Driving Resilience in the Great Lakes

Accounting for the full range of ecosystem service benefits associated with green infrastructure and other nature-based solutions avoids decisions in which these values are discounted or not valued at all. Monetizing these benefits (when appropriate and feasible to do so) allows for an apples-to-apples comparison of benefits and costs. This helps practitioners and decision-makers understand the tradeoffs or complementarities associated with different ecosystem service benefits and to discern which approach (or combination of approaches) will yield the greatest value for their community.

In many areas, municipal departments must compete for funding with other important community programs. Grant funds from external sources are also often subject to competitive proposal processes. Demonstrating the full value of proposed projects can make them more competitive, particularly if they help to achieve multiple community priorities.

Information on benefits can be used to leverage alternative funding streams from both public and private sources. For example, information on public health and economic development benefits may leverage funding from public agencies that might not otherwise think about funding stormwater projects. Similarly, research related to private sector implementation of green infrastructure shows that property owners and developers would be willing to implement green infrastructure on their property if they knew it would improve their bottom line (e.g., through increased property values, retail sales, and/or rents).