Ecosystem Service Valuation in Metropolitan and Rural Landscapes

Natural ecosystems provide essential services to humans, contributing in many ways to human health and quality of life. Yet because most of these services are external to traditional market economics, they are usually excluded from decision making, and such decisions, e.g. whether or not to convert natural land to other uses, are made without considering the consequences.  The subsequent losses of ecosystem services cause damages that are then difficult and costly to repair. In this talk, we will discuss a Conservation Fund project with the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning to depict the economic value of ecosystem services provided by areas identified in the Chicago Wilderness Green Infrastructure Vision. We will also discuss a project completed in the 13-county Houston-Galveston region to estimate the economic value of local bottomland forest, upland forest, non-tidal wetlands, tidal wetlands, and prairie. Based on feedback from local partners and available scientific literature and data, we estimated economic values of six primary ecosystem services provided by the ecological capital in the Houston-Galveston region: flood control; water purification; groundwater recharge; carbon storage; supporting native flora and fauna; and recreation and ecotourism. We mapped these values spatially to identify which areas were most economically critical, saving counties millions of dollars to replace lost functions; e.g., with water treatment plants and flood retention infrastructure. We hope that such information will lead to increased awareness of decision makers and the public regarding the importance and contribution of healthy landscapes to human health and quality of life.