Sustainable valuation of land for development. Adding value with urban planning progress. A Spanish case study

This article presents a valuation model of land for development in a sustainable way, based on the design and execution of urban planning. Using this method, one can obtain, at any given point in time, the added value progress of the urbanization process. For each year during the plan’s execution, the value of land has been estimated. The free cash-flow method was applied in order to estimate the land valuation of any given year. From the estimate for each of those years, and using regression analysis, the most suited value added function was obtained, for the increase of value across time up to the point of finalized, fully urbanized land. The results show that this is an exponential growth function, such that during the initial years the progress of valuation is slow, but it accentuates during final years of execution as the land becomes urbanized, at which point the land achieves maximum value.     

Consumer Demand for Genetically Modified Rice in Urban China

We investigate consumer demand for genetically modified (GM) rice in urban China, using a relatively large survey of urban consumers in 2013 and the contingent valuation method. Our results show that respondents discount their WTP for first, second and third generation of GM rice by 31%, 34% and 36%, respectively, compared with non‐GM rice, indicating substantial aversion to GM rice by Chinese consumers. The level of consumers’ subjective knowledge of GM rice has a significantly negative impact on their WTP for GM rice, implying that GM rice in China has become a ‘special food’ with an unreliable image.     

基于CVM不同支付方式的耕地保护外部性测度及其差异性分析

[目的]支付方式的科学设置对CVM在耕地保护外部性评估中的应用具有重要意义。文章基于CVM不同支付方式视角,以焦作市耕地保护外部性测度为例,剖析不同支付方式的耕地保护外部性测度结果的差异性。[方法]采用支付卡式CVM。[结果](1)"出钱"、"义务劳动"、"出钱和义务劳动"不同支付方式下的年户均耕地保护支付意愿(WTP)差异性是产生单位面积耕地保护外部性差异的根本原因;(2)居民家庭收入水平、文化程度、与耕地的关联程度、耕地生态社会效益认知程度、可支配的闲暇时间、劳动力成本及农产品成本收益等是造成不同支付方式的城镇居民和农户耕地保护WTP差异的主要影响因素。[结论]通过与基于单边界二分式的焦作市耕地保护居民WTP测度结果对比表明,在科学设置支付区间和假想市场情景、合理进行假想偏差规避下,基于支付卡式综合计算整理的"出钱和义务劳动"方式的居民耕地保护支付意愿和单位面积耕地保护外部性测度结果具有较高的可靠性。研究最终选取"出钱和义务劳动"方式下的1 624.9元/(hm~2·年)作为焦作市单位面积耕地保护外部性测度结果,该结果可作为现实条件下耕地保护经济补偿标准的理论参考依据。     

Valuing Australian botanic collections: a combined travel‐cost and contingent valuation study*

Economic values of biological collections in three Australian botanic gardens in Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney were estimated using the travel‐cost method (TCM) and the contingent valuation method (CVM). The TCM component of the study produced average per‐trip consumer surplus (CS) values of $39 and $18 for single‐ and multiple‐site visitors, respectively, for each botanic garden, resulting in an estimate of approximately $194 million for the total social welfare generated by trips to the three sites. Marginal willingness to pay (WTP) for access to botanic gardens was also investigated through payment vehicles of entry fees or higher parking charges using the CVM component. The analysis revealed a positive mean WTP of between $3 and $5 per trip per person. The difference between the CVM and TCM results reflect the different underlying concepts of value under investigation: average CS per visit for the TCM and the utility arising from a marginal visit for the CVM. Marginal changes in CS from the TCM were derived. The confidence intervals from the TCM marginal values overlap the WTP estimates from the CVM. These findings will be useful for resource management decisions in the botanic gardens collection in Australia.     

The visual impact of agricultural sheds on rural landscapes: The willingness to pay for mitigation solutions and treatment effects

New rural and industrial sheds cause significant transformations determining a negative change in landscape perception. In this paper the willingness to pay (WTP) of residents to mitigate the visual impact of sheds in the rural areas of the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont: Langhe-Roero and Monferrato” is estimated through a Choice Experiment (CE). The CE survey was carried out through face-to-face interviews involving 400 residents. The set of mitigation attributes was selected by means of a landscape analysis and presented to respondents using a set of images (close and distant views). Conditional Logit (CLogit) and Mixed Logit (MXL) models both in preference and in WTP space were estimated. From the empirical point of view, the study shows that sheds are generally perceived as negative landscape elements, and that residents are willing to pay for mitigation solutions, such as tree lines and formal hedgerows. The results are relevant for policy makers since they suggest how agricultural sheds are perceived and which mitigation strategies are preferred by local residents. From the methodological point of view, we estimate and test different models for assessing the effect of the visual treatment (close vs distant view). We show the theoretical equivalence of a fully interacted model (i.e., estimated on the whole sample and including interaction terms with the treatment), with split models of the choice for separate subsamples submitted or not to the treatment. We find that in estimation the equivalence holds in the results of Conditional Logit models, but not in Mixed Logit models. The reasons and implications are discussed.     

