Economic Outcoms of Urban Floodplain Restoration

This report was developed in response to the immediate need to better understand and articulate the economic impacts of urban floodplain restoration on tax revenue. The purpose of this project is to investigate the direct financial outcomes of floodplain restoration on local budgets – some of which are often overlooked or have historically been poorly understood.

In urban communities of Puget Sound, river valleys, and their historic floodplains are often the epicenter of competing interests. Decades of floodplain development have replaced complex habitat with industrial, commercial, and residential development. Although there have been ecological improvements implemented upstream that improve habitat
and water quality, these urban rivers often have wide reaches where suitable habitat is not currently available for aquatic species. Meanwhile, due to recent budget cuts and economic uncertainty, communities must be increasingly
strategic about how to invest their limited resources to provide the most benefit to their residents.