Environmental Community Action, Inc. (ECO-Action) helps vulnerable communities in Georgia prevent, confront, and resolve environmental health threats. Collaborating with local universities and others, ECO-Action has been using green infrastructure to address frequent flooding. ECO-Action partnered with Earth Economics to analyze the public economic benefits of the proposed Green Infrastructure Conceptual Plans. Analysis focuses on the stormwater management benefits of 1) greenways, 2) street trees, and 3) cisterns and vaults.
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.
Climate change is disrupting ecosystem services around the world. Recognizing the challenges that climate change poses to watersheds, the Water Utility Climate Alliance (WUCA) aims to enhance climate change research and improve water management decision-making to ensure that water utilities can respond effectively. To help utilities understand how climate change affects critical ecosystem services and how to adapt to predicted climate impacts on those ecosystems, Earth Economics worked with WUCA members to survey utility adaptation needs.
Nature and natural infrastructure are critical assets in strengthening cities’ resilience to a broad range of shocks and stresses.