Valuing the benefits of an urban park project: A contingent valuation study in Thessaloniki,Greece

This paper aims to estimate the non-market benefits derived from the potential development of a new urban park in the city of Thessaloniki (Greece). The city of Thessaloniki has up to now a very low rate of proportional green space per capita. On this context a large metropolitan park was announced, as part of a large-scale redevelopment project, but the final decision has not been made yet. In order to help policy makers to their final decision, an ex-ante valuation of the potential benefits of the park is carried out in this study. A contingent valuation survey was designed and implemented aiming to estimate the willingness to pay of local residents for the provision of this park, as well as to determine the spatial scale at which these values are assessed. The main finding of this study is that people living within 20 min from the reference site are willing to contribute a significant amount of money to support this project. Another interesting outcome is that the willingness to pay for this project was not considerably modified during a period of economic recession (2010–2013), which is mainly due to the growing public awareness of the importance of green spaces, as well as of the benefits of the planned park.     

The effects of growth,shrinkage, population aging and preference shifts on urban development—A spatial scenario analysis of Berlin,Germany

We observe diverse urban development trends in European cities, with processes such as population aging, growth, shrinkage, and reurbanization having unclear consequences on land use and the urban form. The effects of these processes are especially difficult to determine when they occur quickly and simultaneously. We use varying scenarios of contrasting and exceeding variants of these urban development trends to uncover possible interactions by focusing on demographic and residential preference shifts that were simulated in a previously presented land use model (Lauf et al., 2012). Using urban form indicators and landscape metrics, we determine urban to peri-urban effects. Among other interesting results, we discovered that population aging expedited by population shrinkage greatly affects land consumption. This effect is especially pronounced in the outer city due to the residential preferences of elderly people and thereby reduces urban shrinkage. In contrast, a shift in preferences toward reurbanization reduces land consumption significantly. Population aging produces synergies in terms of urban growth and landscape fragmentation and trade-offs in terms of urban shrinkage and compactness, and the opposite holds for increasing reurbanization.     

Willingness to Pay and QALYs: What Can We Learn about Valuing Foodborne Risk?

This paper examines the value of reducing foodborne risk. Previous research on the valuation of health risk has been dominated by the study of mortality risk. However, in most cases foodborne illnesses are non‐fatal, so we focus on individuals' preferences for reducing morbidity risk, while also including a realistic, if remote, chance of death. We use a contingent valuation method on a Swedish sample and we estimate a value of a statistical illness consistent with previous findings in the literature. We also examine how willingness to pay (WTP) varies with the expected change in quality‐adjusted life years (QALYs) and estimate the WTP per QALY. We find that WTP increases with, though less than proportionally to, a change in QALYs. However, our results also suggest that respondents may have found it difficult to evaluate compound risks of both morbidity and mortality simultaneously.     

Into the urban wild: Collection of wild urban plants for food and medicine in Kampala,Uganda

In sub-Saharan Africa, many people depend on natural resources for their livelihoods. While urbanisation causes landscape changes, little is known of how this process affects the use of wild plant resources by urban populations. This study contributes to addressing this knowledge gap by exploring the prevalence and determinants of urban collectors of wild plants in Kampala, Uganda. During February to August 2015, 93 structured interviews were conducted in inner, outer, and peri-urban areas of the city. The findings in this study show that urban wild plants are used by almost half (47%) of the respondents, mainly for medicinal purposes but also as a complement to diets. The findings further indicate that residents with lower income, of younger age (<51 years old), and predominantly living in peri-urban areas are more likely to be urban collectors. Seasonality appears to be of greater importance in collection of food plants than of medicinal plants. Overall, these findings indicate that wild plants occupy an important role in the livelihoods and traditions of Kampala’s residents, and we argue that this should be taken into account in urban planning projects.     

Urban parks: Visitors’ perceptions versus spatial indicators

Urban green spaces and their role in the quality of life of residents have been studied across multiple disciplines, based on empirical measurements or qualitative studies – however, the relation, and its strength, between spatial indicators of urban green spaces and visitors’ perceptions of green spaces are less known. Addressing this knowledge deficit, the present research uses a Geographical Information System (GIS) to link subjective evaluations of the physical environment and objective spatial indicators, to examine the correlation between the perceived and objective characteristics of five urban parks in the city of Szeged, Hungary. A questionnaire survey was used to collect residents’ subjective perceptions of the parks, while objective – which is to say measurable and mappable – spatially explicit indicators of the respective green spaces were calculated using GIS. The subjective evaluations of the parks were matched to the objective indicators using a multiple regression analysis. The statistical analysis yielded two moderate and two minor correlations between the human perceptions of the investigated green spaces and the nine objective environmental indicators examined. These results showed that subjective evaluations and objective data reveal different aspects of the same reality. Therefore, the recommendations from this study are to collectively use human perceptions and objective environmental indicators, both of which are fundamental for adequately capturing the role of urban green spaces in quality of life.     

