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The use of peatlands and the multiple but mutually exclusive ecosystem services they provide is a highly debated issue worldwide. We used a participatory multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) to address multiple value dimensions and trade-offs related to peatland ecosystem services in Southern Finland. We evaluated five peatland policy scenarios against provisioning, regulating and cultural ecosystem services as well as socio-economic factors, and engaged key stakeholders in framing the assessment and assigning criteria weights. The MCDA process showed that while peat extraction can basically be reconciled with preserving the most important biodiversity values in Finland, the conflict between peat extraction and carbon stock as well as water quality impacts and the related amenity values is irreconcilable. The role of the participatory MCDA process in promoting learning and reflection was smaller than expected but it did facilitate learning about the flows of peatland ecosystem services. The role of the participants was important not only in making value judgements but also in contributing to the impact assessment, thereby supporting the calls for transdisciplinarity in ecosystem service assessments. Highlights • MCDA supported a systematic scrutiny of the key aspects in the peatland debate. • The process facilitated cognitive learning on peatland ecosystem services. • MCDA helped to articulate social values related to peatlands. • The role of MCDA in promoting value reflection was smaller than expected.

This paper uses the water allocation economy in Israel as a proxy for imputing the value of agricultural amenities. A general equilibrium model is developed, and incorporates agricultural amenities as byproducts of agricultural production, water trade channels, and multiple water types. The premise is that until a decade ago, water policy in Israel was interlinked with agricultural land-use policy. Integrating a Monte-Carlo analysis, the model searches for a baseline minimum value of agricultural amenity that makes household, in the counterfactual scenario, indifferent between the administrative and market mechanisms. The minimum imputed value is around 109% agricultural output. The intuition is that the gains in economic welfare, from improved water use efficiency, are offset by the losses in social welfare due to a reduction in available agricultural amenities.

Wind energy developments are often controversial. Concerns are often raised about negative impacts on local communities, including impacts on property values. Some of these negative impacts may be offset by compensatory payments made by wind developers. Community involvement in the planning and development process may also reduce negative perceptions associated with wind facilities. However, if the development is near a border between municipalities, states, or even countries, it is often the case that one or more jurisdictions will not be involved in the process or receive compensation, but will, nonetheless, face some costs or impacts from the development. We explore exactly this situation at the border between Canada and the United States in the Thousand Islands region where a wind farm is currently operating on the Canadian border island of Wolfe Island. Using a parcel-level hedonic analysis of property sales transactions, we find that properties in New York with a view of and/or in close proximity to the turbines significantly depreciated in value after construction of the turbines while no negative impacts were observed on properties in Ontario. We highlight a number of factors that could contribute to these differences in impacts on property values, which may also explain the variation in results that currently exists in the literature.

International audience; Casual observation and numerous studies in economics and psychology suggest that households care about the natural environment of their living places. This paper investigates the role played by natural amenities in the formation of segregated residential patterns with respect to household size and socio-professional status. We estimate residential location choice models for large household samples in two metropolitan areas in France: Grenoble in the Alps, and Marseille on the Mediterranean coast. In a second step, we perform counterfactual segregation analysis using Monte Carlo simulations, to compare segregation outcomes "with" and "without" preferences for natural amenities. Our main result is that households' search for natural amenities has significant impacts on residential segregation. It most often contributes to strengthening segregation, but can also be a factor attenuating segregation.

One of the most important services provided by forests is the control of erosion. We investigated the value of forest cover in protecting water quality in five urban lakes around Prescott, AZ. We first estimated the role of forest cover in regulating sediment loadings into each lake via a sediment delivery model. We then used 8301 single-family residential property transactions that occurred between 2002 and 2005 in Prescott, AZ, to estimate a hedonic price function. This yielded an estimate of the marginal willingness-to-pay (MWTP) for avoiding 1 t of sediment per lake-acre, from which we were able to infer the marginal willingness to pay for the erosion control services associated with a 10% change in current canopy cover. We found that the marginal value of the erosion control services of forest cover varies widely across the watersheds depending on the accessibility of affected lakes, the current level of canopy cover, and the number and value of affected residential properties among other factors.

