vegetated features in question here. Contingent valuation stud- ies might be more useful, but unfortunately, few have been con- ducted examining the habitat value of urban green space.Thus, the guide does not attempt to provide a framework for valuing this benefit.
Public education The USEPA (2008b) has listed public education as one of its six
stormwater best management practices, further supporting the need for communities to be educated about water conservation and stormwater management. This is particularly important given the public’s lack of understanding about the primary causes of and solutions to water pollution problems. A 2005 report by the National Environmental Education & Training Foundation (NEEFT) came to the following conclusion: “78 percent of the American public does not understand that
runoff from agricultural land, roads, and lawns, is now the most common source of water pollution; and nearly half of Americans (47 percent) believes industry still accounts for most water pollu- tion (NEEFT 2005).” While quantifying and valuing public education is difficult and the guide does not attempt to do this, educating and informing the general public about the efficient use of water resources is a valuable service that can build support for better water manage- ment decisions in the future. It is a vital precursor to achieving
widespread adoption of green infrastructure solutions and realiz- ing the many benefits they offer to communities.
The excerpted sections above illustrate how a person could quantify the benefit of tree planting.The full CNT guide also pro- vides a crucial second step that explains how to assign a dollar value to the quantified benefit. It is important to keep in mind that the field of green infrastruc-
ture and its valuation is still developing, and challenges in assigning value still exist. More research is needed to put a dollar figure on the full range of benefits. Many of the estimates in this guide like- ly undervalue the true worth of green infrastructure benefits.The guide’s Considerations and Limitations section provides a compre- hensive discussion of what the guide can and cannot do. Limitations aside,the guide is a major step forward and allows com- munities for the first time to gain a more complete understanding of the benefits that different infrastructure investments will have for years to come.
The preceding excerpt from The Value of Green Infrastructure: A Guide to Recognizing Its Economic, Social and Environmental Benefits was provided by the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) and American Rivers, and is reprinted here by permission. For more information, visit www.cnt.org or download the full guide at www.cnt.org/repository/gi-values-guide.pdf.
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