The Puget Sound Regional Council is roughly the equivalent agency to SRTC for the Puget Sound area. Their Growth Management Policy Board heard a very interesting presentation last week on
the possibility of putting a monetary value on nature to be able to make better regional policy, planning and economic development decisions.
the possibility of putting a monetary value on nature to be able to make better regional policy, planning and economic development decisions.
Earth Economics, a Tacoma-based nonprofit, has designed a valuation tool to assign economic values to services provided by an ecosystem. These services can include tourism, clean water, flood control, food, and more.
So the question was posed to me, how could that factor into the economic value assesment of transportation projects? While I try to wrap my head around that, you can watch the video of the discussion.