Holistic valuation of urban ecosystem services in New York City's Central Park
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2016
Authors
Sutton, P.C.
Anderson, S.J.
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Journal article
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Ecosystem Services, 2016; 19(19):87-91
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Abstract
Central Park is iconic Green Infrastructure that provides myriad ecosystem services to New York City thathave significant economic value.We used the market value of Central Park as developable real estate as aproxy measure of the minimum value of the ecosystem services provided by Central Park. We present$500 billion as a reasonable estimate of the market value of Central Park as developable real estate. Weassume this $500 billion of natural capital converted to money could earn a 5% annual return ($25 Billionper year). This return is an estimate of the value of annual ecosystem services provided by the 341 ha thatconstitute Central Park. This is over $70 million per hectare per year which is orders of magnitude higherthan the estimated value of ecosystem services provided by the most valuable biomes of previous estimates.The very high value of the ecosystem services provided by Central Park result from an interactionof social, natural, human, and built capital. These interactions are poorly addressed from thedominant economic worldview that governs social and environmental policy today. These findings alsosuggest that the ‘up vs. out’ questions associated with sustainable urban development do not have simpleanswers.
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Copyright 2016 Published by Elsevier