This revealed preference study estimates the implicit value associated with owning a home along a river and tree coverage of riparian areas along rivers. The setting of this study is Ashe and Watauga Counties in Northwestern North Carolina and the two rivers that flow through those counties: New River and Watauga River. House sales form the basis of the hedonic models used to value these environmental characteristics. Homes that border a river sell for at least $28,000 more than otherwise similar homes that do not border a river. Riparian area tree coverage positively impacts river-bordering house prices, but only to a certain point. The results of this study are important for environmental organizations in this region working to safeguard the New and Watauga Rivers through riparian buffer installation and protection. / Master of Science / This study describes homeowner values of owning a home near a river, along with values associated with tree coverage of riparian areas along rivers. The setting of this study is Ashe and Watauga Counties in Northwestern North Carolina and the two rivers that flow through those counties: New River and Watauga River. Using home sales data, models estimate the value of two environmental characteristics home properties. This research found that homes bordering a river sell for at least $28,000 more than otherwise similar homes that do not border a river. Having any amount of tree coverage up to 90% tree coverage in a riparian area increases home sale prices, therefore homeowners positively value tree coverage in riparian areas to a point. Tree coverage in riparian areas is beneficial for the protection of rivers and river-dependent wildlife. The results of this study are important for environmental organizations in this region working to safeguard the New and Watauga Rivers through riparian buffer installation and protection.

South Africa is classified as a semi-arid environment with limited natural water sources. Amenity landscapes provide broad ranging benefits for society. Amenity landscapes account for between 31% - 50% of water supplied for domestic and urban use. To reduce water use and water conservation in amenity landscapes, strategies, regulations and interventions are required. Every landscape is a unique complex system with a large number of variables that differ from each other. The variability can be summarized into management/design, irrigation, climatological, edaphic and plant related aspects. Several amenity landscape water use models have been developed around the world and two in South Africa. This study developed a comprehensive South African hydrozone based plant database and an Amenity Landscape Water Use Model South Africa (ALWUMSA). This will improve hydrozoning of amaneity landscapes and ultimately also improve water conserbvation for these sites. It allows users/owners to determine water use requirements through an extensive data gathering, from aspects such as design, management, microclimate, environmental, edaphic, irrigation and plant related factors. Comparisons of results from ALWUMSA to three test sites, selected existing models and a range of scenarios produced results demonstrating that ALWUMSA consistently projected lower water requirements. The model also allows for site aspects to be changed thus encouraging end users to implement specific water saving intiatives with the amenity landscape to reduce water use. These savings will be translated into both water-use savings as well as financial savings for users of the amenity landscape water use model. / Environmental Sciences / Ph. D. (Environmental Science)

The presented diploma thesis deals with the phenomenon of the second homes in the area around the middle stream of the river Luznice. The trend of second homes is closely connected mainly to rural tourism. Currently the number of people living in the countryside is decreasing, this leads to increasing depopulation of the countryside. Development of rural tourism and second homes, which can be described as a precursor of amenity migration can alleviate the depopulation of the Czech countryside. Those two terms: second homes and amenity migration are very frequently overlapped in our conditions so it is difficult to determine the clear border between them. The second housing represents the way of spending the free time and so it can by stated as a complex phenomena and processes connected to a recreational object, most frequently represented by a cabin or a weekend house. Some users of second homes may decide to move into their second houses permanently. In this case we call this the amenity migration. This type of migration is the movement of people from an urban area in to rural areas. The amenity migration can be understood as a migration for better environment, peace, the desire to be closer to nature and the desire for a better quality of life in general.

This diploma thesis describes Sudetenland in environmental, economic and sociological view. The main question of this research is if Sudetenland still exist as a marginal area. The theoretical part contains a summary of basic terms, for example amenity migration, a plan of development of a municipality and a coefficient of the ecological stability (KES). It also contains explanation of the word "Sudetenland" as a geographical, socio-economic and histroric-political term and so on the historical consequences, which influenced Sudetenland. The practical part of this diploma thesis is focused on observation the socio-economic behaviour of inhabitants of particular part of the Sudetenland, village Celnice and on a calculation of KES of its cadastral area. This thesis is designed as a case study. It considers the amenity migration as a solution of some socio-economic problems of this area.