Despite well publicised knowledge of the spread and potential negative impacts of lionfish in the Caribbean, there has been little attempt to assess the economic costs of lionfish as an ecosystem disservice relative to the recreational amenity value associated with viewing an exotic and unique species. We use choice experiments to explore the determinants of recreational divers' and snorkellers' willingness-to-pay for marginal changes water quality, reef quality, fish diversity and lionfish sightings in Tobago. Expectedly, on-reef recreationalists showed strong preferences and willingness-to-pay for better water quality, reef quality and fish diversity. However, snorkellers showed mixed preferences for lionfish, favouring some lionfish on reefs relative to none. Recreational divers perceived all lionfish levels as negative and are willing-to-pay more than snorkellers for high quality reef attributes. Overall, the presence of lionfish on reefs in Tobago induces more losses than benefits. Choice differences between groups highlights the importance of policy that recognises heterogeneous preferences for ecosystem services and points to the need for continued engagement with stakeholders regarding ecosystem services and disservices. Additionally, our study showed that water quality is a critical driver of economic value for on–reef recreation. Therefore, policy should strive to alleviate adverse impacts on coastal water quality.

This research quantifies the property value benefits of National Wildlife Refuges near urban areas on the eastern coast of the U.S.A. Our approach is made possible through access to confidential U.S. Census data identifying property values surrounding all refuges with high geographic resolution. Results from hedonic property value models suggest that the amenity values of refuges located near urbanized areas are capitalized into the value of homes in very close proximity, averaging $11 million per refuge. These capitalized values add directly to the local tax base and are considerable complements to the annual economic value created by the refuge system.

This paper evaluates if the proposed divestment of the English Forestry Commission Estate in 2010 was economically rational. The analysis is composed of two parts. First, an amenity value threshold for continued public access to the Estate was estimated. Based on a stated value of the Estate (i.e. £700 million) and assuming a discount rate of 3.5% the Estate should never have been considered for sale. However, assuming a discount rate of 5% then the associated critical amenity value was estimated to be approximately £5 million. Second, travel cost methods were employed to value public access to the Forest of Dean as a proxy for the Estate. An on-site survey was conducted that yielded estimates of consumer surplus that exceed the critical amenity value of the Estate by two orders of magnitude even when we employ a discount rate above that typically used in public policy decision making. Therefore, we conclude that the policy to divest the Estate for £700 million was not ‘a good deal’ and as such the resulting policy reversal was an economically sensible decision.

This study is an empirical investigation of welfare functions of forest biomass fuels in Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. The want parameter of welfare function was found to vary with household's current fuel consumption which reflects people's amenity aspirations shift with the amenity level attained. Furthermore, current wood consumption and welfare sensitivity parameter are also influenced by individual's environmental entitlements rather than economic entitlements. Resource scarcity induced by physical scarcity or institutional–legal constraints leads to resource conserving attitude, but not without loss in perceived well-being. Communal conservation of energy is also observed whereby large households are more energy conserving than small households. Regarding biomass use and consumption, monetary income does not guarantee satisfaction, but heightens people's wants. Thus, rural development programs should not focus on economic empowerment only but also on environmental sustainability and fair resource use rules.

The central aim of this study was to gain greater insights into the factors that affect individuals' preferences for a variety of landscape settings. Using a nationally representative survey conducted in the summer of 2010 of 430 individuals living in Ireland, this paper derived dependent variables (based on a factor analysis of respondents mean ratings of 47 landscape images) representing 5 different landscape categories. These variables were then utilised in separate OLS regression models to examine the effect of personal characteristics, residential location and environmental value orientations on landscape preferences. First in terms of visual amenity the results suggest that the general public have the strongest preference for landscapes with water related features as its dominant attribute which was followed by cultural landscapes. Second the results also demonstrate how there is significant heterogeneity in landscape preferences as both personal characteristics and environmental value orientations were found to strongly influence preferences for all the landscape types examined. Moreover the effect of these variables often differed significantly across the various landscape groupings. In terms of land use policy, given the diversity of preferences a one size fits all approach will not meet the general publics' needs and desires.