Choice experiment,multiple programmes contingent valuation and landscape preferences: How can we support the land use decision making process?

The promotion of cost–benefit analysis for social and environmental policy choices is much debated. Then, the conception of a valuation method for the non-market benefit of these policies is still of a main research interest. Among direct valuation methods, the choice experiment method (CEM) becomes a highly attractive valuation procedure, in giving at the same time the economic value of the impacts of the different components of the policy as well as the global impact of a policy package. However, the main-effect designed protocol aiming to limit the cognitive burden of scenarios’ evaluation disregards the important question of the existence of substitution or complementary relation between these programmes for their main beneficiaries. Furthermore, the independent valuation and summation strategy developed in CEM opens to overvaluation or under valuation of the willingness to pay values. The aim of this article is to conduct testing of the additivity bias with CEM results. The distribution of the willingness to pay values for possible combinations of landscape programmes aiming to maintain two agricultural landscape attributes as well as one moorland attribute inferred from the earlier CEM survey is compared to results obtained with the sequential contingent valuation procedure for multidimensional policy suggested by Hoehn (1991). Our empirical results suggest that the additivity bias is not statistically significant in our case, even if specific relation between landscape attributes due to what we call the composition effect is of concern for the population we interviewed. Furthermore, landscape preferences derived from our empirical investigation support the need for more integration of agricultural issues with the local land-use issues.     

Meta-analysis of consumer's willingness-to-pay premiums for certified wood products

Consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) price premiums for environmentally certified wood products has been frequently estimated using stated preference methods. Estimates of WTP premiums for certified wood products over non-certified options reported in the literature range from 1.0% to 39.3%. This paper describes a meta-analysis used to determine the key factors associated with WTP price premium estimates by examining data from 19 different studies conducted around the world. Results of Bayesian hierarchical models show that frequently purchased wood products and wood products with lower base prices tend to capture higher percentage premiums. Survey administration method was also a statistically significant factor influencing variations in WTP estimates. Results show that conjoint analysis elicited inflated WTP estimates toward certified wood products compared with contingent valuation methods. Reported WTP estimates have increased in recent years. Recommendations to reduce the error of WTP estimates toward certified wood products and improve the validity of experimental studies are provided.     

Emotional and satisfaction benefits to visitors as explanatory factors in the monetary valuation of environmental goods. An application to periurban green spaces

Over the last few decades, especially in urban areas, there has been a revival of the notion of quality of life in connection with periurban green spaces, the presence of which is thought to improve emotional well-being. This paper aims to determine how far the monetary valuation of this environmental resource is influenced by aspects relating to users’ emotional experience and satisfaction. The contingent valuation method is used to estimate monetary valuation and structural equation models allow examination of the relationships between visitor attitude and behaviour variables. The study focuses on two periurban green spaces in Spain and the data are obtained by means of face-to-face, in situ surveys of visitors. The findings support the relationship between visitor attitudes and the monetary valuation of this environmental good, revealing the need to advance further in exploring the potential of such natural resources to enhance urban social well-being.     

Sustainability assessment methodology of urban mobility projects

In Brazil, the introduction of a national urban mobility policy occurred only in 2012. In this context, the federal government has provided hundreds of millions in investment to improve mobility conditions in urban areas. The main financial institution responsible for analyzing and monitoring developments of this nature considers the following criteria for project assessment: cost, environmental licensing, compatibility, and functionality. However, a project’s contribution to sustainable urban mobility is not taken into account. Thus, the work reported herein aimed to develop a method to assess the sustainability of urban mobility projects. This involved indicator selection, and the development of a tool based on sustainability indicators for project assessment. In addition, an Urban Mobility Project Sustainability Index (UMPSI) was proposed to summarize the assessment, which was tested in five urban mobility projects funded in the Curitiba Metropolitan Region (RMC), presented in a companion paper. Environmental, social, and economic aspects of project design and implementation are considered in the assessment. The proposed method consists of 17 sustainability indicators, grouped according to their connection with environmental, social, and economic aspects. Addition of the proposed method to the contracting and monitoring processes of future urban mobility projects supports the sustainable development of the urban landscape.     

