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

2. 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

3. 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. 

5. 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

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

7. 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)

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

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

18. 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

19. 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

20. Questions