Natural capital accounting offers a rigorous framework for tracking change in natural capital assets, such as water, forests, and land, and their interaction with the economy. Objective, standardized, and regular reporting can build an understanding of the linkages between critical natural assets and economic activities, and aid planning for future needs and shocks. A national working group comprised of government, academic, and the private sector experts has compiled integrated accounts for the contiguous U.S. using the U.N. System of Environmental-Economic Accounts frameworks. These efforts have created accounts for water, land, and ecosystems to track the assets, their quality, and their contribution to the economy. The latter, more experimental than land and water accounts, also tracks the flow of services they provide.
Results/Conclusions
Results of the water accounts reveal broad trends in use (decreasing), productivity (i.e., output per unit water input; increasing), and quality (variable for surface water, downward for groundwater). The ecosystem accounts focused on the Southeast U.S., innovating methodology to track ecosystem condition, and ecosystem service supply and use tables for birding, air quality, water filtration, and carbon storage. Data on natural assets are often scattered across agencies, and rarely integrated into a holistic picture. A synthetic accounting can point to areas where assets are critical, but also where they are being sub-optimally allocated. Downward trends point to the need for remedial action. Highlighting where the environment is particularly important for the economy can also emphasize where there are vulnerabilities to future change or shocks. Integrating accounts (water, land, and ecosystems with existing economic accounts) offers a holistic picture of dependencies across nature and the economy.