---
title: what an adaptation marketplace lists
canonical_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/what-an-adaptation-marketplace-lists
markdown_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/what-an-adaptation-marketplace-lists.md
subtitle: "the place that lowers the risk, the work, who carries the risk, the evidence and the payor's own unit: six fields per listing"
category: nature-finance
---

# what an adaptation marketplace lists

*the place that lowers the risk, the work, who carries the risk, the evidence and the payor's own unit: six fields per listing*

An **adaptation marketplace** lists places, not risks. Each listing names a piece of risk-reduction work at a named place, the risk it lowers, the party who carries that risk, the evidence that the work happened, and the unit that party would pay by. A city can write its first listings straight from its adaptation plan.

The canopy on the hottest ward, the marsh that takes the surge, the floodplain pocket that holds the storm and the creek buffer that cools the street do their work whether or not a city lists them. A listing is how the parties who carry those risks can find that work and pay toward it before the damage. **Ensurance** is rails a city can use to carry the listings instead of building its own. Neither the listing nor the rails is the worth of the creek.

This post is for the resilience or climate office writing the list, the regional body helping a group of towns write theirs, and the parks department, land trust or community group that does the work on the ground.

:::johnson
**list the place that lowers the risk, not the risk.** A risk has no steward and no address. A ward's canopy, a marsh edge and a creek buffer have both, and a payor can fund them by name.

[see the cross-city heat line that is live today →](/urban-heat.syndicate?from=guide)
:::

## why list the place, not the risk

A risk is a number in someone else's model. Heat risk may show up in a hospital's admissions and a utility's peak; flood risk may show up in an insurer's book and a stormwater budget. A payor's own numbers are the payor's to state, so a city should not restate them for it.

A place is different. It has an address, a steward, and work that can be seen and checked. A city that lists the place says what it knows: here is the ground, here is the work, here is the risk our plan says it holds back. The payor decides what that is worth against its own losses. The listing never claims the payor's avoided loss for it.

Listing the place also keeps the living thing first. A market that lists "heat risk reduction, ward 7" has turned a canopy into a line item. A market that lists the canopy on ward 7 keeps the trees in view.

## the six fields of a listing

Every listing answers the same six questions. A payor should be able to read them in a minute.

| field | what it says | who supplies it |
|---|---|---|
| Place | Where the work is, at a scale the payor can visit: a ward, a marsh edge, a reach of creek, a lot | The city, with the steward |
| Work | What will be done: plant and water street trees, restore a marsh edge, reconnect a floodplain pocket, replant a creek buffer, depave a lot | The steward |
| Risk it lowers | The risk the adaptation plan ties to that place: heat, flood, drought, storm surge | The city, from its plan |
| Who carries that risk | The payor by role: the stormwater utility, the electric utility, the hospital, the insurer, the port, the employer | The city |
| Evidence | How anyone can check the work happened: planting records, survival counts, photos, a monitoring report | The steward, screened by the city |
| Unit | The payor's own unit, used as an example until the payor supplies it: per policy in the area it serves, per peak hour, a reportable partnership line | The payor |

Leave the unit to the payor. A listing that names the payor's role and a plausible unit, clearly marked as an example, is enough to start a conversation. A price on a unit is the payor's to set, not the city's.

## the kinds of place a city lists

These are the kinds of ground an adaptation plan may name. Each theme has a cross-city line on ensurance, and the pages are live. Which of them fits a given place is a question for the line's own page.

| place | risk the plan ties to it | the cross-city line it joins |
|---|---|---|
| Canopy on the hottest ward | Heat | [`urban-heat.syndicate`](/urban-heat.syndicate?from=guide) |
| Floodplain pocket or a depaved lot | Flood, stormwater | [`flood-resilience.syndicate`](/flood-resilience.syndicate?from=guide) |
| Creek buffer | Flood, heat | [`water-cycle.syndicate`](/water-cycle.syndicate?from=guide) |
| Salt marsh or dune | Storm surge | [`coastal-resilience.syndicate`](/coastal-resilience.syndicate?from=guide) |
| Parks and green corridors | Heat, flood, access to green space | [`urban-nature.syndicate`](/urban-nature.syndicate?from=guide) |

That last column is why a city's list does not sit alone. A listing on a city's market sits in the same protocol as these cross-city lines, and an account in any group can hold another's certificates. The links are live; the depth between markets is still early, and nothing here promises a payor from another city.

For cities that have signed C40's Urban Nature Declaration, it gives the list a frame: by 2030, 30 to 40% of city surface as green or blue infrastructure, or 70% of residents within a 15-minute walk or ride of green or blue public space. [Funding your city's nature commitments](/guide/funding-your-citys-nature-commitments?from=guide) covers that commitment; the listings are where it meets a payor.

## others already count what a place does

A listing does not need a price, but it helps to know that public bodies already count this work.

