While the article mentions that this is valuable for determining how much to offset in terms of ecological value when natural areas are displaced with development. "These values are very much helpful in determining to compensate the amount of green loss due to new development. Suppose, a new mixed development has been proposed in an area which is naturally vegetated and a portion of that vegetation may undergo destruction during development. So we can easily estimate how much LAI we are losing and how we can compensate by planning plantation in the form of vertical gardening, roof gardening and re-plantation.