Cultural services
Outdoor recreation
In the Initial and Partial Natural Capital Estimates, ONS estimated the outdoor recreation as a
cultural service provided by the natural environment. Since freshwaters are the subset of natural
environment, the main task is to disentangle the aggregate monetary value of outdoor recreation into
different categories. This is done by identifying the number of recreational visits to UK freshwaters
instead of the natural environment as a whole. Once these visits are identified, employing the same
methodology used (discussed below) in the initial natural capital estimates, the monetary value of
outdoor recreation provided by UK freshwaters could be calculated.