Experimental Urban Ecosystems Accounting - improving the decision-support relevance for municipal planning and policy

Informations

Funding country

Norway

Acronym

-

URL

-

Start date

1/1/2016

End date

12/31/2020

Budget

1,223,850 EUR

Fundings

Abstract

Oslo is one of the capitals in Europe that is still growing and transforming rapidly. Greater Oslo has forest remnants and other biodiversity hotspot remnants within the built zone, coastline and islands, active agricultural landscapes and large forest areas with nature reserves within municipal boundaries, providing strong wilderness-rural-urban gradients both within and between Oslo and its neighbouring municipalities. A scoping study carried out in 2015 estimated cultural ecosystem services from green infrastructure in Oslo Municipality alone to be worth billions of Norwegian kroner annually. Despite these high per unit area ecosystem services values, small, fragmented urban ecosystems may not be recognized by ecosystem accounting units designed for national indicators and focusing mostly on natural resources found outside cities. The Office of the Auditor General in Norway has asked for better control and monitoring of loss of urban green infrastructure. The URBAN EEA project demonstrates synergies between experimental ecosystem accounting (EEA) for the national system of economic and environmental accounts (SEEA), and municipal level mapping of urban ecosystems and their services to the population. URBAN EEA is a collaboration between the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), Statistics Norway (SSB) and the Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO). The project reference group includes the Oslo Region, Oslo-Akershus County Governor, and the municipalities of Oslo, Bærum and Ås.