Economic valuation of ecosystem services for policy. A pilot study on green infrastructure in Oslo

This study aims to demonstrate economic valuation of ecosystem services using available data in a pilot study area in Norway. Oslo Municipality was chosen because it provides a number of gra-dients, spatial scales and different levels of spatial resolution in which to discuss urban ecosystem services. The EU FP7 research project OpenNESS and an ongoing collaboration with Oslo Mu-nicipality made it possible to demonstrate a number of value transfer methods. Value transfer is a rapid assessment approach that uses available studies transferred to a new context. The study outlines a framework for evaluating the information requirements of economic valuation of ecosystem services in different decision contexts. We use the framework to discuss information requirements of economic valuation to support different decision-contexts. Ecosystem services valuation and mapping unmotivated by specific decision context risks being both irrelevant and wasteful. In the present study we use value transfer methods for the general purpose of awareness-raising, which can be considered the least demanding in terms of requirements for accuracy and reliability. Valuation for awareness raising is illustrated with 6 different examples, four of which are economic valuation methods: Economic valuation examples: 1. Meta-analysis of willingness-to-pay for green spaces in the built zone 2. Hedonic pricing of green infrastructure in the built zone of Oslo 3. Time use value of Marka peri-urban forest outside the built zone of Oslo 4. Liability value of urban trees in the built zone Non-economic valuation examples: 5. Blue green factor scoring of property in the built zone of Oslo 6. Health impacts of green infrastructure in Oslo as a whole The two methods looking at recreation in green spaces (1) and the peri-urban forest (3) found annual values between one and several billion Norwegian kroner. The value of green spaces in property prices (2) and the liability value of city trees (4) revealed capital values in the range of tens of billions of Norwegian kroner. Despite uncertainty inherent in value transfers we feel confident that nature in Oslo has a total annual value of several billion kroner. This is conservative because we have used lower bound estimates. Furthermore, we know that our examples represent only a fraction of ecosystem ser-vices provided by green infrastructure, in our case mainly cultural ecosystem services. Regulating services remain largely unvalued in this study. Norway, Oslo, urban ecosystem services, policy, Green infrastructure, economic valuation, Decision-support, Norge, Oslo, urbane økosystemtjenester, blågrønn infrastruktur, beslutningsstøtte, politikk, økonomisk verdsetting