---
title: hire a natural asset valuation for your city or town
canonical_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/hire-a-natural-asset-valuation-for-your-city
markdown_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/hire-a-natural-asset-valuation-for-your-city.md
subtitle: "what you get, what it costs, and what it is not"
category: how-to
---

# hire a natural asset valuation for your city or town

*what you get, what it costs, and what it is not*

A **natural capital valuation for cities** (on our services page it is listed as natural capital valuation, and as the regional natural asset analysis for a whole town) answers three questions about the living ground a city or town depends on: what each asset does in a year, what it would cost to secure, and who depends on it. You can build the list yourself. You can run a rough ecosystem service estimate yourself. This post is for when you want the full account done for you, and it says plainly what you get, what it costs, and what it is not.

It is written for a C40 city department with one asset in a capital decision, a GCoM town that wants every asset it depends on valued together, and the regional covenants and city networks that want one method across many members. One thing first: we have not yet delivered a valuation to a C40 city or a GCoM town. If you are first, you help shape the method. Landowners in your town can read [the parcel version](/guide/hire-a-natural-asset-valuation?from=guide).

The creek, the canopy, the floodplain and the aquifer exist whether or not anyone hires a valuation. The account is a tool for the people who budget, plan and fund. It is not the worth of the living thing, and we will not write it as if it were.

:::johnson
**one town, every asset it depends on, one account per asset, yours to keep.** What each one does, what it costs to secure, and who depends on it. The map an adaptation plan or a funding ask is built on.

[ask for a valuation →](/contact?from=guide&topic=city-nature-valuation)
:::

## what you get

Every valuation returns the same readings for each asset, from our RealValue engine, which we have run on real parcels since about 2022. The first four are the ones in the parcel version. The fifth is what makes it a city's account.

| reading | what it is | what it is not |
|---|---|---|
| **Flows** | The yearly value of the work the asset does: water, flood and stormwater, cooling, air, habitat, recreation and the rest, adjusted for its condition | Cash anyone receives |
| **Stocks** | What it would cost to secure the ground that does the work | A sale price or an appraisal |
| **Natural cap rate** | Flows set beside stocks | An investment return |
| **[Value gap](/guide/the-value-gap?from=guide)** | The work the market price does not carry | A claim that the gap is the worth |
| **Who depends on it** | The people, institutions and other ground that rely on the asset, upstream and down | A commitment by any of them to pay |

The last row is what makes it a city's valuation rather than a landowner's. A city does not only want to know what the floodplain does. It wants to know who the floodplain protects, because that list is who to ask when the floodplain needs care. [Your city is upstream and downstream at once](/guide/your-city-is-upstream-and-downstream-at-once?from=guide) explains why we trace both directions.

## what a natural capital valuation for cities includes, by buyer

The ranges below are the public ones on [our services page](/services?from=guide#finance). Each moves inside its range by what the card names (the size of the deal, or the size of the town or region), and the exact number is set when we scope it.

| buyer | what they are deciding | the service | unit | range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A GCoM town or a small region | The risk assessment, the adaptation plan, where to start | **Regional natural asset analysis**: every natural asset the town or region depends on, valued together | One town or region | $10,000–$15,000, by the size of the town or region |
| A city department (parks, stormwater, a climate office) with one decision | One asset in one capital decision: the wetland beside the culvert project, the canopy ward, the creek corridor | **Natural asset valuation** of that asset | One asset or deal | $2,000–$5,000, by the size of the deal |
| A C40 city that wants the citywide picture | Which assets carry which targets, and who benefits | Regional analysis scoped by area | Scoped with you | Not on the public card; set at scoping |
| A water or stormwater utility | The natural assets that already lower its costs | Natural asset valuation of the source or drainage ground | One asset | $2,000–$5,000, by the size of the deal; a whole service area is scoped as a regional analysis |
| A regional covenant, C40 network or national coordinator | One method across many members, so results compare | A cohort of analyses | Per member, agreed up front | Ask us |

Funding the asset is a separate step. The same services page lists an ensurance deployment at $15,000–$50,000, by the size of the town or region, with terms set separately. Nothing in this post is an offer of a certificate or of investment, and the analysis is a complete piece of work on its own.

## what you do with it

**Put it in the capital plan.** The asset's yearly flows and cost to secure, set beside the engineer's estimate for the built option, which you still need.

**Put it in the risk assessment.** Each hazard can point to the natural assets that bear on it, with their flows and who depends on them. Hazard modeling stays with your engineers and climate analysts. See [price what the creek already does](/guide/price-what-the-creek-already-does?from=guide).

**Put it in the grant file.** In the United States, FEMA's benefit-cost toolkit can count ecosystem service benefits, under FEMA's current guidance. The account documents the asset, its condition and its dependents. It does not replace FEMA's toolkit.

