Environmental Valuation

Replacement value of tree loss in the City of Darwin

The Darwin Living Lab and the City of Darwin have estimated the average replacement cost per hectare of tree cover to be $879,000 dollars (this only includes costs related to trees, not the cost of land). There was 152 hectares of canopy cover loss between 2016-2021. The Darwin Living Lab will continue tracking changes in tree canopy cover to help inform decisions for rebuilding and improving the resilience of Darwin’s urban forest. Contact Dr Ray Marcos-Martinez for more information or read more about it here.

Valuing ecosystem services of urban forests and open spaces: Application of the SEEA framework in Australia

We used the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) framework to investigate the costs and benefits of alternative long-term management strategies for living infrastructure in Canberra, Australia. Spatially explicit data, i-Tree Eco, and benefit transfer methods were used to estimate the stocks and flows ecosystem services benefits of urban forests and irrigated open spaces.

A stochastic whole-of-life benefit-cost analysis was applied to account for uncertainties in data inputs and model estimates. This allowed the estimation of the net benefits of improved living assets management relative to business as usual conditions from 2018 to 2070.

Contact Dr Sorada Tapsuwan for more information or download our report