The green infrastructure valuation toolkit user guide

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Building natural value for sustainable economic development: the green infrastructure valuation toolkit user guide KEY EVIDENCE AND SOURCES Market Values £35.33 – surface water drainage charge for residential properties £35.33-£58,000 – surface water drainage charge for commercial properties, dependent on area Average cost of additional water storage capacity. United Utilities, 2009/10 www.unitedutilities.com/siteareacharges.htm Figure from water industry evidence base will be strengthened in this area as the results of major upland catchment management schemes begin to emerge. Recent work by EFTEC 31 on upland moorland ecosystem management did not include potential flood risk reduction benefits due to lack of data. Likewise, no data was available on the impact of green infrastructure interventions on drinking water quality, where investment to improve upland blanket bog can reduce peat erosion and colouration. Developing the evidence base is essential. Further research work into the impacts of green infrastructure intervention on attenuation of river flows is needed, for example, to model the impact of tree planting or land restoration. Scientific values/research Evaporation losses by land cover types eg conifers – 550mm- 800mm for 1m annual average rainfall. Benefit transfer values Conversion factors 645kWh / megalitre KNOWLEDGE GAPS Water use by trees, Forestry Commission, April 2005 Average energy use in wastewater treatment (Water UK) 23 Pitt, Learning lessons from the 2007 floods, Cabinet Office 24 Foresight: Future flooding study, 2004 25 Gill, Adapting cities for climate change, ASSCUE, 2006 26 Communities and Local Government, Eco towns planning guidance, 2009 27 Flood and Water Management Act 2010 28 Environment Agency’s flood and coastal erosion risk management appraisal guidance (FCERM-AG): www.environment-agency.gov.uk/research/planning/116705.aspx 29 United Utilities, 2009/10, www.unitedutilities.com/siteareacharges.htm 30 Gill, Adapting cities for climate change, ASSCUE, 2006 31 EFTEC for Natural England, Economic valuation of upland ecosystem services, 2009 A key gap is in relating small-scale interventions – for example the creation of a green roof or new green space – to wider surface water management. Modelling work has been carried out for Manchester showing a 5 per cent reduction in surface water run off from a 10 per cent increase in green cover 30 . It would be helpful to be able to derive a monetary value for this impact (in terms of cost avoidance) and to be able to commoditise this for local schemes. The estimates for the reduction in wastewater treatment costs are solely based on energy savings, not on wider inputs - including other operating costs, chemicals and so on. Estimates also do not take account of the capital costs of providing the sewer network, including the wastewater treatment works. To capture these costs in full, it might be best to use the long run marginal cost* for wastewater treatment, with average values obtained from the water companies. The toolkit does not include any quantification of the benefits of improved water quality resulting from improved catchment management. It is hoped that the 30
Building natural value for sustainable economic development: the green infrastructure valuation toolkit user guide 3 Place and communities Green infrastructure can improve the environment, providing opportunities for recreation, community cohesion, improved visual amenity, and attracting inward investment. Relevant types of green spaces and features – primarily planned urban green infrastructure aimed at enhancing the urban environment, providing a setting for investment and improving quality of life. Green infrastructure types include: amenity greenspace civic squares and spaces allotments community gardens and urban farms parks and public gardens community woodland. WHAT THE EVIDENCE SHOWS Green infrastructure is one of the key components of quality of place, together with other factors such as transport links, the range and mix of homes, services and amenities, the design and upkeep of buildings and streets and so on. Work done on behalf of the Northern Way 32 defines quality of place as ‘...the sum of those factors – culture, local environment, public realm, housing, community safety, access, health – which together make somewhere – whether a town, city or region – an attractive place to live’. Green infrastructure is part of a mix of factors contributing to quality of place helping to position a place or location as economically attractive, and therefore meriting investment. Research conducted by CABE based on statistical analysis of the Best Value Performance Indicators data (2006/07) has shown that there is a strong link between people’s satisfaction with their local parks and open spaces and their satisfaction with their neighbourhood. People do value and use their local green spaces: three out of four people visit a public green space at least once a month – and more than a quarter do so at least three times a week. 33 ECOTEC 34 describe how the debate surrounding green space has evolved rapidly, in part ‘forced in the UK by the emergence of the concept of sustainable communities, with quality of place and quality of life as key drivers of regeneration and economic renewal’. ECOTEC highlighted the case for green infrastructure as a key element of sustainable communities, linking the value that people place upon green space - opportunity for recreation, improved image of place, attractiveness to visitors, increased community cohesion and civic pride - with additional land and property value and desirable business location that well planned, high quality green infrastructure brings. The scale of the impact is likely to vary: additional investment in an already good quality public park may have less impact on quality of place than creating a new local park in an area with little green space. Isolating the contribution of green infrastructure is problematic, as is identifying an indicator or set of indicators which adequately cover all aspects of quality of place – the full range of benefits considered in the toolkit contribute to making green infrastructure one of the quality of place’s key components. Much of the literature focuses on land and property prices as a proxy for quality of place – see section 5, Land and property. Section 9 considers recreation and leisure benefits to people using green space. This chapter focuses on the benefits of green space for community cohesion, and visual amenity. Community cohesion Various surveys have shown that green infrastructure has the ability to bring people together and to promote social cohesion. A 2004 literature review by the Health Council of the Netherlands 35 found three papers addressing the social impact of shared green space. The presence of green space correlated positively with social ties within a neighbourhood. Communal/shared activities such as community gardening and allotments are also seen as a means of improving local neighbourhoods, enhancing community attractions and improving attitudes of residents towards their neighbourhood. Useful studies include: The value of public space, Cabe Space 2005 Greenspaces, better places, Urban Green Spaces Taskforce, 2002 QUANTIFYING Landscape/visual amenity This is the approach used by the toolkit. It is generally expressed as a willingness to pay* for a view, and varies according to landscape type. The simplest tool for valuing landscape and visual amenity is provided in Eftec’s work on valuing the external benefits of undeveloped land - see below. The values provided include a basket of benefits, including recreation. It does not take account of local context - including green space nearby, the quality of the asset, 31
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The green infrastructure valuation toolkit user guide

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