EAM’s technology and pilot market development initiatives comprise the first comprehensive plan to link ecosystem service quantification and market intelligence. Three intellectual property assets – Real Estate Asset and Liability Map (REALmap and REALmap+), EcoAsset Evaluation System (EAES), and EcoAsset Income Information System (EAIIS) – provide the foundation for the business model.
REALmap and REALmap+ are fundamental visualization and information tools – a necessary basis for understanding the possibilities of property-linked ecosystem services. EAES provides a systematic assessment of the complex interaction of ecosystem services – linking ecosystem service quantification to property specific integrated ecological understanding. EAIIS begins an industry of ecosystem service market intelligence parallel to the healthcare intelligence company IMS Health, the financial market intelligence company Factset Data Research, and the economic impact modeling firm REMI.
EAM will substantially expand its existing Real Estate Asset and Liability Map (REALmap) data and modeling capability. REALmap is a web enabled Geographic Information System (GIS) using an open GIS-compliant technology developed in the Microsoft.NET environment. REALmap was initially developed to deliver environmental, ecological, geographic, and demographic information on urban development, utilities, environmental hazards, air qualities, wetlands, vegetation, water qualities, flood zones, soil qualities and public services in one easily understood Internet application.
The Company has a provisional patent on the underlying technology, the Real Estate Decision Support System - a network based geographic information, data management and analytic system encompassing real estate, environmental, ecological, geographic, and demographic data pertinent to the ecoassets and ecosystem services of any given property. The data was organized to provide insight and analytics for land use decisions. The initial version of REALmap has been successfully applied and improved over the past three years as a decision-support tool in a variety of applications including: property acquisition, residential and commercial development, conservation planning, regional land use planning, and property appraisal. REALmap is being expanded to cover additional ecosystem service categories and more comprehensive analytics – creating REALmap+.
The EcoAsset Evaluation System (EAES) is a prototype integrated model designed to identify and assess the ecosystem services of a property as well as to quantify the changes in ecoassets and ecosystem services that result from land use changes (conservation and agricultural practices, creation of buffers or wetlands, etc.). EAES is comprised of eleven interactive modules: water, wildlife habitat, terrain/soil, vegetation, air, hazards, current land use, adjacent land use, view-shed, aesthetic and off-site impacts, community planning and expectations, and biodiversity. Each module uses established analytical techniques to characterize and quantify ecoasset and ecosystem service conditions. Building off the REALmap+ structure and data, EAES will describe and measure the current ecosystem services (existing conditions) and potential new ecosystem services (from land use and management changes) that can be provided by specific properties under different land use/management regimes. The System will incorporate timely adaptive scientific and technical updates from a scientific/technical advisory group.
For example, the water module will contain land use information and algorithms that will translate various land characteristics (e.g., land use, soil porosity, slope, distance to water bodies) into proximate measures of ecosystem services (aquifer recharge, water run-off and retention, sediment and nutrient flows) which can then be used to evaluate impacts on ultimate measures of water quality and availability (turbidity, biological oxygen demand) and social benefits (clean drinking water, flow control, fish stocks, recreational opportunities) in particular water bodies or ground water sources. The goal is to create systems and databases that translate information from multiple existing sources and integrate them into a single consolidated and geographically indexed decision support tool that will include all eleven interactive modules.
The EcoAsset Income Information System (EAIIS) is a prototype economic valuation model that is designed to identify and quantify the current and potential revenue streams that could be generated from the ecosystem services specified in the EAES. The early version of EAIIS includes an extensive database of conservation-supporting monetization opportunities (e.g.,, USDA conservation programs, private conservation incentive payments, current ecosystem service market prices) providing potential income to landowners. EAIIS will collect and maintain additional data on private and public ecosystem service market transactions, private and governmental conservation incentive payments, environmental impact reports as they relate to pricing ecosystem services, ecosystem service shadow price studies, conservation appraisals/transactions, forest product industry financial data, water pricing data, farm and forest land transactions, agricultural product market and pricing data. EAIIS will incorporate analytic tools to correlate pricing indicators, provide market intelligence, and track historical trends in valuation and pricing of ecosystem services.
REALmap+ together with EAES and EAIIS form the core decision support technologies (See Appendix for an overview of ecosystem service technologies by others) and give the Company a unique advantage and intellectual property.