Business Case for Natural Assets in the Region of Peel Presented by: Sakshi Saini and Tatiana Koveshnikova, Credit Valley Conservation May 15, 2018

Outline: Natural Assets in the Region of Peel Background and Rationale for Natural Asset studies Phase I: Municipal Natural Asset Initiative Pilot - completed Pilot scope, approach and objectives Pilot results Phase II: Business Case for Natural Assets - proposed Scope, approach and objectives Deliverables

Key facts about CVC and Region of Peel regional municipality with a population of about 1.4 million Includes City of Mississauga, City of Brampton, and Town of Caledon. Credit Valley Conservation (CVC) one of 36 Conservation Authorities in Ontario watershed-based organisation dedicated to protecting, restoring and managing the natural resources of the Credit River Watershed The Credit River watershed starts near Orangeville, drains the countryside around Hillsburgh, Erin, Acton, the west half of Caledon and Brampton and most of Mississauga. The Credit River empties into Lake Ontario at Port Credit. You can find thousands of natural areas throughout this study area. 

Need for Municipal/Regional Natural Capital Asset Management Built infrastructure is under stress and needs investment Natural assets are under stress Solution? A strategy to conserve and enhance natural capital by measuring and managing it within asset management frameworks and processes This would: Reduce the risk, capital and operating expenses of related built infrastructure (as some natural assets can deliver equivalent services at lower cost/risk) Improve infrastructure climate resiliency Assist in maintaining the desired level of service

Phase I: Municipal Natural Assets Initiative (MNAI) Pilot for the Region of Peel

Municipal Natural Asset Initiative (MNAI) 2/24/2019 Goal: To support municipalities in recognizing, measuring and managing the contribution of natural systems to people and municipal service delivery using municipal asset management processes and frameworks Applying Asset Management Framework to help municipalities to: Reduce risk, capital and operating expenses of related grey infrastructure Increase infrastructure resiliency to climate change Maintain the desired level of service Provide additional benefits to local communities Asset management provides a new and powerful mechanism to measure and manage natural capital in a systematic manner This asset management strategy can support transparent, replicable and evidence-based decision making which identifies investment needs and long-term funding requirements for sustainable service delivery (end point – focus on the delivery of service over time; consistent throughout municipalities – accounting standard practice) Assess: conduct NA inventory Plan: develop a strategy to conserve and enhance natural capital by measuring and managing it within asset and financial management frameworks and processes Implement: implement the strategy Outcomes: Reduced risk, capital and operating expenses of related grey infrastructure (as some natural assets can deliver equivalent services at lower cost/risk)

MNAI Pilot in the Region of Peel: Rationale 2/24/2019 CVC’s expertise and resources: expertise in core areas from hydrology to economic valuation of natural capital extensive database, including GIS, climate, water quality, hydrology and economic valuation data The Region of Peel interest due to: relevance to several key deliverables under the Region’s Climate Change Strategy corporate asset management and state of good repair programs increasing pressures on infrastructure importance of issues related to flood mitigation and water quality and the corresponding benefits to stormwater management infrastructure MNAI team sought proposals from municipalities with leadership and competency in natural capital valuation and municipal asset management

MNAI Pilot in the Region of Peel: Objectives 2/24/2019 To test methodology for producing biophysical and $ metrics for natural assets (NAs) and their stormwater management (SWM) services by: assessing the level and value of SWM services provided by NAs (existing conditions) assessing the impact of climate change on the level and value of these services (climate change scenario) To assess level of effort and resources required to expand the assessment to the Region of Peel To discuss pilot results with partners to determine how these results can be of value to the Region and lower-tier municipalities

MNAI Pilot in the Region of Peel: Approach 2/24/2019 Model existing Natural assets (NA’s) and determine peak flow reduction and water quality control (Total suspended solids reduction) Remove NAs and determine size of stormwater infrastructure required to match flow/ water quality services provided by NA’s under existing drainage area configuration Determine capital cost of required constructed assets to valuate existing NA’s under existing climate and future climate (2065) Open green spaces Forests/Woodlands Wetlands Rainfall depth (mm) Existing Climate 124.5 Climate Change (2065) 132.0

MNAI Pilot in the Region of Peel: Scope 2/24/2019 Size of the Pilot Area Fletcher’s Creek: 45 km2 East Credit: 51 km2 Scope of the Natural Assets Wetlands, Woodlands, Other NAs Scope of the Services Flood Mitigation, Water Quality Natural asset type Sub 13 Sub 5 # of Palustrine wetlands 78 17 # of Isolated wetlands 20 11 # of Riverine wetlands 31 3 # of Woodlands/ Forests 215 55 # of Open green spaces 25 146 Challenges related to the scope of the pilot: Size and scope of the pilot vastly different from the other pilots Compare to Gibsons, BC: Asset: SWM Ponds within one park Size of the asset: 4.5 km2 Service assessed: water storage (Flood Mitigation) MNAI team provides overall guidance and coordination, assistance with data needs (as required) and the economic valuation component, CVC staff responsible for data collection; model set up and calibration; scenario development; data analysis, etc. as well as coordination with the Region of Peel and other partners

