What is the best way to assess how local people and the economy benefit from street trees?

Summary

Local authorities have a duty to protect trees that are considered to be in the public’s interest, but there are several methodologies for estimating their amenity value. Forest Research conducted a literature and methodological review of three different valuation systems: ‘Capital Asset Value for Amenity Trees’ (CAVAT), Helliwell and i-Tree (originated in the United States).

Key findings

• i-Tree
  Free, non-proprietary, open-source system
  Strong emphasis on assessing economic and environmental annual benefits
  Covers the social and cultural component of value
  Significant advantages of flexibility, detailed output and allowing a wide range of benefits to be assessed, provided data is available
  Meets the needs of small communities and large city metropolitan areas.
• CAVAT
  Considers the value of a tree over its remaining expected lifetime
  Covers social and cultural issues
  Simpler to implement if data is limited
• Helliwell
  Emphasis on visual amenity
  Generates the most variable valuation outcomes
  Best suited to single tree and small-scale community evaluations, but can also handle urban woodlands

Publications

Report – Street tree valuation systems research note

Project summary sheet

Funders and partners

Commissioned and funded by the Forestry Commission

Status

The project was completed in 2008.

Contact

Vadim Saraev