**Take it to the dependents.** The utility, the hospital, the county, the town downstream. A list of who depends on an asset, with what it does for them, is the start of a funding conversation. The lines for that work already exist: [urban nature](/urban-nature.syndicate?from=guide), [water cycle](/water-cycle.syndicate?from=guide), [flood resilience](/flood-resilience.syndicate?from=guide) and [urban heat](/urban-heat.syndicate?from=guide).

**Report it.** C40's Urban Nature Declaration asks for annual progress updates. GCoM asks for regular reports. An account updated each year shows whether your green and blue infrastructure is doing more work or less.

## what it is not

**Not an appraisal.** It does not price the land for sale, and it does not replace the appraisal a loan, a tax filing or a court requires.

**Not an audit or an accounting entry.** It does not put the creek on an audited balance sheet. Whether natural assets can be reported there is a matter for the public-sector accounting rules where you are. The account gives your finance office information it can use where the rules allow.

**Not a measurement of every process.** It uses published values per acre per year, adjusted for condition. Those values come from studies done elsewhere, so they carry transfer error. The list of dependents is an analyst's trace, not a modeled serviceshed. Every number is traced to a source and can be challenged. It is an estimate built to be argued with.

**Not the worth.** [A valuation is not the worth](/guide/a-valuation-is-not-the-worth?from=guide). The number exists so a budget can see the asset. It does not say what the asset means to the people who live beside it.

**Not advice.** Nothing in the account is investment, tax, legal, accounting or insurance advice.

## where we are

We have run the engine on real parcels since about 2022, and not yet for a city or town. If you are first, you get the method and the account, we scope your staff's involvement with you, and you help shape how the next city's account is laid out. You keep everything we produce.

## how it works

1. **Tell us the place and the decision.** Which town or which asset, and what you need the number for: a capital plan, a risk assessment, a grant, a funding ask.
2. **We scope it.** What is in, what is out, the unit and the price inside the range.
3. **You share what you have.** Maps, inventories, condition data, the engineering estimate. Your [inventory](/guide/how-to-build-a-natural-asset-inventory?from=guide), if you started one, saves time.
4. **We return the account.** Each asset with its readings and its dependents, in a form your finance office and your council can read.

The timeline, the format of the deliverable, the staff time we need from you, and whether the account is a public record where you are, are all set at scoping. Public bodies often have to publish what they buy; tell us your rules and we will work to them.

## frequently asked questions

### what does a natural asset valuation for a city cost?

On our public rate card, a natural asset valuation of one asset or deal is $2,000–$5,000, by the size of the deal. A regional natural asset analysis, covering every natural asset a town or region depends on, is $10,000–$15,000, by the size of the town or region. A large city is scoped first; its number is not on the public card.

### how is this different from an ecosystem service valuation?

An [ecosystem service valuation](/guide/why-a-city-should-run-an-ecosystem-service-valuation?from=guide) gives you the yearly value of the services. A natural asset valuation adds what it would cost to secure the asset, the ratio between the two, the value gap, and who depends on it.

### can we use it in a FEMA application?

Use it as supporting documentation for the asset, its condition and who depends on it. FEMA's benefit-cost toolkit can count ecosystem service benefits; check FEMA's current guidance, or your state hazard mitigation officer, for what applies to your project.

### do we have to buy anything else?

No. The account is yours to keep and use. If you later want to fund the asset through ensurance, that is a separate decision.

## next steps

Pick the asset or the town. Then [tell us what you are deciding](/contact?from=guide&topic=city-nature-valuation). If you want to see the services and ranges first, they are on [our services page](/services?from=guide#finance). Utilities can start from [the utilities page](/solutions/utilities?from=guide&topic=city-nature-valuation), and governments from [the governments page](/solutions/governments?from=guide&topic=city-nature-valuation).

## sources

- [Rate card on our services page](/services?from=guide#finance): public ranges for the valuation, the regional analysis and the deployment
- [C40 Urban Nature Declaration, city action template](https://www.c40.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/2890_Urban_Nature_Declaration_-_City_Action_Template.original.docx): annual progress updates
- [Global Covenant of Mayors](https://www.globalcovenantofmayors.org/): reporting

## the series

1. [how a city values the nature it already owns](/guide/how-a-city-values-the-nature-it-already-owns?from=guide)
2. [why a city should run an ecosystem service valuation](/guide/why-a-city-should-run-an-ecosystem-service-valuation?from=guide)
3. [how to build a natural asset inventory with the staff you have](/guide/how-to-build-a-natural-asset-inventory?from=guide)
4. [what a city's green space is worth, and what the number is for](/guide/what-a-citys-green-space-is-worth?from=guide)
5. [price what the creek already does](/guide/price-what-the-creek-already-does?from=guide)
6. [your city is upstream and downstream at once](/guide/your-city-is-upstream-and-downstream-at-once?from=guide)
7. **hire a natural asset valuation for your city or town** (you are here)