Abstract
In this study, we develop an economic evaluation of the Boston Harbor Cleanup, a court-mandated action started in 1986, through a comparison of cleanup costs and relevant ecosystem service values. Our results suggest that the ecosystems in the study area provide services to society with a capitalized value ranging from $30 to $100 billion. The $4.7 billion cost of the Boston Harbor Cleanup is about 5%-16% of the total asset value of ecosystem services. Although it is not clear what fraction of the ecosystem value is due to the cleanup, our results suggest that the cost of the cleanup may be justified by our high- or midpoint-estimates of the value of ecosystem services.
Highlights
Ecosystems in Boston Harbor and neighboring areas provide a multitude of services to society
We develop estimates of ecosystem service values for the Boston Harbor area and compare these ecosystem benefits with cleanup costs
The flow of ecosystem service values is converted to an asset value as the sum of discounted annual values over 100 years
Summary
Ecosystems in Boston Harbor and neighboring areas provide a multitude of services to society. We develop estimates of ecosystem service values for the Boston Harbor area and compare these ecosystem benefits with cleanup costs. It is difficult to develop a detailed analysis by documenting changes, before and after the cleanup, in water quality, ecosystem conditions, services they provide, and social benefits associated with these services. This type of assessment typically involves a subset of ecosystem services and cannot capture the full benefits following the cleanup (Fross and KitePowell, 2015). To capture the wide range of ecosystem benefits, we employ an alternative approach following Costanza et al (1997), which estimates ecosystem values based on land covers
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