The District of Saanich (Saanich) is leveling-up in natural asset management (NAM) with the completion of their first natural asset inventory!
The project includes a valuation showing that even a very narrow look at services provided by natural assets demonstrates a minimum value of between $21 – $125 million in annual public benefits; and the development of initial levels of service that can be used to track natural asset management efforts.
Saanich gratefully acknowledges the funding support for this project provided by the Government of Canada through the Union of BC Municipalities from the Strategic Priorities Fund program under the Canada Community-Building Fund.
“This project makes significant strides in advancing the Canada Community-Building Fund’s national goals by deepening our understanding and management of natural assets,” said the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources and Member of Parliament for North Vancouver, on behalf of the Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities. “The inventory highlights how natural assets support vital community services, drive economic productivity, and promote a clean environment, aligning with Saanich’s long-term sustainability goals and climate resilience efforts. By incorporating natural asset management into their strategic planning, Saanich sets a strong example for other municipalities and encourages collaboration with First Nations and across jurisdictions.”
“The Saanich Inventory Project will help the Saanich community manage its natural resources and address challenges such as flooding and stormwater, ensuring the integrity of the services people depend on,” said Anne Kang, Minister of Municipal Affairs. “I’m pleased with the cross-government collaboration that helps communities like the District of Saanich use the CCBF effectively and allows for long-term investments that improve planning and support the sustainability and resilience of the region’s ecosystem.”
Part of the Capital Regional District in southern Vancouver Island, Saanich boasts a diverse natural landscape of marine shorelines, freshwater lakes, creeks, wetlands, forests and meadows.
Saanich has already taken steps to recognize the importance of nature and ecosystem services in their Official Community Plan. Now, armed with the results of their natural asset inventory project with NAI, Saanich can begin developing its Natural Asset Management Plan, the next step in the municipality’s Asset Management Strategy.
“Expanding our ability to manage natural assets is crucial to the sustainable delivery of services to our community, such as biodiversity conservation, climate resilience, recreation and stormwater management,” says District of Saanich Mayor Dean Murdock. “This project is a significant step towards our goal of creating a comprehensive Natural Asset Management Plan to protect and enhance the natural systems that we all value and depend on.” The project connects to Saanich’s various strategic plans, including the Climate Plan, Urban Forest Strategy, and Biodiversity Conservation Strategy. This holistic approach ensures that the inventory not only catalogs natural assets but also aligns with broader environmental and sustainability goals.
Results from the Natural Asset Inventory
In addition to the inventory, which includes preliminary condition and risk assessments, the final report also provides an overview of potential levels of service and recommendations to advance NAM in Saanich.
Highlights:
- 10,846 individual natural assets, covering 6,375 hectares (ha), were mapped, including agricultural land, non-forested areas, marine shoreline, riparian areas, natural forest, waterbodies, and wetlands. Also mapped were 378,000 individual trees found outside natural forested areas, and 142 km of watercourses.
- A preliminary desktop condition assessment was completed for many of the mapped assets using a suite of condition indicators consistent with the CSA standard specification for natural asset inventories, CSA W218:23.
- A preliminary risk assessment identified hazards to Saanich’s natural assets and grouped them into 3 primary drivers: climate change, development pressure and lack of capacity. Then each hazard was assessed based on the likelihood of it occurring, and the impact if it occurs, and ten hazards were identified as high risks.
- Saanich’s natural assets provide a minimum of between $21 – $125 million per year in public benefits across a range of municipal services and co-benefits, and the estimated replacement value is between $1.2 and $8.7 billion (see graphic below).
Valuing Restoration Over Replacement
While NAM is about much more than attempting to assign a value to (inherently priceless) ecosystems, recognizing service values can be helpful in stressing the importance of natural assets in overall infrastructure decision-making.
As evident in the graphic above, two approaches were used to provide preliminary values for natural asset services in the District of Saanich: annual service value ($/year) and replacement value ($).
Replacement value represents the cost of replacing levels of service provided by natural assets with engineered infrastructure—including solutions like low-impact development (LID)—or the cost of restoring natural assets to their optimal natural functioning.
In the case of this project, the replacement value estimates are based on the cost to restore because the detailed modeling required to assess the cost of replacing natural assets with engineered infrastructure is not yet available.
Saanich Part of NAM Surge Among South Island Local Governments
Saanich’s efforts are part of an uptick of interest in natural asset management on Southern Vancouver Island. For example, the City of Colwood has completed an initial natural assets inventory; and the City of Victoria completed a Climate Leadership Plan that underscores the importance of natural asset management in supporting resilience to climate resilience.
