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21st Century Water Asset Accounting: Implications Report (WERF Report INFR6R12b)
Citation:
Jowers, K., A. Pickle, AND R. Schmidt. 21st Century Water Asset Accounting: Implications Report (WERF Report INFR6R12b). Water Environment Research Foundation, Alexandria, VA, 2014.
Impact/Purpose:
Benefits: •Develops and pilot tests two potential frameworks for water utilities to account for the benefits provided by green infrastructure. •Describes implications for widespread implementation of those frameworks. •Explores future research needs for changes in green infrastructure accounting practices.
Description:
This project is an important first step towards developing water industry standards and accounting protocols for green infrastructure that could be adopted by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) to promote green infrastructure investment. Green infrastructure, the use of soil, vegetation, and other natural landscape features to manage and treat water, is increasing in popularity as an alternative to traditional “grey” infrastructure for water management. However, challenges arise to the widespread adoption of green infrastructure practices because of the difficulty in evaluating, accounting for, and valuing the benefits of such practices. Current accounting frameworks do not adequately account for the value of these assets, and the absence of appropriate accounting and evaluation tools may limit the ability of utilities to maintain or expand green approaches by discouraging investment. This project developed two potential accounting frameworks to help water utilities assess and account for the ecosystem services provided by green infrastructure. The frameworks were pilot tested at three participating public wastewater and drinking water utilities over a period of five months to assess the benefits and feasibility of implementing national-scale accounting methods for green infrastructure. The results of the pilot tests at the local level were mixed. While the utilities used the frameworks to evaluate and inventory their green infrastructure, none took the additional step of placing values on their green infrastructure assets. The research team found several mechanisms that explain these mixed results: the effects of regulatory vs. non-regulatory drivers, the importance of information flow both to the utilities from outside experts and within municipal government, and the need for standardized methods for assessing and accounting for the services provided by green infrastructure. Pilot test participants indicated that with further refinement of the accounting frameworks and the development of standardized guidance for valuing green infrastructure, national-scale implementation of these accounting frameworks is possible and may lead to increased investment in green infrastructure. This report discusses the implications of larger-scale adoption and future research needs to facilitate green infrastructure accounting practices. [NOTE: The link below connects to a WERF site where the Final Report can be downloaded for free, after registering at the WERF site. For some projects the Executive Summary is available and can be downloaded for free without registering on the WERF site.]
