Contingent valuation of urban public space: A case study of Ljubljanica riverbanks

The article presents an economic valuation of the Ljubljanica riverbanks area, which is an urban cultural landscape with distinct qualities of international importance. For this purpose, we combined a classical contingent valuation with a closed-form version of discrete choice method, where the protest responses have been removed. By using econometric analysis, we obtained the willingness-to-pay (WTP) value and established its determinants. It was ascertained that residents derived more utility from implementation of the targeted development scenario than visitors. Thus, a discriminatory contribution scheme similar to the one with respect to the mean WTP could supply substantial revenue for further targeted development, while still providing ample consumer surplus for both residents and visitors. The present analysis represents one of the method’s very few applications to urban landscape in Central and Eastern European countries.     

淡水养殖系统环境损害成本的条件价值评估——以淀山湖水源保护区为例

水产养殖生态系统为人类提供了巨大的生态服务价值,但也造成一定程度的环境污染。本文利用CVM方法调查了淀山湖区域居民对水产养殖系统环境损害成本的支付意愿。分析结果表明,只有23.5%的居民对解决水产养殖造成的淀山湖生态环境损害存在支付意愿。利用单边界两分式问卷调查发现,对于水产养殖生态系统的环境污染治理的平均支付意愿为15.92元/人·年。据此计算,淀山湖周边三镇水产养殖系统的环境损害成本为每年276.7万元。居民治理水产养殖环境污染的支付意愿受收入、性别等社会经济因素的影响。     

The assessment of land valuation in land consolidation schemes: The need for a new land valuation framework

There are principally two ways for quantifying the land value of parcels in land consolidation schemes. The first approach involves assigning an agronomic value based on soil quality and land productivity represented by a score while the second method determines the market value signified in monetary terms. In Cyprus, the market value is employed, which is defined through an empirical process based on visual inspection of all parcels and hence it constitutes a type of mass land appraisal. This process presents weaknesses regarding time, costs, transparency, accuracy, reliability, consistency and fairness. In addition, the lack of adequate sales transactions in rural areas further complicates the whole process. Consequently, these deficiencies have adverse effects in the preparation of land consolidation plans and cause arguments between landowners and the authorities carrying out each scheme. Although experts are aware of this issue, there is a lack of research investigating land valuation factors and the quality of this traditional process. Therefore, this paper discusses, explores and assesses the land valuation undertaken by the Land Valuation Committee (LVC) in a case study area in Cyprus and proposes a new framework for carrying out this process. The assessment of the current process is undertaken by employing advanced spatial analysis techniques, including multiple regression analysis (MRA) and geographically weighted regression (GWR) within a GIS. Results show that eight out of fourteen land valuation factors related to parcel location characteristics, legal factors, physical attributes and economic conditions are the most significant. In addition, although the basic regression fits are quite good, some of the assumptions required for testing the hypothesis are not met, indicating unreliability and inconsistency in the relationships modelled. Furthermore, the presence of spatial autocorrelation reveals important regional variation in these factors suggesting significant inconsistencies in the valuation policy applied by the LVC. The latter two findings confirm experts’ concerns and suggest the need for a new land valuation framework that is designed to overcome the problems of the current process. The application of this framework and the investigation of various critical relevant issues is the core of ongoing further research.     

Costs and benefits of forest conservation: regional and local comparisons in Eastern Finland

In addition to environmental interests vs. timber production, debates on forest conservation have typically dealt with nationwide vs. local and regional interests. While most previous studies have focused on the nationwide perspective, this paper considers the benefits and costs of existing conservation areas from the regional and local point of view. The non-market benefits of conservation are measured by means of contingent valuation. Unlike most discrete-choice CV studies, we allow for zero willingness to pay. The results of our cost-benefit analysis suggest that the aggregate benefits of conservation clearly exceed the total opportunity costs when viewed from a regional (or nationwide) perspective, but at the local level costs exceed the benefits of conservation. Differences were also found in locally vs. regionally relevant benefits and costs.     

The benefits from public agricultural research in Uruguay

We use newly constructed data to model and measure agricultural productivity growth and the returns to public agricultural research conducted in Uruguay over the period 1961–2010. We pay attention specifically to the role of levy‐based funding under INIA, which was established in 1990. Our results indicate that the creation of INIA was associated with a revitalization of funding for agricultural R&D in Uruguay, which spurred sustained growth in agricultural productivity during the past two decades when productivity growth was stagnating in many other countries. The econometric results were somewhat sensitive to specification choices. The preferred model includes two other variables with common trends, a time‐trend variable and a proxy for private research impacts, as well as a variable representing the stock of public agricultural knowledge that entailed a lag distribution with a peak impact at year 24 of the 25‐year lag. It implies a marginal benefit‐cost ratio of 48.2, using a real discount rate of 5 per cent per annum and a modified internal rate of return of 24 per cent per annum. The benefit‐cost ratio varied significantly across models with different lag structures or that omitted the trend or the private research variable, but across the same models, the modified internal rate of return was very stable, ranging from 23 per cent per annum to 27 per cent per annum. These results suggest that the revitalized investment in research spending under INIA has been very profitable for Uruguay and that a greater rate of investment would have been justified.     

