Prioritizing Green Infrastructure Investments

FCommunity decision makers are increasingly looking at installing green infrastructure to address stormwater issues. To be able to retrofit private property with such natural stormwater solutions, there needs to be a mechanism that can gain private sector involvement and investment.

One approach is to use an auction system, where landowners learn about the economic value of stormwater best management practices (BMPs) and then participate in an auction to bid on what BMPs they are willing to pay for.

Megan Lewis, AICP, of Cardno JFNew, and Sabina Shaikh of RCF Economic and Financial Consulting, described a project conducted for the City of Valparaiso, Indiana, to help that community prioritize stormwater BMP installation in a specific neighborhood.