Our 2,000-mile canal network plays a vital role in supporting water security, generating renewable energy, regulating urban temperatures, sequestering carbon and enhancing air quality. It also provides accessible spaces for recreation, contributes to physical and mental health and wellbeing, and creates opportunities for education, volunteering and community engagement. Together, these services demonstrate the key role of the canal network as nationally important infrastructure.
This report provides a systematic and consistent framework to measure the value of the natural assets that we manage and are responsible for through a natural capital account baseline, for the year 2023. This publication presents an initial application of that framework.
