http://doi.org/10.7289/V5/TM-NOS-NCCOS-234

"Ecosystem service valuation provides natural resource managers with the ability to place values on natural ecosystems and to more completely assess the costs and benefits of different management alternatives. Healthy coastal ecosystems produce a vast array of services, such as food production, carbon storage, aesthetically pleasing views, water purification, and shoreline stabilization. This study focuses on the ecosystem of coastal habitats (e.g., seagrass beds, marshes, and coastal forests), which operate as natural infrastructure, and can benefit coastal communities, other types of human development, and economic activity by reducing the impacts of coastal hazards. For example, in a given storm event, the presence of marsh can attenuate wave height and flooding impacts, and, in turn, mitigate property damages. This study used the 'damages avoided' method, in which the ameliorating benefits of a natural habitat are measured by using either the value of property protected or the cost of actions taken to avoid damages (i.e. storm surge, flooding, etc.) as a measure of the benefits provided by an ecosystem. Additionally, a second, market-based, method was used to quantify the value of open space preservation (OSP) in terms of its effect on flood insurance premiums. This included insurance premium savings made possible by the preservation of open space through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) Community Rating System (CRS). The area of interest for this project was the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve (JC NERR), which encompasses approximately 115,000 acres in southeastern New Jersey in parts of Atlantic, Burlington, and Ocean Counties"--Executive Summary [doi:10.7289/V5/TM-NOS-NCCOS-234 (https://doi.org/10.7289/V5/TM-NOS-NCCOS-234)]

National Ocean Service (NOS)