Planning Green Spaces Investments for Improving Health and Well-Being in Cities Through Valuing Urban Nature

Fundamental goals of urban green spaces investment and management are to provide natural features and man-made facilities and amenities that offer people satisfying leisure activities and nature experience by providing near-natural habitats and protecting biodiversity. The concept of human well-being is now attracting increasing attention in environmental science, policy, and management due to the inclusion of people and human societies in definitions of ecosystem. To improve human health and well-being, it requires that planners and policy makers generate a better understanding of the benefits provided by Ecosystem Services. A correct, explicit, and appropriate method for valuing natural and non-market goods and services is necessary. Within the current paper, the focus is to generate an overall understanding of identifying ways of measuring Ecosystem Services provided by urban nature in the context of Cost-Benefit Analysis. It looks at their different evaluation measures and focuses to address the limitations and the challenges.