Valuation challenges of urban green infrastructure

The current article provides an overview of the benefits provided by urban green infrastructure (GI), as well as the application of the concept of total economic value and the relevance of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Afterward, environmental valuation methods that can be used to calculate the benefits in monetary units are presented, highlighting the potential problems or biases. The relevance of cost-based, revealed, and stated preference methods are discussed. It is concluded that several case studies are available, however, the abundance of services provided and differences in measuring the GI services in natural units make monetary valuation ambiguous or challenging. Still, the growing number of people living in urban neighbourhoods makes it more and more expected to measure and valuate the benefits.