- **FEMA's method.** In its July 2025 green infrastructure values, FEMA counts one urban tree at $1,048.86 a year in 2021 dollars, $910.28 of it heat risk, mostly from the value of a statistical life. That is FEMA's method for a benefit-cost analysis, not a price anyone pays for a tree. It shows a public agency counting what a tree does against a risk. [Who pays for heat resilience by the parcel](/guide/who-pays-for-heat-resilience-by-the-parcel?from=guide) works that through for one city's hottest blocks.
- **Washington, DC.** The District's Stormwater Retention Credit defines one credit as one gallon of retention for one year. Private parties trade at prices they negotiate, between the in-lieu fee as a ceiling and a price lock program as a floor.
- **King County.** The county's Forest Carbon Program lists its own forests for buyers: urban credits under City Forest Credits, rural ones under Verra. The first sale was in November 2020. A county already lists its own places.

If a city wants a value for each place before it lists, [how a city values the nature it already owns](/guide/how-a-city-values-the-nature-it-already-owns?from=guide) is that step. Listing can start without it.

## a worked listing, hypothetical and labelled

Here is how one listing could read for a city that has not yet opened a market. Every name below is hypothetical: nothing is minted, no parcel is underwritten, and no payor has committed.

| field | example |
|---|---|
| Group | A city group such as `.{city}`, recommended, not yet created on ensurance |
| Account | A ward agent such as `ward-7-canopy.{city}`, not yet created on ensurance |
| Place | The street trees and two pocket parks on the ward the city's heat map shows as hottest |
| Work | Plant, water and replace street trees until they establish; shade the two parks |
| Risk it lowers | Heat, as named in the city's adaptation plan |
| Who carries that risk | The hospital that serves the ward; the electric utility that serves its peak |
| Evidence | Planting and survival records each autumn, reported by the parks department |
| Unit | An example only: a reportable partnership line for the hospital; per peak hour for the utility |
| Certificate | A record that a named payor funded this work on this ward, suggested and created after review |

A ward like this would be named in a plan and absent from a market until someone writes it down. That is the first job.

## what a listing is not

A listing is not an underwriting. On this first rung, it says what the work is and who it serves; a parcel is underwritten only later, in public, with the owner's agreement and a valuation behind it. The certificate behind it is not an insurance policy, a catastrophe bond, an offset, an adaptation or resilience credit under any standard, or an investment, and it promises no payor a lower premium or a smaller claim. If the same work already earns a stormwater or forest credit elsewhere, the city should say so on the listing, so nothing is counted twice.

## frequently asked questions

### what is an adaptation marketplace?

A city-run list of risk-reduction work at named places, each tied to the risk it lowers and the party who carries that risk, funded before the damage and recorded in public.

### what goes in an adaptation marketplace listing?

Six fields: the place, the work, the risk it lowers, who carries that risk, the evidence, and the payor's unit.

### can private land be listed?

Only with the owner's agreement. Finding and shortlisting parcels is a later, separate step, done in public without owners' names unless they agree.

### do we need a valuation first?

No. A value per place helps a payor, but a listing can start from the plan and the work.

### who checks the evidence?

The steward reports it, and a city that runs a market would screen it before listing. A payor can ask for more; that is between the payor and the city.

## next step

Pick one place from your adaptation plan and fill in the six fields, leaving the unit as an example. City offices can start from [the governments page](/solutions/governments?from=guide&topic=city-resilience-marketplace), stewards from [the land stewards page](/solutions/land-stewards?from=guide&topic=city-resilience-marketplace), regional bodies from [the regional collaboratives page](/solutions/regional-collaboratives?from=guide&topic=city-resilience-marketplace), or [send us your first listing](/contact?from=guide&topic=city-resilience-marketplace).

## sources

- [FEMA, economic benefit values for green infrastructure](https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/documents/fema_bca_economic-values-green-infrastructure_2025.pdf): the per-tree value and its heat-risk share, 2021 dollars
- [Stormwater Retention Credit trading, DC Department of Energy and Environment](https://doee.dc.gov/src) and [the price lock program FAQ](https://doee.dc.gov/service/faq-src-price-lock-program): the credit unit, the ceiling and the floor
- [Forest Carbon Program, King County](https://kingcounty.gov/en/dept/dnrp/nature-recreation/environment-ecology-conservation/forestry-services/forest-carbon-program): urban and rural credits and the first sale
- [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): the 2030 targets

## the series

1. [how a city runs its own adaptation and resilience marketplace](/guide/how-a-city-runs-its-own-resilience-marketplace?from=guide)
2. **what an adaptation marketplace lists** (you are here)
3. [who pays into a city's resilience market](/guide/who-pays-into-a-city-resilience-market?from=guide)
4. [your city runs the market. the protocol is the rails](/guide/your-city-runs-the-market-the-protocol-is-the-rails?from=guide)
5. [a town joins its region's resilience market](/guide/a-town-joins-its-regions-resilience-market?from=guide)
6. [launch your city's resilience marketplace](/guide/launch-your-citys-resilience-marketplace?from=guide)