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Flooding and Resilience: Valuing Conservation Investments in a World with Climate Change

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  • Kousky, Carolyn

    (Resources for the Future)

  • Walls, Margaret

    (Resources for the Future)

  • Chu, Ziyan

    (Resources for the Future)

Abstract

Communities in the United States are showing increasing interest in the use of forests, wetlands, and other natural areas to provide protection against extreme events. As the climate changes and such events become more frequent and/or more severe, investments in the conservation of natural areas should become more valuable. But how much more valuable is an open question. In this study, we evaluate the climate resilience benefits of a green infrastructure investment in Missouri: the Meramec Greenway. A buffer of forested lands and other open space, the Meramec Greenway runs along the Meramec River from its confluence with the Mississippi River south of St. Louis into the Ozark uplands. The study builds off of a recent benefit–cost analysis of the Greenway conducted by the authors but evaluates the additional benefits of floodplain conservation that might be provided if floods in the region (a) become more frequent and/or (b) worsen in severity. Results suggest that the benefits of the Greenway in terms of avoided flood damages are greater in both types of climate change scenarios. However, the size of the benefits under current conditions is the more important finding; climate change reinforces the value of the conservation investment but is not the main story.

Suggested Citation

  • Kousky, Carolyn & Walls, Margaret & Chu, Ziyan, 2013. "Flooding and Resilience: Valuing Conservation Investments in a World with Climate Change," RFF Working Paper Series dp-13-38, Resources for the Future.
    • Handle: RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-13-38
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    File URL: http://www.rff.org/RFF/documents/RFF-DP-13-38.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Boyd, James & Epanchin-Niell, Rebecca & Siikamaki, Juha, 2012. "Conservation Return on Investment Analysis: A Review of Results, Methods, and New Directions," RFF Working Paper Series dp-12-01, Resources for the Future.
    2. Lawrence H. Goulder & Roberton C. Williams, 2012. "The Choice Of Discount Rate For Climate Change Policy Evaluation," Climate Change Economics (CCE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 3(04), pages 1-18.
    3. Holly P. Jones & David G. Hole & Erika S. Zavaleta, 2012. "Harnessing nature to help people adapt to climate change," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 2(7), pages 504-509, July.
    4. Kousky, Carolyn & Walls, Margaret, 2014. "Floodplain conservation as a flood mitigation strategy: Examining costs and benefits," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 119-128.
    5. Paul J. Ferraro, 2003. "Assigning priority to environmental policy interventions in a heterogeneous world," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(1), pages 27-43.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    Cited by:

    1. Diana Carolina Del Angel & David Yoskowitz & Matthew Vernon Bilskie & Scott C. Hagen, 2022. "A Socioeconomic Dataset of the Risk Associated with the 1% and 0.2% Return Period Stillwater Flood Elevation under Sea-Level Rise for the Northern Gulf of Mexico," Data, MDPI, vol. 7(6), pages 1-15, May.
    2. Galen Newman & Garett T. Sansom & Siyu Yu & Katie R. Kirsch & Dongying Li & Youjung Kim & Jennifer A. Horney & Gunwoo Kim & Saima Musharrat, 2022. "A Framework for Evaluating the Effects of Green Infrastructure in Mitigating Pollutant Transferal and Flood Events in Sunnyside, Houston, TX," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-16, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    land conservation; extreme weather events; peak discharges; Hazus; avoided flood damages;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • Q57 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Ecological Economics
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects
    • Q25 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Water
    • Q24 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Land

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