The Challenges of Valuing Urban Nature: Accounting for Urban Ecosystem Services Within the Framework of a Cost-Benefit Analysis of Nature-Based Investments

Urban nature delivers proven positive effects to people living in cities from a social, environmental and financial perspective. The role of urban nature in contributing to new sustainable urban policies has been recognised as crucial in the planning agenda of most cities across the world. With effective nature-based investments, the benefits of urban nature are highlighted and enhanced. If decision makers’ and stakeholders’ understanding of the importance of the connections between urban nature and human health and wellbeing is to be improved, it is necessary to provide a more correct, explicit, and appropriate framework for valuing natural and non-market goods and services. This study argues for an approach aimed at integrating Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) with Urban Ecosystem Services (UES) to deliver a more effective economic valuation of the net benefits of nature-based investment. We do this by exploring different features of CBA and UES to identify and highlight different money-based valuation methods for putting a price on urban nature.