基于CVM的厦门公共休闲环境非使用价值评估

运用条件价值评估法,通过支付意愿调查,对厦门市公共休闲环境的非使用价值进行评估。评估运用SPSS16.0软件,采用卡方χ2和独立性检验技术对支付意愿及支付意愿值的影响因素进行相关分析,结果表明:被调查者的性别职业、文化和职业程度与支付意愿显著相关,而年龄、月收入和是否为厦门市居民等因素与支付意愿相关不显著;职业与支付意愿值显著相关,文化程度、月收入和是否为厦门市居民与支付意愿值极显著相关;2008年,厦门市公共休闲环境的非使用价值为0.65亿元,人均支付意愿中位值为41.5元/a,其中,存在价值为0.17亿元,生态价值为0.26亿元,社会价值为0.22亿元。     

The economic costs of weeds on productive land in New Zealand

Here we review published research on the costs of weeds to New Zealand’s pastoral, arable and forestry sectors, and propose an alternative dynamic approach for future research. The studies reviewed had little in common methodologically, often contained guesswork, or were outdated. Their aggregation resulted in a conservative estimate of the cost of weeds to New Zealand’s agricultural economy of $1658 million (2014 NZD). To address deficiencies in previously used methodologies, a dynamic approach is developed and applied to a case study on giant buttercup in dairy pastures. This approach accounts for probable temporal changes in both the geographic extent of the weed and in producer prices and indicates annuitized costs (over the period 2012–2030) of $166 million, $259 million and $592 million for rates of spread of 144, 60 and 20 years for giant buttercup to invade all dairy regions in New Zealand. Comparing the aggregate cost of all weeds to the three productive sectors estimated from the historical data with these ‘dynamic’ estimates for the one species in dairy pasture, indicates that the historical data provide a substantial underestimate of the true aggregate cost of weeds to New Zealand’s agricultural economy.     

Impact of land fragmentation and non-agricultural labor supply on circulation of agricultural land management rights

This study quantitatively examines the effects of land fragmentation and non-agricultural labor supply on the circulation of agricultural land management rights. The examination is conducted from the perspective of labor heterogeneity and family joint decision-making, using the rural fixed observation point data from the Ministry of Agriculture of the People's Republic of China. The results reveal that land fragmentation significantly affects circulation decisions of agricultural land circulation. Land fragmentation strengthens the effect of non-agricultural labor supply on agricultural land outflow, and this effect is more pronounced among females. Compared with males, the female non-agricultural labor supply has a greater effect on agricultural land circulation. When non-agricultural labor supply increases, the effect of the female non-agricultural labor supply on agricultural land circulation becomes significant, land outflows increase, and land inflows decrease. In the areas of eastern, central, and northeastern China, the female non-agricultural labor supply has a significant impact on agricultural land outflow. Furthermore, the number of land plots strengthens the effect of the non-agricultural labor supply on the outflows of agricultural land in eastern and northeastern China; this effect is more pronounced for females in northeastern China. The government and related departments should strengthen non-agricultural employment training, and design conditions and policies to promote the orderly transfer of household labor, thus achieving intense agricultural development in the process of human urbanization.     

Estimating the economic value of big game habitat production from prescribed fire using a time series approach

This paper demonstrates a time-series production technique to quantify the deer harvest and deer hunting benefits of controlled burns or prescribed fire. The time series regression model showed a statistically significant and positive effect of prescribed fire on deer harvest. The net economic value of the resulting additional deer hunting benefit was estimated using the Contingent Valuation Method at $ 98 per additional deer harvested. The initial deer hunting benefits of an additional 1,000 acres of prescribed burning are between $ 2,674 and $ 3,128 or $ 2-3 per acre. The costs of prescribed burning greatly exceed these benefits, suggesting that deer hunting benefits represent only a small part of the multiple use benefits of prescribed fire.     

水生生物类型自然保护区管理有效性评价指标探析

本文通过查阅国内外保护区管理成效评价相关文献、资料,分析了国际上森林和海洋类型自然保护区评价体系及我国林业、环保部门评价自然保护区管理成效的评价指标。通过问卷调查和实地考察,对我国水生生物类型自然保护区管理现状进行了初步调查,总结归纳了该类型自然保护区的管理特点,提出在选取评价指标时,要突出水生生物类型自然保护区的管理特色、体现保护区间的差异、制定合理的赋值标准、注重科学评价、设定指标权重等建议,为科学评定水生生物类型自然保护区管理成效奠定基础。     

野生动物贸易与野生动物保护

野生动物贸易与野生动物保护之间的冲突是显而易见的,但野生动物贸易如果有效利用也会成为野生动物保护的工具。     

Toward integrated water and agricultural land management: Participatory design of agricultural landscapes

