumbria GI Investment Strategy March 2014.
• Cumbria LNP GI Thematic Group.
• Green Infrastructure is relevant to you because
  it involves every organisation that has an
  interest in Cumbrias economy, environment and
  people. It provides wide-ranging benefits from
  inward investment, to health and well-being. But
  it requires a co-ordinated approach from those
  organisations to realise its potential.
• Conclusion the benefits of GI are derived from
  working together its a complex game.

3
Green Infrastructure some key points.

• What is this thing called GI?
• Natural systems of infrastructure delivering
  ecosystem services.
• Ecological benefits the Ecological Network.
• Community benefits health and well-being,
  live-able places etc.
• Economic benefits how natural environment helps
  support and deliver economic activity.

4
What do we mean by economic benefits ?

• We can talk about economic benefits in different
  ways.
• From an Economists perspective.
• From a general perspective.

5
An Economist Would Say

• Benefits from environmental features are
  identified through logic chain analysis, or
  theory of change.
• But not all benefits behave the same.

• We can talk of economic value and economic
  impact.

6
Important distinction what sort of economic
benefit is it?
ECONOMIC VALUE ECONOMIC IMPACT
The effect of a change on the happiness and welfare of society, regardless of whether this effect is felt through the market. The effect of a change on the size of the traded economy, commonly measured using GDP
Low impact
High value
7
A more general understanding how do we get them?

• In a non-technical sense economic benefits are
  sometimes described as
• Direct.
• Indirect.
• Cost reduction.
• Risk management.
• Direct cash economy transactions for goods
  and services (requires interaction between green
  and business infrastructure).

• Indirect societal values or supporting
  transactional economy.
• Cost reduction reduction of heating / water
  bills, better resource efficiency (cost to
  profit).
• Risk management eg reduced flood risks (profit
  to cost).

8
The evidence base a bit of advertising.

• Extensive, increasing, multi-disciplinary but
  still early days.
• Many research questions are being identified as
  gaps in understanding become apparent.
• BUT
• Natural England have compiled a broad literature
  review.
• First published in 2012 MEBIE 2 is due to be
  published soon.

• Thorough review of literature on the benefits of
  investment in the natural environment.
• Over 100 new pieces of evidence.
• Simplified format.
• New chapters on
• Consumer Spending,
• Pollination and
• Pest Control.

9
MEBIE 2.

• Three key sections.
• Relating evidence (services) to significant
  themes (Social welfare, economic growth, climate
  change).
• Economic competitiveness.
• Services provided by nature.
• Reflects the fact that interest can be either
  about a specific ecosystem service or broad
  societal interests.

10
Economic Competitiveness.

• Considers
• Consumer spending
• House prices
• Labour productivity
• Regional investment
• Tourism and recreation.

11
Summary of findings (1)
Section Availability of evidence Effect of natural environment
Economic competitiveness Economic competitiveness Economic competitiveness
Consumer spending Average Positive
House prices Good Positive
Labour productivity Poor Unclear
Regional investment Good Positive
Tourism and recreation Good Positive
Key Availability of evidence Poor/Average/Good Ef
fect of natural environment Positive/Negative/Unc
lear Locally negative effects have been
observed for poorly maintained greenspaces, but
on average the effect is positive.
12
Tourism and recreation

• Many tourist and recreational activities are
  heavily driven by the natural environment. The
  economic value of these activities can be
  significant.
• In 2012-13 there were an estimated 2.85 billion
  visits to the natural environment in England.
  Total expenditure was estimated at between 17.6
  and 24.5 billion (Natural England 2013).

13
Labour productivity

• Although plausible, there is a lack of evidence
  to suggest that the natural environment directly
  contributes to improvements in labour
  productivity.
• It may contribute indirectly through improvements
  to worker health.

14
Specific services provided by nature 1.
Section Availability of evidence Effect of natural environment
Ecosystem services Ecosystem services Ecosystem services
Air quality Good Positive
Coastal flood risk management Good Positive
Food, water and other provisions Good Positive
Freshwater flood risk management Good Positive
Global climate regulation Good Positive
Mental health Good Positive
15
Specific services provided by nature 2.
Section Availability of evidence Effect of natural environment
Ecosystem services contd. Ecosystem services contd. Ecosystem services contd.
Noise Average Positive
Pest control Average Positive
Physical activity Good Unclear
Pollination Good Positive
Social cohesion Average Positive
Temperature regulation Good Positive
Water quality Good Positive
Locally negative effects have been observed for
poorly maintained greenspaces.
16
Air quality

• Air pollution poses significant risks to human,
  plant and ecosystem health. Evidence is strong
  that vegetation, particularly trees, can
  contribute to air quality improvements.
• 547 ha. of mixed greenspace within a 10 x 10 km
  square of East London could significantly reduce
  pollution with an estimated effect of two deaths
  and two hospital admissions avoided per year
  (Tiwary, Sinnett et al. 2009).

17
Coastal flood risk management
Alkborough Flats is a managed re-alignment scheme
on the Humber estuary. The sea wall was
deliberately breached to allow flooding of former
farmland. Cost benefit ratio was estimated at
12.72 (Everard 2009)

• Coastal environments such as saltmarshes can
  provide effective flood protection as well as
  biodiversity and recreational benefits

18
How can benefits be assessed ?

• An emerging discipline, still very early days.
• A range of existing toolkits.
• Tend to be either
• Broad ranging but lack robustness.
• Narrow range with higher levels of robustness.
• NE review 2013.
• More work in progress.

• CAVAT Capital Asset Value for Amenity Trees
• Green Infrastructure NorthWest?s Green
  Infrastructure Valuation Toolkit
• Guide to valuing Green Infrastructure from the
  Centre for Neighbourhood Technology Chicago
• Health Economic Assessment Tool for walking and
  cycling (HEAT)
• Helliwell
• i-Tree Design
• i-Tree Eco
• i-Tree Streets, and
• InVEST Integrated Valuation of Environmental
  Services and Tradeoffs.

19
Some tips.

• Results from more than one tool, you may not
  always be able to add the results together
  different units and/or overlaps leading to double
  counting risk.
• Different tools have different purposes use
  should be fit for your purpose - For example,
  CAVAT is designed to help estimate the financial
  compensation for damage to street trees.
  Therefore, it uses the cost of planting and
  maintaining a tree as its economic value. This is
  fit for the tools purpose but it is not fit for
  the purpose of cost benefit analysis.
• Where you feel you are not sure about the
  suitability, process and results of a tool, you
  should get in touch with an appropriate scientist
  and/or economist! The results of a tool are only
  ever as good as the quality of the data you use.

20
Further information.

• Key links
• Available via NE website
• www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/planningdevelopm
  ent/greeninfrastructure

• Micro-Economic evidence for the Benefits of
  Investment in the Environment.
• Green Infrastructure Valuation Tools Assessment.
• Green Infrastructure as a Catalyst for Economic
  Growth.

21
Thank You.