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Benefit-Cost Analysis

Cultivating Cultural and Environmental Value

Cultivating Cultural and Environmental Value

The City of Kent and South King County are home to immigrant and refugee families from around the world. In response to calls for community space, World Relief Western Washington began developing the Paradise Parking Plots Community Garden in 2016, transforming a frequently flooded parking lot at Hillside Church into a vibrant multi-cultural garden oasis and resilience hub. Earth Economics assessed the ecoystem services benefits and the benefit-cost ratio of the community gardens, which provide gardeners with $127,000 in market value in foods produced each year.

Greater Santa Fe Fireshed: Triple Bottom Line Analysis of Fuel Treatments

Greater Santa Fe Fireshed: Triple Bottom Line Analysis of Fuel Treatments

The Greater Santa Fe Fireshed is an area of forested mountains and foothills directly to the east of the City of Santa Fe, New Mexico, spanning 173 square miles and including a portion of the Santa Fe National Forest, as well as tribal land, residential areas, and County recreation areas. The U.S. Forest Service engaged Earth Economics to conduct an analysis of the social, environmental, and economic benefits that the fireshed provides for the surrounding community, and to explore the impact of the proposed fuel reduction treatment on these benefits. This conservative analysis found that the proposed fuel treatments are estimated to generate between $1.44–$1.67 in benefits for every dollar invested in treatment.

The Natural Value of Meadowdale Beach Park

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The Natural Value of Meadowdale Beach Park

Meadowdale Beach Park is a natural asset that provides a broad range of public benefits to Snohomish County residents.

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Flood Damage in the Skykomish Watershed

Flood Damage in the Skykomish Watershed

Benefit-cost analysis can be used to tie together various stakeholder interests and perspectives in a single comprehensive analysis. Snohomish County and the Sustainable Lands Strategy stakeholders are currently considering several courses of action that address floodplain management in the Lower Skykomish reach. Earth Economics has been asked to provide a holistic benefit-cost analysis framework that incorporates benefits and costs associated with economic, environmental, and social impacts to be used as a decision support tool. A holistic benefit-cost analysis is key to advancing the SLS goals of safeguarding the agricultural sector, restoring and protecting salmon habitat, and reducing flood damage.

 National and Regional Economic Analysis of the Four Lower Snake River Dams

National and Regional Economic Analysis of the Four Lower Snake River Dams

This benefit-cost analysis investigated Southeast Washington's Lower Snake River dams, modeling the regional economic benefits in the form of outdoor recreation expenditures that are expected to accompany a free-flowing river. The dams yield a benefit-cost ration of only 0.15, but a free-flowing Lower Snake River may yield a ratio of over 4.3. In a dam breach scenario, outdoor recreation could generate as much as $500 million in consumer expenditures in the first few years alone.

Evaluating the Costs and Benefits of Floodplain Protection Activities in Waterbury, Vermont and Willsboro, New York, Lake Champlain Basin, U.S.A.

Evaluating the Costs and Benefits of Floodplain Protection Activities in Waterbury, Vermont and Willsboro, New York, Lake Champlain Basin, U.S.A.

This report evaluates the costs and benefits of floodplain protection in Waterbury, Vermont and Willsboro, New York in the Lake Champlain Basin, U.S.A. The primary elements of the project are ecosystem services valuation, buildout/conservation analysis, hydrologic calculations of current existing peak flows and predicted future peak flows, hydraulic modeling of floodplains, building damage simulations due to flooding, and cost-benefit accounting to determine the best form of flood risk reduction for each community. The most economically sound flood risk mitigation plans were found in towns in which damage reductions were high, the loss of tax revenue was low, the cost of mitigation activity was low, and the ecosystem service value was high.