Stormwater Quantity Performance of Modeled Natural Assets Natural asset type Sce- nario Asset and drainage area Design storm (100-year return period) Feature Area (Ha) Drainage Area (Ha) Imperviousness Volume in/out (m3) Volume reduction Peak flow reduction Wetland 1: Palustrine EC 1.58 1.98 5% 3,192/2,010 37% 69% CC 3,420/2,210 35% Wetland 2: Isolated EC 1.11 13.9 5% 2,650/0 100% CC 3,012/0 Wetland 3: Riverine EC 12.08 2,643 34% 2,005,050/ 1,980,330 1% 20% CC 2,185,070/ 2,146,980 2% 21% Forest EC 28.74   46.8 5% 57,776/34,602 40% 84% CC 62,207/38,090 39% 83% Open Green Space EC 1.80 30.2 3% 15,361/13,950 9% 26% CC 16,891/15,372 24% EC=Existing Conditions CC=Climate Change

Stormwater Quality Performance of Modeled Natural Assets Natural asset type Scenario   Stormwater quality results SWM capacity required (m3) SWM capacity per unit area (m3/ha) TSS load in/out (kg) TSS load reduction TP load in/out (kg) TP load reduction Wetland 1: Palustrine EC 77.5/ 1.8 98% 0.31/ 0.01 96% 874 246 CC 89.2/ 3.4 0.36/ 0.02 94% 934 262 Wetland 2: Isolated 1,111/ 0 100% 1.68/ 0 5,528 368 (177) 1,273/ 0 1.91/ 0 6,284 419 (201) Wetland 3: Riverine 634,060/ 413,470 35% 1,673/ 1,088 59,190 22 792,080/ 516,567 2,125/ 1,384 63,675 24 Forest 2,659/ 28.6 99% 5.97/ 0.11 26,550 351 3,908/ 173 8.61/ 0.62 93% 29,400 389 Open Green Space 775/ 116.3 85% 2.08/ 0.59 72% 4,020 126 1,444/ 359.4 75% 3.51/ 1.67 53% 4,303 134 Area refers to feature surface area plus drainage area EC=Existing Conditions CC=Climate Change

Scaling: Stormwater storage provided by all natural assets at a subwatershed scale Natural asset type Scenario Total stormwater storage provided by NAs in Subwatershed 13 (m3) Total stormwater storage volume provided by NAs in Subwatershed 5 (m3) Wetland 1: Palustrine EC 123,170 4,600 CC 131,628 4,913 Wetland 2: Isolated 40,180 19,049 45,675 21,654 Wetland 3: Riverine 1,078,920 78,925 1,160,735 84,910 Forest 1,178,870 197,240 1,305,419 218,415 Open Green Space 510,660 775,735 546,613 830,345 EC=Existing Conditions CC=Climate Change

Total value of SWM services provided by natural assets Values of natural assets ($) Sub 13 Sub 5 Total value under existing conditions $514,898,155 $189,088,810 Total value under climate change $560,338,745 $204,025,380 Difference in value $14,936,570 $45,440,590 Assumptions: Capital cost of wet stormwater management pond is $175/m3 of storage Capital cost of an infiltration chamber was used to determine the values of SWM services provided by isolated wetlands. It was assessed at $460/m3

Values of SWM services provided by natural assets Natural asset type Scenario Total value of natural assets (Subs 5 & 13) SWM capacity per unit area Value of SWM services per unit area $ m3/ha $/ha Wetland 1: Palustrine EC 22,359,925 246 43,050 CC 23,894,500 262 45,850 Wetland 2: Isolated 13,061,240 368 (177) 81,213 14,844,200 419 (201) 92,306 Wetland 3: Riverine 202,623,225 22 3,850 217,988,400 24 4,200 Forest 240,821,875 351 61,425 266,669,200 389 68,075 Open Green Space 225,120,700 126 22,050 240,967,825 134 23,450 EC=Existing Conditions CC=Climate Change

Phase II: Business case for Natural assets in the Region of Peel

Inventory/mapping tool for all natural assets in the Region of Peel Applying the approach and the model developed in the pilot to: Assess level and value of SWM services provided by the assets under existing conditions Assess impacts of climate change: level and value of SWM services under the climate change scenario Produce a map that will identify most valuable natural assets in the Region of Peel and will help to prioritise restoration projects

Business case for natural assets Identifying critical NAs in two neighbourhoods (1 urban, 1 rural) Identifying risk and impacts of the NA failure (degradation) on SWM services delivery Identifying impacts and cost of replacing selected NAs with engineered alternative Identifying restoration, enhancement and/or maintenance needs for NAs Identifying and evaluating additional community benefits from restoring NAs Developing interactive model/interface to conduct a life cycle analysis of several natural asset management scenarios (BAU, O&M plan, restoration, replacement with engineered alternative) and to display results

Questions