Most conservation reserve design models presented in the literature are static and ignore the dynamic economic aspects of site selection. Typically conservation programs operate under time-related (e.g. annual) budgets and purchase land over time in a sequential manner. The uncertainty of land development has been incorporated in a few dynamic reserve selection formulations using stochastic dynamic programming. However, the existing formulations do not explicitly deal with inter-temporal price and location linkages. We address this issue here and present a two-period linear integer programming model for conservation reserve design that incorporates amenity driven price feedback effects inherent in the reserve development problem. In addition, the model includes spatial and ecological criteria. We then use this model to answer the question “How suboptimal is ignoring amenity driven price effects in reserve design models?” We apply the model to artificially generated data sets and compare the results with the results of an iterated static model that considers only one period at a time. We find that the dynamic model with price feedback effects selects sites at a lower per-site cost. The policy implication of this finding is that conservation programs should avoid purchasing land in the same neighborhood over multiple time periods.

Environmental valuation methods, such as choice experiments, are increasingly being used to value complex and often unfamiliar environmental goods. A potential risk is that some survey respondents may not be capable of developing and expressing preferences for such goods. The noise from these individuals may then conceal the well-defined preferences of other respondents and affect valuation estimates. We address this problem by estimating a range of models that accounts for scale heterogeneity (which we interpret as a respondent's ability to choose: ATC) and taste heterogeneity. These models are applied to two case studies: amenity from coastal defence and biodiversity. In both case studies, model fit was improved in a scale-heterogeneity multinomial-logit (S-MNL) model (compared to a standard MNL model) suggesting the accounting for ATC (scale heterogeneity) improved preference revelation. A mixed multinomial-logit (MIXL) model outperformed the S-MNL model suggesting that accounting for taste heterogeneity was also important. However, a generalised multinomial-logit (G-MNL) model improved model fit over the MIXL model only for the biodiversity data suggesting that for these data both taste heterogeneity and ATC were important. We conclude that accounting for ATC can improve the reliability and robustness of the results when valuing complex or unfamiliar environmental goods.

There is substantial concern that bioenergy policies could swamp other considerations, such as environmental values, and lead to large-scale conversions of land from forest to crops. This study examines how bioenergy and marketed environmental rents for forestland potentially influence land use in the Midwestern US. We hypothesize that current land uses reflect market values for environmental benefits of forestland, so that the marketed component of the environmental value of land can be captured as the difference between Census land values and value of land as a timber asset. We use a multinomial logit model to estimate the land use shares of forests, crops and urban in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. The results show that marketed environmental rents increase forestland relative to cropland. To examine the effects of biofuels on land use, we conduct policy analysis by altering future land rents. Our baseline scenario projects that urban development uses mostly cropland, but with higher crop rents resulting from increased demand for bioenergy, there will be significant losses of forestland to urban and cropland. On the other hand, if marketed environmental rents grow while crop rents are maintained at their baseline value, urban growth will occur, primarily at the expense of cropland.

This paper presents a simulation-based modelling approach for estimating total visitor numbers and amenity values for prospective non-priced open-access outdoor recreation sites. To begin, the geographic extent of the market for recreation at a policy site is estimated using data from a similar study site. The population residing within this geographic area is simulated using a spatial microsimulation model and GIS techniques and an individual-level ‘visitor arrival function’ is then transferred across this simulated population. This allows the latent demand for visits to the policy site by each simulated individual to be predicted and summed, providing an estimate of the total potential demand for recreation at the site. Combining this with an economic value measure of a visit provides an estimate of the potential amenity value of the policy site. The approach is applied to Moyode Wood, a small-scale forest in the West of Ireland, and estimates the potential total economic value of recreation at €0.4 million for the site. The research represents the first time that spatial microsimulation has been used in environmental benefit transfer and shows how it can be used to control for differences in demographic and spatial factors between study and policy sites. It also demonstrates how individual-level single-site travel cost models estimated using on-site survey data can be used to predict demand at alternative policy sites.

