Application of Green Net Metropolitan Product to Measure Urban Sustainability: Preliminary Exploration for Chicago Metropolitan Area

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has been increasingly incorporating theconcept of sustainability in its research programs. One facet of this research is the quantitativeassessment of the sustainability of... [ view full abstract ]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has been increasingly incorporating the

concept of sustainability in its research programs. One facet of this research is the quantitative

assessment of the sustainability of urban systems in light of several multidisciplinary

sustainability metrics. In this work, we explore the estimation of economic measure of

sustainability for Chicago Metropolitan Area (CMA) based on Green Net Metropolitan Product

(GNMP), by adapting the economic models of sustainability at the macroeconomic level to

regional sustainability. GNMP aims at amending the limitations of Net Domestic Product (NDP),

a classical indicator of economic wellbeing, which fails to account for the degradation of

environmental and natural resources caused by economic activities. We collect data for

computing GNMP from publicly available secondary sources on variables such as gross

metropolitan product, net income, emissions, solid waste, etc. In estimating GNMP for CMA, we

have accounted for the damage costs associated with pollution emissions based on marginal

damage values obtained from the literature using benefit transfers method. In addition, we

attempt at accounting for the marginal value of depletion of natural resources in the CMA in

terms of water depletion and changes in urban ecosystems such as green spaces. We account for

the marginal damage cost associated with solid waste generation. It is expected the preliminary

results of this exploration serve as guidance for formulating a refined GNMP estimation model

for CMA that could be extended for the sustainability assessment of comparable urban systems

elsewhere.