The City has worked with the Municipal Natural Assets Initiative (MNAI) to create a Natural Asset Inventory. The Inventory was developed to better understand where our natural assets are and what condition they are in. Knowing this will allow the City to make more informed policy and planning decisions; this initial inventory is a first step towards natural asset management. Along with the inventory dashboard, MNAI also prepared a report summarizing the results of the inventory and the associated implications. Click here to view this report.
Click here to learn more about the MNAI and its mission.
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Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of Charlottetown’s Natural Asset Inventory, information and data are subject to uncertainties, inaccuracies,
limitations, and to changes based on future events. As new data is made available or collected the inventory can be updated to represent the natural assets more accurately in Charlottetown.
What are Municipal Natural Assets?
‘Municipal natural assets’ refers to the stocks of natural resources or ecosystems that contribute to the provision of one or more services required for the health, well-being, and long-term sustainability of a community and its residents. (MNAI)
Charlottetown's Natural Assets:
Today, there is a total of 1,719 individual natural assets that are registered in the city of Charlottetown, which are divided into the following asset types:
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Agricultural land
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Forests
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Grassland
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Shrubland
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Water
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Wetland
Why Manage Natural Assets?
By managing natural assets, the City of Charlottetown can maximize the benefits provided by these assets and the ecosystem services they provide. Natural assets have the potential to provide the same services as engineered assets, often at a lower cost (i.e. Stormwater management, improve water and air quality, provide health benefits, etc.)
Four Main Goals of the Natural Asset Inventory
1. To provide baseline information that can be referenced to help recognize the scope of natural assets within the municipal boundaries and/or upon which the community relies.
2.
To improve the accuracy of decision-making.
3.
To better understand – and demonstrate the interconnections between – development, infrastructure planning, land-use decisions, and natural assets.
4.
the inventory will support and guide future partnerships to increase capacity and devote resources to preserve and protect natural assets in areas with the most need and value.
The online dashboard provides graphical representations of Charlottetown’s natural asset data, which allows the user to visualize and gain a better understanding of the data. The online dashboard also allows users to navigate through, organize, and analyze specific data sets. The dashboard is categorized into four different subheadings: (1) Summary, (2) Asset Registry, (3) Condition, and (4) Decomposition.
'Summary'
The
‘summary’ tab maps out Charlottetown’s natural assets and simplifies the data of each asset type per area of land.
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The
Asset Area by Subcatchment is an interactive map that breaks down Charlottetown into subwatershed areas. By toggling between these areas, the data found under opposing windows of this page is altered to match that of the selected area.
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The
Summary of Natural Assets window provides basic data on the type of assets found in a selected area.
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The P
ercent Natural Asset window depicts a gauge that is used to illustrate the percent of natural assets found in each area (natural asset density).
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The
Total Area by Asset Type window is a bar graph that compares the area of each asset type to the total area of said asset.
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The
Natural Asset Map is a non-interactive map that shows a more detailed outline of each asset type throughout the entire city of Charlottetown.
Figure 1. A screenshot of Charlottetown’s Natural Asset Inventory online dashboard – Summary tab.
'Asset Registry'
The
‘Asset registry’ is a complete spreadsheet that details each recorded, individual asset in Charlottetown and displays essential data.
Figure 2. A screenshot of Charlottetown’s Natural Asset Inventory online dashboard – Asset Registry tab.
'Condition'
The ‘Condition’ tab contains 5 charts that describes the overall condition of each natural asset.
Figure 3. A screen shot of Charlottetown’s Natural Asset Inventory online dashboard – Condition tab
The charts in the ‘Condition’ tab represent:
1. City owned asset area (ha) by asset type
2. Percent of natural asset area (ha) by condition rating
3. Summary of natural asset conditions
4. Average land use intensity by asset type
5. Asset area (ha) by cover type
What is a natural asset condition assessment and condition rating?
A natural asset condition assessment provides an understanding of
both the ecological health of natural assets, and the ability of natural assets to
provide services.
Each asset is provided with a condition score based off 40 points (max 10 points per category)
• Road density as low (10), medium (5) or high (1).
• Surface permeability rated as high (10), medium (5), low (1), or nil (0).
• Adjacent intensive land use (0 for intense land uses, otherwise 10).
• Relative asset size where the largest third areas receive (10), (5) for middle third, and (1) point for the lowest third.
The total condition score is then converted into a condition rating scale:
• Good - assets with a score of 30 or higher
• Fair - assets with a score between 20 to 29
• Poor - assets with a score between 10 to 19
• Very Poor - assets with a score lower than 10
'Decomposition'
The ‘decomposition’ tab is a user-friendly flow chart that helps you navigate between assets and presents a summary of asset conditions.
'Risk Assessment and Implications'
Charlottetown’s ecological risks have been assessed in order to maximize the efficiency of managing the municipal natural assets. Each risk is prioritized based on the likelihood of occurrence and impact severity, which both are ranked from low (L), medium (M), and high (H) – as seen in the ‘Risk Matrix’ below. Identifying such risks can help prevent and plan for any loss of Charlottetown’s natural assets.
Figure 4. Results of risk management process.