This is the first iteration of the urban ecosystem account.Īll methods are continually improved upon as the natural capital accounts are developed, so remain in experimental status. This forms part of the UK natural capital accounts being developed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and Office for National Statistics (ONS). This bulletin contains ecosystem accounts for the urban environment in the Great Britain.
Things you need to know about this release The valuable contributions from Eftec and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) for their initial urban accounts scoping study and their extended work on the valuation of noise mitigation and urban cooling are also gratefully acknowledged. We would also like to thank Steve Kingston, Andrew Cooling and colleagues at Ordnance Survey for their hard work on both the extent account and the creation of variables used in a hedonic regression to value ecosystem services provided by natural capital in the urban environment. Such accounts will help support the monitoring of progress under the plan as well as providing evidence and statistics to inform better decision making as envisaged in the plan.
The recently published 25 Year Environment Plan restated the government’s commitment to working with the ONS to develop a full set of natural capital accounts for the UK. For full details about the natural capital accounting project please refer to our website. That study has considered both tram noise and traffic noise within the whole of Dublin City Centre.This publication is produced in partnership with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Recently at ACCON we have utilised our noise mapping capabilities to determine the noise impacts of a new tram line in Dublin. These three dimensional computer models can be used to help develop mitigation strategies and can assist in the design of major developments, roads, railways etc, in an environmentally conscious, sustainable way. Using CadnaA, one of the world’s first integrated air quality and noise models, ACCON is able to build detailed models of factories, roads, railways, airports etc, in order to predict the impacts of a development on noise and air quality. Environmental Impact AssessmentĪCCON are now able to utilise the technology used in their noise maps to help determine environmental impacts for EIA’s or other planning applications.