Integrating ecosystem services and local government finances into land use planning: A case study from coastal Georgia

This work presents a novel approach to assessing the impact of future growth in rural regions faced with rapid growth. We investigate one of the most rural counties on the eastern coast of the U.S. (McIntosh County, Georgia) from the dual perspective of (1) ecosystem services and (2) costs assumed by local government. As land cover in our focal locality is overwhelmingly forest or wetland, we compiled estimates from multiple sources to map the value per ha/year of (1) timber sales and recreational leases to private landowners and (2) a suite of non-market public amenities: rare species habitat, carbon sequestration, flood control, pollution treatment, water supply, and storm protection. We then quantified, based on county budgets, expenditures and revenues deriving from major land use categories (residential, commercial/industrial, agricultural/open-space). Results indicate that (1) forested wetlands generate relatively little revenue to either private landowners or in taxes to the county from extractive uses, but have very high value relative other land cover types in the provision of ecosystem services, (2) forest lands contribute much more in revenue than they receive in services, whereas residential properties cost more in services, than they generate in revenue, and (3) significant gains in both ecosystem service preservation, hazard reduction, and in lower costs to the county in municipal services could be achieved by restricting new development from within the Federal Insurance Rate Map (FIRM)-determined 500 year floodplain.