Valuing drinking water quality after a PFAS contamination event: Results from a meta-analysis benefit transfer

Drawing upon an extensive body of valuation literature focused on water quality, this paper performs a meta-analysis benefit transfer exercise aimed at quantifying willingness to pay (WTP) for an enhancement in drinking water quality for households that have been directly exposed to Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) over recent decades in Italy. The analysis compiles metadata of 72 WTP estimates extracted from 40 previous valuation studies conducted in advanced economies. The benefit transfer is realized estimating a meta regression model (MRM) which includes both study design and socio-economic explanatory variables, according to the Weak Structural Utility Theoretic approach. To determine the most suitable MRM specification, a comparative evaluation of various model configurations is developed exploiting the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) selection criterion, and assessing their predictive performances in terms of transfer error and explanatory power. The mean transfer error (MTE) and the adjusted R-squared of the preferred MRM are in line with past published meta-analyses (0.665 and 0.607, respectively). The parameters estimated in the model align with both economic theory and intuition. The benefit transfer process results in an estimated annual WTP of € 250.80 per household for improved drinking water quality in the PFAS-affected area and an aggregated value of social benefits from PFAS decontamination of around € 12 million.

Economic valuation of wildlife conservation

This paper reviews concepts and methods for the economic valuation of nature in the context of wildlife conservation and questions them in light of alternative approaches based on deliberation. Economic valuations have been used to set priorities, consider opportunity costs, assess co-benefits of conservation, support the case for conservation in public awareness and advocacy, and drive novel schemes to change incentives. We discuss the foundational principles of mainstream economic valuation in terms of its assumptions about values, markets, and human behaviour; propose a list of valuation studies in relation to wildlife protection; and explain the methods used. We then review critiques of these approaches focusing on the narrow way in which economics conceives of values, and institutional, power, and equity concerns. Finally, we complement conventional approaches commonly used for wildlife valuation with two forms of deliberative valuation: deliberated preferences and deliberative democratic monetary valuation. These are discussed in terms of their potential to address the drawbacks of mainstream economics and to realise the potential of valuation in bridging conservation of nature for its own sake and its important contributions to human well-being.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10344-023-01658-2.

Assessing the recreational value of small-scale nature-based solutions when planning urban flood adaptation

Nature-based solutions may actively reduce hydro-meteorological risks in urban areas as a part of climate change adaptation. However, the main reason for the increasing uptake of this type of solution is their many benefits for the local inhabitants, including recreational value. Previous studies on recreational value focus on studies of existing nature sites that are often much larger than what is considered as new NBS for flood adaptation studies in urban areas. We thus prioritized studies with smaller areas and nature types suitable for urban flood adaptation and divided them into four common nature types for urban flood adaptation: sustainable urban drainage systems, city parks, nature areas and rivers. We identified 23 primary valuation studies, including both stated and revealed preference studies, and derived two value transfer functions based on meta-regression analysis on existing areas. We investigated trends between values and variables and found that for the purpose of planning of new NBS the size of NBS and population density were determining factors of recreational value. For existing NBS the maximum travelling distance may be included as well. We find that existing state-of-the-art studies overestimate the recreational with more than a factor of 4 for NBS sizes below 5 ha. Our results are valid in a European context for nature-based solutions below 250 ha and can be applied across different NBS types and sizes.

Measuring environmental (dis)amenity value during a pandemic: Early evidence from Maryland

With the outbreak of COVID-19 and the implementation of stay-at-home (SAH) orders aimed to mitigate its spread, households became less mobile and sheltered in place. This behavior has potential implications for how households' value environmental (dis)amenities, especially those that are underutilized during the pandemic. In this paper, we explore changes in the valuation of two prominent environmental (dis)amenities - major roadway and open space proximity - by households within the Baltimore metropolitan region. We find evidence that the housing price capitalization of immediate major roadway proximity changes due to the SAH order and associated policies that impact economic activity, suggesting a shift in household perceptions, while there is no evidence of open space valuation changes. These results may have significant implications for homeowner welfare if the altered capitalization of environmental (dis)amenities is temporary due to the SAH order.

Dataset on the in-stream and off-stream economic value of water

This dataset contains 706 estimates of the economic value of water; it has been compiled from published sources. Economic values are provided for three off-stream uses (agriculture/irrigation, industry, and municipal) and three in-stream ecosystem services (recreation, waste assimilation, and wildlife habitat). The dataset covers per period and capitalised asset values. All value estimates have been standardised in USD (2014) per acre-foot. The data accompany the research article entitled "Shifting from volume to economic value in virtual water allocation problems: a proposed new framework and methodology" [1]. The dataset can be used to facilitate benefits (or value) transfer.