哈尔滨市六条道路植物景观现状与分析

通过对哈尔滨市道路植物景观的现状调查,对每条道路进行季节性景观分析和植物组成特色分析,总结哈尔滨市道路植物景观的优点与不足。可以为改善和提高城市道路景观质量提供科学依据。     

Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Sustainable Seafood Made in Europe

Sustainability of increasing relevance also for seafood markets. The aim of this contribution is to analyze consumer preferences and their willingness to pay (WTP) for different sustainability claims, and to identify consumer segments according to their WTP. The contingent valuation method was applied to elicit consumers’ WTP in eight European countries. The WTP varies between seven and almost 20%, depending on attribute and country. Three consumer groups become apparent: the largest group without any additional WTP, a smaller group with a moderate additional WTP of plus 17%, and a very small group with an additional WTP of more than 40%. Clear differences between countries are obvious regarding preferences for different sustainability attributes, particularly in the segment with the highest WTP. A fraction of the consumers is willing to pay significantly higher prices for sustainably produced fish from Europe: given that trustful standards are applied and well communicated.     

The value of green walls to urban biodiversity

Despite increased interest in the implementation of green walls in urban areas and the recognised benefits of monetary valuation of ecosystem services, no studies have been undertaken to estimate the economic value of biodiversity they provide. The valuation of natural resources allows policy makers to justify resource allocation. Using the Southampton, UK, as a case study, this paper estimates the public’s perceived value of green walls to urban biodiversity, in the form of their willingness to pay (WTP). Estimates were derived using a random parameter model that accounted for socio-economic and attitudinal determinants of choice, using choice experiment data. Three green infrastructure policies were tested; two green wall designs (‘living wall’ and ‘green façade’) and an ‘alternative green policy’; and compared against ‘no green policy’. Results indicated a WTP associated with green infrastructure that increases biodiversity. Attitudinal characteristics such as knowledge of biodiversity and aesthetic opinion were significant, providing an indication of identifiable preferences between green policies and green wall designs. A higher level of utility was associated with the living wall, followed by the green façade. In both cases, the value of the green wall policies exceeds the estimated investment cost; so our results suggest that implementation would provide net economic benefits.     

The challenges to urban agriculture in the Sydney basin and lower Blue Mountains region of Australia

The western edge of the Sydney basin in Australia has been one of the major sources of fruit and vegetables for the Sydney markets. A rapid expansion of urban development in this region has caused a significant reduction in the number of small farms and market gardens. Urban and peri-urban agriculture in the region also provides an important buffer between urban development and the neighbouring Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. The decline in urban agriculture can be attributed to various causes including urban expansion and economies of scale. This paper presents an overview of a four-year project that explored options for supporting these vulnerable farming communities both in terms of the regulatory factors and economic and environmental sustainability. The role of agri-industries as landscape buffers to the neighbouring World Heritage Area was investigated in relation to resilience, communities of practice, and ecosystem services. The study developed tools, in conjunction with targeted representative landholders, that can assist in enhancing the economic and environmental resilience of these agri-industries. These tools included an integrated bio-system approach to waste using organic waste conversion, and the use of landscape function analysis to monitor across farms to help address erosion, loss of nutrients and inefficient water management.     

External effects of neighbourhood parks and landscape elements on high-rise residential value

Neighbourhood parks provide recreation opportunities and amenity to nearby residents and improve the quality of the environment and life. Their provision and protection could be facilitated by a deeper understanding of their multiple values. The hedonic pricing method, using statistical techniques to estimate the part of a price due to a particular attribute of a commodity, assessed the external effects of neighbourhood parks on the transaction price of high-rise private residential units in Hong Kong. The empirical results derived from 1471 transactions in a district indicated that neighbourhood parks could lift price by 16.88%, including 14.93% for availability and 1.95% for view. Comparing with other landscape elements, neighbourhood parks induced the heaviest investment intention in home-buying behaviour. Harbour view attracted a premium of 5.1%, but mountain view was surprisingly not welcomed. Street view, considered as unappealing, suppressed price. Residents were insensitive to building landscape due to its ubiquity in the compact city. The scarcity of neighbourhood parks in the city has pushed their hedonic value to an exceptionally high level, providing guidance to revamp the policies, planning and management of urban greenspaces in tandem with the sustainable city quest.     

Comparing Open-Ended Choice Experiments and Experimental Auctions: An Application to Golden Rice

We use two experimental valuation methods to estimate consumer demand for genetically modified golden rice. The first is an open-ended choice experiment (OECE) where participants name the quantities of golden rice and conventional rice demanded at each of several price combinations, one of which will be randomly chosen as binding. This allows us to estimate market demand by aggregating demand across participants. This estimate of market demand also allows us to estimate own-price elasticity and consumer surplus for golden rice. Comparing willingness-to-pay (WTP) estimates from the OECE with those from a uniform-price auction, we find that OECE WTP estimates exhibit less affiliation across rounds, and the effects of positive and negative information under the OECE are more consistent with prior expectations and existing studies. We also find that, while auction WTP estimates more than double across five rounds, OECE WTP estimates are stable across rounds and are always roughly equal to those from the final auction round.