VALUE Valuing Attractive Landscapes in the Urban Economy

Country: EU Projects
Start Date:   1/1/2009         Duration:          Project Type: Demonstration
Contract Number: 
Organisation Type:  EC Project
Topics: 
Brownfields
Contaminated land-->Cost benefit analysis-->Cost benefit analysis overview
Contaminated land-->Wider impacts / sustainability-->Assessment tools
Contaminated land-->Wider impacts / sustainability-->Environmental
Project objectives:
The VALUE project will deliver and apply economic valuation tools to green infrastructure at the city region scale, capable of handling landscape level value 
impacts. It will build on earlier innovations addressing the site scale. The project will be innovative by achieving the following three key objectives; •demonstrating how cities/regions can target greenspace investments to locations where they will maximise economic benefits; •taking a transnational approach in promoting the competitive benefits of green infrastructure; •establishing a link between the value of city-centre commercial property and its proximity to greenspace. VALUE builds on a previous Interreg IIIB project, Creating a Setting for Investment (CSI), which showed that at the regional scale, high quality landscapes
are key economic drivers. This contrasts markedly with the fine (site) scale at which private developers and land valuers operate. VALUE aims to solve the problem of how should regional and local authorities target their resources to the locations where they will achieve the maximum added
value and return? Previous rigorous economic valuations have so far only demonstrated impacts on residential property around parks. Projects on commercial development
have only shown 'correlations'. Providing open space in cities involves a trade-off with other uses, and can often be seen simplistically as ‘land-take'.
Although it is often argued that high quality designs incorporating greenspaces lead to more valuable office or retail developments, this cannot yet be substantiated.
VALUE therefore aims to establish whether city centre commercial properties near greenspaces are more valuable, further developing robust tests used in
CSI for peri-urban brownfield redevelopments. This project would thus be the first of its kind to demonstrate cause and effect.
Project Summary:
VALUE stands for ‘Valuing Attractive Landscapes in the Urban Economy’ and is a project funded through the European Union Interreg IVB programme for North West 
Europe. The project brings together 9 project partner organisations in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. The Challenge is to establish where to target green infrastructure investments in cities and regions to deliver the greatest economic benefits while ensuring
that high quality green infrastructure is protected and integral to the urban fabric. Prosperous Communities - quality green infrastructure is vital to support strong and prosperous communities throughout North West Europe. This is particularly
important as urban greenspaces are being built on because they are currently seen as less valuable than other land uses. By promoting awareness of the value
of green infrastructure and attractive landscapes VALUE aims to help raise the value of development of quality open spaces and improve social cohesion.
Achieved Objectives:

            
Product Descriptions:

            
Additional Information:

            
Project Resources:
Weblink:
http://www.value-landscapes.eu
Funding Programme(s): 
INTERREG III
Link to Organisations:

Sheffield University
Submitted by: EUGRIS Team Professor Paul Bardos  Who does what?  27/01/2012 14:58:00
Updated by: EUGRIS Team Professor Paul Bardos  Who does what?  27/01/2012 15:26:00