EVRI - Environmental valuation reference inventory
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EVRI is a comprehensive storehouse of over 1,700 international studies providing values, methodologies, techniques and theories on environmental valuation. This Canadian-run resource facilitates the worldwide development and promotion of environmental valuation using the benefits transfer approach. Free access is available to all citizens of member countries – Australia, Canada, France, UK and USA.
Key features include:
- a website with state-of-the-art search engines
- a database dedicated to the environmental valuation of various natural assets
- a reference library on benefits transfer theory.
Environmental valuation
Environmental valuation is a specialised field of economics that develops methodologies and techniques to value the environment. It is supported by a rigorous theory of welfare economics. Valuation techniques are used globally to support research, policy d evelopment and regulation. Two broad categories of environmental valuation exist:
- stated preference – asking people directly how much they would be willing to pay for a change in an environmental good or service (contingent valuation and choice modelling studies)
- revealed preference – inferring monetary values by observing market prices associated with environmental assets (e.g. travel cost method and hedonic pricing studies).
Benefits transfer
The benefits transfer approach is a time-saving and cost-effective approach that uses economic values from previous studies and applies them to address current policy challenges. For example, this approach can guide and complement primary valuation research and also help in the design of policy instruments. More specifically, it can provide estimations for cost-benefit analyses and impact assessments, encouraging the internalisation of pollution costs and appreciation of natural capital tradeoffs.
Future developments
- Increasing the number of Australian studies in EVRI.
- Critically evaluating the success of Australia's 2-year EVRI pilot.
- Potentially incorporating DECC's ENVALUE database into the EVRI database.
Signing up is easy and free!
The NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change's (DECC) sponsorship of EVRI allows Australian residents to have free access to this growing database. EVRI is an invaluable resource for economists, researchers, policymakers, consultants, students and others interested in environmental valuation.
To sign up, go to www.evri.ca, select the English site and click on 'apply for a subscription' from the menu on the left. After accepting the licence agreement, fill in your details, noting down your username and password. EVRI will confirm submitted registrations within 1 business day.
| EVRI records by category | |
Environmental asset | Records | |
Water (general) | 702 | |
Animals (general) | 599 | |
Land (general) | 562 | |
Plants | 312 | |
Air | 210 | |
Infrastructure/man-made | 181 | |
As of December 2006 | ||
Information and contact
EVRI encourages information exchange with users regarding suggested studies for capture. EVRI also appreciates advice about emerging issues within environmental valuation and welcomes general feedback. Please visit www.evri.ca.
For information on DECC's involvement contact: David Godden(david.godden@environment.nsw.gov.au).
DEC 2006/518