Warmer temperatures and a decrease in precipitation in the 21st century could severely deplete wetlands in the prairie pothole region of western Canada. In this study, we employ linear regression analysis to determine the casual effect of climate change on wetlands in this region, with temperature, precipitation and the standardized precipitation index (SPI) used to predict the effect of potential climate change on wetlands. We then use a waterfowl–wetlands bioeconomic model to solve for socially optimal levels of duck harvests and wetlands retention under current climate conditions and various climate change scenarios. The model maximizes benefits to hunters plus the amenity values of ducks to non hunters and the non-market ecosystem benefits of wetlands. Results indicate that climate change could decrease wetlands by between 7 and 47%, and that the optimal number of wetlands to retain could decrease by as much as 38% from the baseline climate.

With rapid urban expansion and loss of open space, attractive local landscapes will continue to gain importance in location decisions and on political agendas. The present study reviews the evidence on the local economic role of landscape amenities from two major strands of empirical research, migration and regional economic models, and hedonic pricing models. Following common amenity definitions we identify 71 relevant peer-reviewed studies and systematically assess the reported effects of the landscape amenity variables. The migration and regional economic studies suggest that migrants are attracted by amenities nearly as often as by low taxes. Reported effects of amenities on income and employment are less consistent. The hedonic studies suggest that nature reserves and land cover diversity have mostly, open space and forest often, and agricultural land rarely positive effects on housing prices. Studies at larger geographic scales and studies involving urban areas were more likely to identify significant amenity effects. Some limitations of the evidence may be overcome with better datasets and modeling approaches. However, in line with other recent work, the limitations also highlight the need for complementary information from the analysis of political preferences for land-use management.

Environmental amenity-driven migration presents a double-edged sword to policy makers concerned with both economic and ecological sustainability. Clearly the protection of environmental amenities is important, but what is the right balance between ecosystem protection and regional economic processes that simultaneously respond to and degrade ecological resources? We consider this question in the context of households that are attracted to a region by urban and lake amenities and a lake ecosystem that becomes degraded by land development. An analytical expression for the time evolution of population is derived from households' and firms' optimizing behaviors. Numerical methods with phase plane diagrams are used to study the steady state and transient dynamics of the resulting population-phosphorus coupled system. The system is found to be bi-stable under a range of parameter values with one attractor corresponding to a desired “balanced” economy-ecology state and the other to a very small population base with fully restored ecology. We examine the dynamics and quantify the resilience of the system in and away from the balanced steady state using phase plane diagrams that demarcate the two domains of attraction. Economic-ecological interactions fundamentally alter regional economic dynamics and influence the resilience of the balanced domain of attraction. For example, a one percent increase in the loadings coefficient associated with residential land development generates a three percent decline in the resilience of the balanced state. We find that economic feedbacks often increase system resilience. Initial increases in the attraction of urban amenities spur greater population growth that increases the resilience of the balanced state. In addition, price feedbacks that arise from capitalized (dis)amenities increase the resilience of the system to bad ecological shocks.

This research analyzes amenity values of spatial configurations of forest landscapes over space and time in the Southern Appalachian Highlands using geographically weighted regression (GWR) in a hedonic housing-price framework with a census-block group (CBG) dataset. Results show that housing-price response to mean forest-patch size and forest-patch density increased substantially between 1990 and 2000 in a few specific areas with economically significant amenity values. The spatial and temporal dynamics of the resulting amenity-value estimates are evaluated for potential use as site-selection indicators for implementation of forest conservation programs.

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of changing land allocation among crops as a mechanism for increasing net-social benefits, where production profits and amenity values are augmented. A positive mathematical programming model is calibrated and applied to 43 regions in the northern part of Israel, using a crop-discriminating amenity-value function. Changes in land allocation increase net-social benefits by 2.4% nationwide and by up to 15% on the regional level, where in some regions the net-social-benefits-increase/profit–loss ratio exceeds 20. Therefore, the results indicate that a policy encouraging amenity-enhancement of agricultural land use is warranted, provided that it is implemented on a regional scale, rather than as a comprehensive nationwide-enforced program.

Climate change, the 'boom and bust' cycles of rivers, and altered water resource management practice have caused significant changes in the spatial distribution of the risk of flooding. Hedonic pricing studies, predominantly for the US, have assessed the spatial incidence of risk and the associated implicit price of flood risk. Using these implicit price estimates and their associated standard errors, we perform a meta-analysis and find that an increase in the probability of flood risk of 0.01 in a year is associated to a difference in transaction price of an otherwise similar house of - 0.6%. The actual occurrence of a flooding event or increased stringency in disclosure rules causes ex-ante prices to differ from ex-post prices, but these effects are small. The marginal willingness to pay for reduced risk exposure has increased over time, and it is slightly lower for areas with a higher per capita income. We show that obfuscating amenity effects and risk exposure associated with proximity to water causes systematic bias in the implicit price of flood risk. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Water is perhaps one of the most studied types of common-pool resource (CPR) goods. Its quality, however, has not been discussed as much in the CPR literature as its quantity. We examine the significance of studying water quality from a CPR perspective, and then analyze implications for the formulation of institutional arrangements to improve water quality. We illustrate with a case study in South East Queensland, Australia. This involves a rural catchment (watershed) that contributes high sediment and some nutrient loads to the Brisbane River, where it affects urban water quality and visual amenity, water treatment costs, and dredging costs at the port. The pollutants then threaten marine water quality and habitat values for threatened species in Moreton Bay, a marine protected area. We analyze the potential for a CPR understanding to enhance the design and financing of a water quality management regime. Rather than seeking to supplant conceptualizations of externalities as a basis for design of policy instruments, we propose arrangements that combine the CPR and externality concepts to offer a powerful logic and financial basis for collective management. Market-based instruments could facilitate downstream populations to help pay for catchment restoration in return for enjoyment of improved water quality resulting from strengthened ecosystem services, while associated non-market-based instruments could help all parties understand and expand their roles under a common-pool management regime. We argue that recognition of CPR attributes provides a logic for cooperation and co-investment between stakeholders who are in a position to affect, or are affected by, water quality in different parts of a large river system.

Increasing criticism of resource-extractive and polluting heavy duty industries in urban areas, as well as continuing declines in timbering, farming and mining in rural areas, have created challenges for planners and policy makers seeking sustainable rural economies. Earlier studies have concluded that a “retiree economy” is a viable approach for rural economic sustainability. Using specific measures of natural amenities that are variant over time; this study examined the role that natural amenity resources have played in attracting retirees. Results reveal that the rural and biologically rich counties with substantial land use diversity, water amenities, and other man-modified natural and recreational attractions have great potential for attracting retirees. The findings from this study can be useful for local and regional agencies to identity their latent potential to promote retiree economy, and also to predict the future amenity demands. In addition, we draw other policy implications regarding regional economic growth and ecological concern in rural America.

Indices ranking the quality of life in cities based on climatic, environmental and urban conditions have a long tradition in the hedonic literature. In this paper we propose an alternative set of indices based on subjective well-being (SWB) data linked to regional level amenities. SWB indicators provide a direct, self-reported evaluation of life satisfaction and can be used to rank quality of life among different locations in the absence of data on housing prices and wages. Using SWB data in Ireland, we show how to rank quality of life in regions in three different ways: 1) using a simple unconditional average of SWB across locations, 2) conditionally, controlling for personal characteristics of individuals and the environmental amenities in their area and 3) weighting the environmental endowments in each location by the marginal rate of substitution between income and the amenity. The results show a very high correlation between the three indices and suggest that variation in SWB across locations is not random, but is driven to a large extent by the endowment of location-specific amenities across locations.

The cedar forests in Lebanon give shelter to a rich biodiversity and they constitute important mountainous relic habitats harboring a wide range of endemic, rare and threatened species, and species with economic potential. These forests, once covering the Eastern and Western mountain chains, have been the providers of quality timber for the region in historical times. The ancient practices have left the country with only 12 forest relics distributed on the Mount Lebanon chain. Even though recognized worldwide as flagship species and sites of cultural, religious and historical values, these forests have attracted limited international funds for their conservation. These funds proved not to be sustainable for long-term conservation plans; therefore a system for securing local funds for the protection of cedar forest is needed. In this context, this research study was designed having three main objectives which are firstly to illustrate the differences in the value of cedar forests between citizens and villagers, users and non-users. Secondly to identify the best ways to collect local funds and design other tools (involving for example public participation) needed in setting out a sound strategy for the conservation of the cedar forests. Thirdly to use the findings of this study as a tool to investigate in further studies and to inform and influence decision makers about the importance of a long-term conservation and sustainable use program as well as to consider a strategic approach for its sustainable use. Using an open-ended questionnaire, contingent valuation method is applied to highlight the importance of well informed population, to obtain the Willingness to Pay (WTP) for a scenario to conserve cedar forests in Lebanon; to increase their surface areas; to promote sustainable activities and to explore the degree of importance of their attributes and of the option, bequest and existence values as perceived by the Lebanese population. The WTP is tested by using a regression model relating WTP to all socio-demographic variables. The questionnaires (416) were performed in three main cities in Lebanon and in villages surrounding two nature reserves. The difference in the individual WTP value for users and non-users was approximately US$20 per household for both villagers and city dwellers. The frequency of the zero WTP value was higher for non-users. The results obtained encouraged a national initiative to create a national trust fund and to integrate symbolic fees on the amenity services associated with cedar forests.

Remote agricultural lands, which include wildlife habitat, angling opportunities and scenic vistas, command higher prices per hectare in Wyoming than those whose landscape is dominated by agricultural production. Geographic information systems (GIS) data are used to measure recreational and scenic amenities associated with rural land. A hedonic price model is specified with GIS measures. It is used to estimate the impact of amenity and agricultural production land characteristics on price per acre for a sample of Wyoming agricultural parcels. Results indicate that the specification performed well across several functional forms. The sampled land prices are explained by the level of both environmental amenities as well as production attributes. Statistically significant amenity variables included scenic view, elk habitat, sport fishery productivity and distance to town. This analysis permits a better estimation of environmental amenity values from hedonic techniques. Improved estimation of amenity values is vital for policies aimed at open space preservation, using agricultural conservation easements and land use conflict resolution.

The forest rotations problem has been considered by generations of economists (Fisher, 1930; Boulding, 1966; Samuelson, 1976). Traditionally, the forest resource across all future harvest periods is assumed to grow without memory of past harvest periods. This paper integrates economic theory and intertemporal ecological mechanics, linking current harvest decisions with future forest growth, financial value, and ecosystem health. Results and implications of a non-renewable forest resource and the influence of rotation length and number on forest recovery are reported. Cost estimates of moving from short-term economic rotations to long-term ecological rotations suggest the level of incentive required for one aspect of ecosystem management. A net private cost of maintaining ecosystem health emerges and, for public policy purposes, can be compared with measures of non-timber amenity values and social benefits exhibiting increasing returns to rotation length.

Undesirable land uses are expected to impose health or amenity risks on surrounding communities. These risks are expected to be translated economically into negative effects on adjacent property values. These negative effects may be present even when such uses possess offsetting advantages of proximity, such as employment opportunities. The purpose of this study is to summarize empirical studies completed to date that test whether undesirable land uses have observable negative effects on adjacent property values. This information may be useful in assessing minimum valuations of terminating undesirable land uses, such as clean-up of hazardous sites, or compensation necessary to ameliorate the economic impacts of new undesirable uses.

The decision to harvest or conserve old-growth forest is formulated as a stochastic decision problem in continuous time. Uncertainty in future amenity values for standing forest and in future timber revenues for harvested forest are included in the model, along with the risk of catastrophic destruction by fire, pest infestation, etc. It is shown how the decision problem can be expressed as an optimal stopping problem which can be solved analytically. The optimal decision rule is shown to depend on how the ratio of current timber value to the current expected present value of amenity benefits foregone through harvesting compares with some critical level. The effects of changes in uncertainty and other parameters on the optimal rule are discussed. Also it is shown how the cost-benefit analysis and certainty-equivalence procedures lead to premature harvesting, and the expected loss in survival time for these sub-optimal procedures is calculated.