The Contribution of Economic Science to Brownfield Redevelopment: A Review

Urban planners increasingly perceive Brownfield redevelopment (BFR) as a strategic priority. BFR not only allows suppressing some of the nuisances caused by derelict and contaminated lands, it also contributes to revitalizing dense urban areas and preventing the undesired effects of urban sprawl. This literature review analyzes how economists have contributed to removing some of the barriers that prevent or restrict BFR. A first contribution was to demonstrate the economic benefits of BFR. Economists also contributed to the development of multidisciplinary decision support tools used to rank BFR projects in terms of long-term sustainability and social welfare. They contributed to the design of institutional arrangements, including regulatory and economic instruments, that can facilitate the engagement of stakeholders in BFR projects. Our literature search combines the use of a standard and a systematic literature review to identify relevant papers scattered in very diverse publications. We show that there is significant scope for better integration of economic analysis within the multidisciplinary mainstream of BFR literature and provide pathways for future research. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2020;16:184-196. © 2019 SETAC.

Valuation of ecosystem services using choice experiment with preference heterogeneity: A benefit transfer analysis across inland river basin

River ecosystem services offer a variety of benefits to the inhabitants of inland areas. For the valuation of environmental goods and services in the context of attaining a better environmental status across Heihe River basin (HRB), Northwest of China by 2020, a survey was conducted employing choice experiment approach across the entire river basin. The selected ecological attributes were defined in combination with ecological improvements in the three sub-basins namely upper, middle and lower sub-basins. For estimating spatial preference heterogeneity, the benefits for the inhabitants were estimated by conditional logit and mixed logit models. Results indicated that the willingness to pay (WTP) estimates for river water quality, farmland irrigation, sandstorm days, lake area, biodiversity, landscape and leisure & entertainment were significantly different across sub-basins. The WTP for water quality in upper basin was RMB 126.6 per year, while in middle and lower sub-basin was RMB 97.1 and 66.4 per year respectively. The estimates of mixed logit model indicated the reduced transfer errors with the insertion of taste heterogeneity. However, transferring benefits from middle sub-basin to upper sub-basin the estimated transfer errors were 27.3%, from lower to middle the transfer errors were 23.4% and from upper to lower the transfer errors were 14.1%. Our obtained results recommend the transferability of non-market benefits among sub-basins.

Evaluating residents' preferences for remediation technologies: A choice experiment approach

The choice of technologies used to remediate contaminated environments is increasingly made through engagement with a multitude of stakeholders including affected residents. Despite this, little is known about how residents perceive remediation technology applications. In this study a choice experiment is designed to explore ways of understanding and measuring residents' preferences for different remediation technologies approaches using a sample of 944 residents in New South Wales, Australia. Analysis reveals that the residents' acceptability of remediation technologies can be explained by both the efficacy of the technology in improving the environmental quality of the community, and the reputational value of the technology. In particular it is found that residents prefer Monitor Natural Attenuation and Bioremediation to other remediation technologies. In particular they are willing to pay an increase in yearly taxes of $44.60 and $41.15 respectively for implementing such technologies instead of alternative remediation technologies like Chemical remediation.

Choice modeling of system-wide or large scale environmental change in a developing country context: Lessons from the Paraíba do Sul River

The Rio Paraiba do Sul is a highly polluted river in south central Brazil, that is contaminated by industrial, agricultural and municipal wastes, as well as being impacted by dams, water withdrawals and deforestation in the watershed. Since only very intensive and farreaching environmental policies could result in water quality improvements, valuing the restoration of the river presents many unique challenges. We develop a choice-modeling approach to valuation of the restoration of this river, with general tightening of environmental policy as the policy, and an increase in prices as the payment vehicle. The estimation is performed in willingness to pay space, adjusting for heterogeneity of tastes. We find that respondents, who are primarily low income, exhibit higher willingness to pay for complete restoration than moderate restoration, higher for moderate restoration in comparison to minimal restoration, and that they prefer restoration sooner, rather than later.

A probabilistic approach for a cost-benefit analysis of oil spill management under uncertainty: A Bayesian network model for the Gulf of Finland

Large-scale oil accidents can inflict substantial costs to the society, as they typically result in expensive oil combating and waste treatment operations and have negative impacts on recreational and environmental values. Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) offers a way to assess the economic efficiency of management measures capable of mitigating the adverse effects. However, the irregular occurrence of spills combined with uncertainties related to the possible effects makes the analysis a challenging task. We develop a probabilistic modeling approach for a CBA of oil spill management and apply it in the Gulf of Finland, the Baltic Sea. The model has a causal structure, and it covers a large number of factors relevant to the realistic description of oil spills, as well as the costs of oil combating operations at open sea, shoreline clean-up, and waste treatment activities. Further, to describe the effects on environmental benefits, we use data from a contingent valuation survey. The results encourage seeking for cost-effective preventive measures, and emphasize the importance of the inclusion of the costs related to waste treatment and environmental values in the analysis. Although the model is developed for a specific area, the methodology is applicable also to other areas facing the risk of oil spills as well as to other fields that need to cope with the challenging combination of low probabilities, high losses and major uncertainties.