One of the great challenges of developing sustainable water management is to integrate water and land use issues, and to favor stakeholders’ involvement in the process of designing a solution to the specific issues of water basins. This study aims to help reach these objectives: we present the outcomes of a methodology that aims to design, with stakeholders of a watershed facing quantitative water management issues, alternative agricultural landscapes that they each consider as potential solutions. Our design approach combines (1) facilitation of participatory workshops for designing changes in cropping systems and their spatial distributions at the landscape level with (2) formalization of these alternatives in a GIS. The formalized alternatives provide precise information about fields, farms and areas concerned by the designed changes. We present two sample results of this methodology implemented in a 840 km² irrigated landscape located in a water-deficient watershed in southwestern France. We discuss how our design approach may be useful for a wider design-and-assessment methodology involving researchers and stakeholders with conflicting interests. We show that our co-design approach provides fertile ground for the emergence of salient, credible and legitimate change options.     

The influence of valuation practices upon the price of vacant inner city land

Summary

Many earlier studies have provided useful statistical information on the extent of vacant land in British towns and cities, but few have attempted to relate land vacancy to the wider development process. This paper presents recent evidence from Inner Manchester which suggests that valuation practices operate to prevent inner city land prices from falling even in areas of apparent over‐supply. This creates a blockage in the development process. It is shown that asking prices for vacant sites currently on the market are often substantially in excess of the level of prices achieved in recent transactions. As the great waves of compulsory acquisition in Manchester are now over, the statutory rules of valuation do not account for this difference, although historic levels of value have been supported by recent local authority acquisitions by agreement. It is evident that the comparative method of valuation is unable to cope with few transactions or a declining economy, both of which characterize the inner city land market. As a result, inner city land prices appear to be revised downwards only slowly and reluctantly in response to lack of demand or excess supply.     

浅议农用地分等成果在第二次土地调查中的应用

将农用地分等成果应用到第二次土地调查中,可对土地条件调查进行探索;土地数量与土地质量信息的结合,为土地利用总体规划修编、基本农田划定、占补平衡管理、土地开发整理规划、土地整理项目后评价等提供技术支持,进而实现土地数量与质量管理并重.     

Testing for convergent validity between travel cost and contingent valuation estimates of recreation values in the Coorong,Australia*

A number of studies valuing recreation have shown that the travel cost method (TCM) generates higher estimates of value than the contingent valuation method (CVM), even though the latter is commonly associated with potential problems of hypothetical and strategic bias. In this study, both methods have been used to estimate the recreational values associated with the Coorong on the Murray River in south‐eastern Australia. Values per adult visitor per recreation day are estimated with the TCM at $149 and with the CVM at $116. A number of methodological and framing issues to explain these value differences are tested. In summary, while no single methodological or framing issue could be identified that would reconcile the difference between TCM and CVM values, it appears likely that there may be a combination of factors that drive the systematic variations in consumer surplus values. The evidence in this study suggests that the most important of these are likely to be the different decision points underpinning data collection and the consideration of substitute sites, strategic responses and the treatment of uncertain responses within the CVM.     

Risk management in public land development projects: Comparative case study in Finland,and the Netherlands

Public land development is an approach where the public authority acquires land for development, services the land with public infrastructure, and transfers the serviced building plots to private building developers or self-developing end-users. Motivations to use public land development can be divided to planning goal related motivations and financial motivations. In this paper, we study management of public risks related to the use of public land development by analysing case studies located in Finland and the Netherlands, countries known to have strong tradition in public land development. Our findings indicate that, whereas public land development has efficiencies in managing the risks related to the achievement of public planning goals, the management of the financial risks related to the public land development approach can be remarkably difficult even in countries with wide experience in public land development.     

Decomposing the Value of Agricultural Multifunctionality: Combining Contingent Valuation and the Analytical Hierarchy Process

Agricultural multifunctionality is the recognition of the joint exercise of economic, environmental and social functions by this sector. Nevertheless, not all these contributions to society are valued in markets, moreover a large share of them are public goods. For this reason, in order to make this concept of multifunctionality operative for the design of public policies, it is necessary to estimate the social demand of such functions. The objective of this article was to implement an empirical application along these lines. For this purpose, the agricultural system of cereal steppes in Tierra de Campos in Spain is taken as a case study. The economic valuation technique used relies on a combined implementation of contingent valuation and the analytical hierarchy process. The results obtained demonstrate the existence of a significant demand for the different attributes included in the multifunctionality concept, although this demand is heterogeneous and is based on the socioeconomic characteristics of individual persons.     

Mechanization in land preparation and agricultural intensification: The case of rice farming in the Cote d'Ivoire

It is critically important to intensify farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa by disseminating improved agronomic practices and increasing the application of modern inputs. One of the region's problems is that proper land preparation is difficult due to the scarcity of draft animals and the underdevelopment of the tractor rental market. Our analysis of rice production in the Cote d'Ivoire reveals that farmers who use tractors in land preparation more intensively apply fertilizer and use more labor to carefully implement proper agronomic practices, thereby raising productivity. Thus, the diffusion of tractors appears to be key to the intensification of rice farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa.