Evaluating the accuracy of the benefit transfer method: a rural water supply application in the USA

Estimation of Pollutant Emissions and Environmental Costs Caused by Ships at Port: A Case Study of Busan Port

To reduce air pollutants, the International Maritime Organisation and port authorities use ship emissions regulations, such as MARPOL Annex VI and green port policies. To measure the effectiveness of these air emissions regulatory policies, accurate calculations of pollutant emissions and estimations of the social environmental costs of emissions are important. However, Busan Port still suffers from a lack of research on continuous monitoring and easy access to data-based emission calculation methods and estimation of the social environmental costs. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to present quantitative emission calculations based on an open source and social environmental cost estimation method. To this end, the discharge of pollutants (NOx, SO2, CO2, VOC, PM2.5, and PM10) from ships in Busan Port was calculated using Port-MIS open data from 2015–2019. Subsequently, when the original study on estimating the social and environmental impact of air pollution from ships in Busan Port was difficult, the international benefit transfer method (an economic valuation method) was applied to estimate the social environmental costs. Our results can provide a basis for verifying the effectiveness of Busan Port’s air quality improvement policy in the future.

A meta-analysis of the value of ecosystem services of floodplains for the Danube River Basin

Floodplains provide ecosystem services (ES). Their evaluation is complex and integrative assessment remains challenging for sciences and practices. Studies have been published in the last two decades reporting ES monetary values of floodplains. Since ES are site-specific, we focus on those studies regarding the Europe's second largest river basin, namely the Danube River Basin (DRB). By analyzing these studies, we aim to answer the questions: "Do the significant predictor variables differ from previous meta-analyses?" and "Does the spatial database improve the meta-analysis?" In this context, we conducted a systematic review on Scopus and Web of Science combining the four themes "value", "ES", "floodplain", and "location". We conducted a meta-analysis of the Danube floodplains' ES values with different sub-groups based on the ES classes (provisioning, regulating, and cultural) and implemented model selection based on the corrected Akaike Information Criterion. We selected 251 entries from 25 studies to set up with a PostgreSQL spatial database, which provides limitless possibilities to enrich the information on the study areas. We observed that the most important variables to describe ES values of DRB floodplains depend on the ES class, but in general the area proportions of water bodies and riparian landscapes are important, together with the valuation method and the chemical or ecological status of the corresponding river section. Finally, we provided two versions of unconditional benefit-transfer functions to evaluate provisioning, regulating, and cultural ES. This paper complements previously conducted meta-analyses to recognize significant characteristics to value ES and it is a valid basis to help determine the ES value of Danube floodplains.

Facebook Data as Part of Cultural Heritage Investments Toolbox: Pilot Analysis of Users Interests and Preferences Concerning Adaptive Reuse

The growing popularity of social media data brings questions about its accuracy and usefulness for a wide array of cultural heritage projects, often lacking data sources crucial for better planning and implementation. In this paper, we are studying the opportunities offered by the freely available Facebook Ads Manager data on target group sizes in different locations. We conducted a small experiment and a pilot survey to verify if Facebook data concerning its users’ interests is accurate and could be used to facilitate the implementation of projects in the field of adaptive reuse. Despite all discovered limitations of this approach, we point out how Facebook data, along with other social media outlets, can be used to extract some strategic information and add to the socio-cultural assessment toolbox. As such, this type of data could be of use to local leaders planning activities and investments around cultural heritage sites. We also posit that such data can facilitate benefit transfer between cities through better understanding of local preferences and values-orientations.

Confronting uncertainty and missing values in environmental value transfer as applied to species conservation

The nonuse (or passive) value of nature is important but time-consuming and costly to quantify with direct surveys. In the absence of estimates of these values, there will likely be less investment in conservation actions that generate substantial nonuse benefits, such as conservation of native species. To help overcome decisions about the allocation of conservation dollars that reflect the lack of estimates of nonuse values, these values can be estimated indirectly by environmental value transfer (EVT). EVT uses existing data or information from a study site such that the estimated monetary value of an environmental good is transferred to another location or policy site. A major challenge in the use of EVT is the uncertainty about the sign and size of the error (i.e., the percentage by which transferred value exceeds the actual value) that results from transferring direct estimates of nonuse values from a study to a policy site, the site where the value is transferred. An EVT is most useful if the decision-making framework does not require highly accurate information and when the conservation decision is constrained by time and financial resources. To account for uncertainty in the decision-making process, a decision heuristic that guides the decision process and illustrates the possible decision branches, can be followed. To account for the uncertainty associated with the transfer of values from one site to another, we developed a risk and simulation approach that uses Monte Carlo simulations to evaluate the net benefits of conservation investments and takes into account different possible distributions of transfer error. This method does not reduce transfer error, but it provides a way to account for the effect of transfer error in conservation decision making. Our risk and simulation approach and decision-based framework on when to use EVT offer better-informed decision making in conservation.