decisions to be made. One of the first tasks in the project was to raise awareness about the importance of urban ecosystems. The team applied different economic valuation methods in order to demonstrate the value of urban ecosystems and the services they provide. According to a report co-authored by


Barton and Reinvang published in February 2015, green space in Oslo is worth billions. This rapid appraisal employed six ‘value transfer methods’, which illustrate tangible relationships between the city’s green and blue spaces, and connected them with the economics of citizens’ welfare. Four of these were financial considerations, and two concentrated on qualitative improvements facilitated by green spaces. “Valuation techniques look at ways of mapping what’s important for residents in parks, green spaces, bodies of water, rivers and the forest encircling the city,” explains Barton. “Oslo is surrounded by the sizeable “Marka” peri- urban forest and the Oslofjord coastline. Oslo’s geographical centre is actually in the forest.” The


study considers consumers’


willingness to pay for urban green spaces, the importance of green infrastructure in property prices,


time-use values of the


forest when exploited as a recreational space, and the natural capital value of the over 700,000 trees located within built areas in the city. “We’ve found that recreation, which represents one of the biggest cultural


ecosystem services in Oslo, is probably valued close to €1bn per year,” reveals Barton. According to the researchers’ estimates, the city’s residents spend more than 70 million hours in the peri-urban forest per annum. These experiences can be valued by calculating what users’ time is actually worth, in salaried terms, or through comparison to what access to a comparable facility, like a gym, would cost during these periods. Nature also enhances property prices,


according to the project’s findings. By analysing apartments sold in Oslo over the last decade, and comparing the prices and characteristics of the properties themselves — particularly their proximity to nature and views of it — the Norwegian team


determined that such attributes significantly upped their values.


“After


computing all of these statistics, we found that being near parks and cemeteries, or offering seaside and forest views, actually has a significant impact on the cost of an apartment,” says Barton. “We then took the estimates from our sample of about ten thousand flats sold, and extrapolated them to all the flats in Oslo to obtain an approximate valuation.” Proximity to blue-green spaces may have a capital value in apartment prices in the order of €2bn. Whilst conceding that their preliminary


“We’ve found that recreation, which represents one of the biggest cultural ecosystem services in Oslo, is probably valued close to €1bn per year”


calculations are approximations, Barton contends that their fundamental premises are nonetheless valid and compelling. Once refined, he believes, such techniques can help to form credible economic cases for conservation in a dynamic period of urban expansion. “Valuation of ecosystem services is quite a new field in Norway,” he explains. Nevertheless, the Norwegian government was one of the main co- sponsors of The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) project. Recently, an official Norwegian report affirmed that ecosystem services is a useful concept among several other types of values for raising public awareness about nature. After a rapid appraisal aimed at raising


awareness, more targeted valuation studies are needed for decision support. Qualitative ecosystem functions such as the health impact of green spaces are far


©Photo: Terje Laskemoen, Agency of Urban Environment, City of Oslo 36 Insight Publishers | Projects


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