Abstract:
On a national and regional level there have been significant substantive research and reports on natural infrastructure and the value of investing in it. This project is the initial scoping phase for a state-based or regional “Natural Infrastructure Investment Programâ€, concentrating initially on compensating forestland owners for conserving and managing forestland for a range of water services (quality, supplies, stormwater management). The project seeks to 1) build the case and develop a white paper for the New Hampshire legislature on the value of and opportunities for investment in natural infrastructure; 2) determine the feasibility of an investment mechanism(s) in natural infrastructure so that forestland protection can be integrated as a component of water supply, quality and stormwater management strategies; 3) determine feasibility and mechanisms to pay forestland owners for conserving/managing forestland for water supplies/quality and stormwater management; and 4) determine if there are institutional barriers that would impede implementation of a natural infrastructure investment program. While the focus at this phase will be at a state scale and specifically on New Hampshire, many of the ideas and approaches may be relevant and apply to other states and, potentially, at regional scales.
Additional work includes collaboration with the Harvard Forest’s Scenarios Project to determine how the Scenarios modeling and other information could be used to identify conservation priorities, and forest land use and management strategies to protect significant water services, and where to target such activities.