This diploma thesis analyses second homes in a specific region of the Lužnice river middle course (the cadastral town of Soběslav and the cadastral parcels of the Roudná, Klenovice and Skalice villages). The applied research part is based on a theoretical background research that defines basic terms, outlines appropriate topics with a connection to second homes (rural tourism, history of second homes, naturbanisation) as well as describes the analysed region. The aim of this thesis is to discover what motivates second home dwellers to use these dwellings for individual recreational activities and to identify the current situation of second home dwelling in this specific region. Another goal I have set for this thesis is to analyse how satisfied are second home dwellers with public services and facilities and whether they are thinking about converting their second (holiday) homes into permanent homes. The methodology of this thesis is based on a questionnaire analysing the second home settlements in the region specified above. The data have been evaluated using Microsoft Excel a PSPP software. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

No description available.

Urbanization, changing forest landowner values, and restructuring forest industry are creating challenges for the active management of small parcels of forestland. Many traditional service providers are reluctant to service small acreage parcels due to economies of scale, shrinking profit margins for unprocessed stumpage, and changing landowner expectations. They do not understand traditional forestry operations and do not know where to look for service providers. A gap in our nation's forest system has emerged. A new market opportunity exists for service providers willing to work with small-scale forest landowners. In this study, over sixty forest service providers working with small acreage or amenity oriented clients were interviewed to determine how their business is structured, how they charge for the services they provide, what reactions they get from their clients, and how successful they perceive themselves to be. Informants came from a wide variety of professional backgrounds, including forestry, logging, arboriculture, landscaping, and woodworking. In addition, about 20 public-forest professionals were interviewed to determine how they and their programs are changing in response to emerging conditions. Successful service providers generally charge by some measure of time and materials rather than by commission. They exhibit a willingness to diversify their business to offer a bundle of services, and to cooperate with professionals in related industries. Value-added processing and creative marketing assist service providers in achieving a profit from small-scale tracts with traditionally low-value products. Lessons learned from these early adopters will assist other service providers interested in working with small acreage private landowners. / Master of Science

No description available.

To increase real estate values, developers often apply designs on the land. In the case of a single family housing development, the designs are applied to the unit of subdivisions. In this study, the designs are defined as “value creation concepts,” which increase housing values at the subdivision level. The value creation concepts are classified into five categories – the sense of arrival, product mix, walkability, circulation system, and amenity. This cross-sectional study focuses on exploring the effects of value creation concepts in the subdivision. Two methodologies – the Hedonic Price Model (HPM) and the Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) – are used to test whether or not the value creation concepts would increase or decrease single family housing values. The study sample is composed of 6,562 single family houses nested in 85 subdivisions in College Station, Texas. Data are composed of two levels: the housing level and the subdivision level. The scores of the sense of arrival were provided by sixtyone graduate students at Texas A&M University using photograph evaluations. Most structural variables were obtained from the Brazos County Appraisal District, and physical environmental variables were objectively measured using the Geographical Information System. In the both models, sense of arrival, greenway connectivity, sidewalk connectivity, and median length of cul-de-sac variables have positive effects on single family housing values while phased project, the number of accessible entrances, street density, single family density, and median length of block variables have negative effects on single family housing values. At the housing level, several structural variables (e.g. bathrooms, attached garage, porches, etc), attached to a golf course, sports facilities, network distance from the nearest elementary school, population density, and personal variables (i.e., tenure, workable age, employment) were significant (p<.05) predictors of single family housing value. Findings support that the value creation concepts have effects on increasing housing values at the subdivision level, which would provide thoughtful insights for developers in residential areas. In addition, the HLM can be used as the complement of the HPM by controlling interaction terms between housing variables and subdivision variables, or among the subdivision variables themselves.

