The results are in! Over the past two years, MNAI partnered with a group of 6 communities in 3 provinces to explore how healthy natural assets – such as wetlands, forests, ponds – could help address issues such as increased and severe flooding, the impact of urban development, tourism and its impact on drinking water quantity and quality, sediment, erosion, etc. Understanding what services natural assets provide, the economic value of those services, and how climate change affects them allows local governments to better plan for the future.

These Cohort 2 projects further refined the municipal natural asset methodology that was piloted in Cohort 1, and added additional practical examples to the evidence base for municipal natural asset management. 

The results show that, overall, the methodology piloted with Cohort 1 has proved robust, the Cohort 2 findings have been consistent with the overall findings from Cohort 1, and evidence and experience from 6 new projects are now available to inform additional actions. 

These reports contain the data of the issues, the methodology, the test scenarios, the economic values of the natural assets, the results, and recommendations for solutions. Please click here for the full technical reports and summary reports for each community, the overview report of all six communities, and the news release.