AWRI helps put a price tag on ecosystems

Research shows the value of natural land in the West Michigan region is worth at least $1.6 billion. That is the minimum total value associated with green infrastructure in the seven-county West Michigan region. The total — representing some, but not all acreage in the region — was carefully estimated using a new tool called INVEST: INtegrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services Tool. The tool is available online for government planners and citizens to view: http://www.invest.wri.gvsu.edu/

Researchers at Grand Valley State University’s Annis Water Resources Institute (AWRI) and the university’s Seidman College of Business, along with colleagues at Michigan State University, developed the tool in cooperation with the West Michigan Strategic Alliance (WMSA) as part of its Green Infrastructure Initiative. People and Land and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation provided funding for the project.

INVEST allows users to see that there are dollar values associated with environmental assets that typically do not go through traditional markets. The estimates can be viewed at the regional or county level for different types of land use, including croplands and orchards, forests and prairies, water and wetlands, or dunes and beaches. Economic values were determined for these land uses by considering the benefits they provide to the human population, which include: producing food, supplying raw materials, providing fish and wildlife habitat, controlling erosion, assimilating waste, filtering and supplying water, cycling nutrients, and providing aesthetic and recreational value. The online tool lets users see the details of how each value was estimated, along with a relative confidence level for each estimate.

“People do not normally associate monetary values to these services because there is no market for them, but we do know that they have value,” said Alan Steinman, AWRI director and principal investigator for this work. “INVEST is designed to provide citizens with a preliminary look at the value of services that nature provides for free.”

Steinman said the tool, and the $1.6 billion aggregated estimate, is a starting point. Steinman and Elaine Sterrett Isely, project manager for INVEST, will be educating city and township planners and others on the use of INVEST and seeking input to make the tool even more useful to government leaders as well as citizens.

“This is an effort by West Michigan to better understand and measure our quality of life,” said Greg Northrup, WMSA president. “We hope the monetary values will help residents realize that maintaining our green infrastructure makes good sense in terms of both our environment and our regional economy.”