This dissertation explores the emergence of surf tourism as a significant aspect of rural communities. It uses an inductive qualitative approach focused on Tofino, British Columbia, Canada as an example to provide an in-depth exploration of a rural community effected by this phenomenon. Qualitative interviews were conducted with a snowball sample of key informants to address the following research objectives: (1) What factors have influenced the evolution of surf tourism in Tofino; (2) How might the evolution of surf tourism in this case study relate to the Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC); (3) What is the impact of surf tourism on the broader community development of Tofino? Analysis of the Tofino data elicited following themes: (1) For some, surfing is a desirable lifestyle, reflecting in some ways the concepts of specialization, serious leisure, and community’s identity; (2) Surf shops are a community hub for local surfers and surf tourists; (3) Pacific Rim National Park plays a critical role in the region, contributing to surfing and the surf tourism industry, but has yet to fully engage with surfers or the surfing industry; (4) New and more affordable equipment technology has brought increased access to cold-water surf and surf tourism, reducing what may have constrained the early development of surf tourism; (5) Considerable increases in the supply and demand for surfing in Tofino have occurred, tempered by the increased number of surfing competitions and other new tourism segments that exist in the community; (6) Increasing safety issues may undermine the growth of surf tourism; (7) Limits to surf tourism growth are evident regarding facility and physical carrying capacity; (8) As a result of the considerable growth of surfing in Tofino, recreational crowding, and conflict are in evidence, as are coping mechanisms; (9) ‘Localism’ exists in Tofino, but perhaps less so than in other destinations which have a fixed beach break; (10) Surf tourism has the potential for positive and negative impacts on First Nations communities in the region; and (11) Local government plays an important role. These themes were then analyzed and linked to the following theoretical concepts: serious leisure; specialization; leisure constraints; localism; violence; conflict; crowding, carrying capacity, amenity migration, the Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC); and, rural tourism. This led to some intriguing findings. For example, unlike most other popular surf tourism destinations, crowding is not so apparent in the surf because the surf breaks in the Tofino area are primarily beach breaks that constantly shift as the bathymetry of the ocean floor changes with tides and currents, resulting in constant wave changes. This contrasts with fixed break conditions found elsewhere, so in Tofino it is easier to avoid other surfers by simply moving to another part of the wave. When the Tofino findings were compared with TALC, some similarities and differences were noted. Factors that appear to be consistent with the TALC model are: increasing numbers of tourists, changing type of tourists (e.g. more mass tourists, compared to the early days of surf tourism), increasing numbers of tourism facilities, increased levels of marketing, increased levels of interaction between visitors and local communities (perhaps leading to instances of conflict, and localism), and increased economic benefits to the community. However, one possible departure from the expected trajectory is impacts on the natural environment, which have increased in some ways, but are improved in other ways. There has been some environmental change in terms of the growth in the town of Tofino, and with the development of lodgings near to the surrounding beaches. However, much of the larger landscape, remains largely intact or less impacted than what might have occurred without the presence of Pacific Rim National Park, and the Clayoquot Biosphere Reserve. Further, the TALC model suggests that the development of tourism will lead to lesser local control of development. The Tofino findings suggest that there remains a great deal of local control and that local government support the tourism industry, including surf tourism. It was noted that the emerging surf tourism refers to several concepts found in the general nature tourism literature, such as crowding, conflict and carrying capacity, but the surf tourism literature tends to overlook the complexity of some of these concepts. For example, future surf tourism research might consider more explicit examination of the various dimensions of conflict described in this study, including in group and outgroup conflict, interpersonal conflict and social values conflict. There is little evidence of the incorporation of these concepts in the surf tourism literature. Finally, the data exposed a high level of social capital within the surf community and also between surfers and non-surfers as a facet of a close-knit rural community dependent to a degree on surf tourism as a social driver manifesting in mutual cooperation, trust and reciprocity occurring in social institutions such as surf-shops. / Graduate