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The intent of this thesis is to compare contingent valuation methods (CVM) and travel cost methods (TCM) to estimate consumer surplus for boaters and anglers in northern Utah. TCM results are about three times that of CVM. Several limitations are noted, specifically that CVM solicits given willingness to pay (WTP for specific reservoir sites. TCM analyzes aggregated trips to reservoirs with a wide array of site characteristics.

This dissertation considers three topics under the themes of wetland restoration, urban sprawl, and recreation demand employing spatial data and analysis. A key question addressed in the first essay is how we can identify priority areas for wetlands restoration along the Louisiana coast under the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act by estimating amenity values received by nearby residents from hypothetical wetlands restoration projects. The second essay evaluates the effectiveness of alternative land-use policy variables for controlling development in a sprawling metropolitan area during two extreme market conditions. The third essay estimates the effect on consumer welfare from improved satisfaction of recreation information availability.

The purpose of this travel cost study is to determine how rider behaviors and site characteristics influence repeat visits for equestrian trail riding in Kentucky. Primary data was collected via a survey developed and administered to trail riders in person and online. The average surveyed trail rider tends to be female, about 46 years old, with some higher education, and an annual household income of $65,000. She makes 11 trips to a specified site per year, 8 of which are daytrips, usually in the fall, and traveling 132 miles round trip. From other information gathered, an index of trail characteristics was developed to identify positive attributes of trails. To account for overdispersion of the number of visits per year, a negative binomial distribution in the estimation was used. The primary variables significant to explaining repeat visits to a site include distance in miles, the index of characteristics, and gender. Given consumer surplus estimates of $800 per equestrian it is recommended that established trails maximize desired characteristics. For new trail development it is recommended that trail characteristics are maximized and that they are built closer to the urban areas of the state since most riders are coming from these areas.

Submitted by Marlene Santos (marlene.bc.ufg@gmail.com) on 2014-12-19T20:13:02Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Carlos Shiley Domiciano - 2014.pdf: 4204270 bytes, checksum: b6281e950d12eeca6cdc579178dc51aa (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2014-12-22T11:20:53Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Carlos Shiley Domiciano - 2014.pdf: 4204270 bytes, checksum: b6281e950d12eeca6cdc579178dc51aa (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-22T11:20:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Carlos Shiley Domiciano - 2014.pdf: 4204270 bytes, checksum: b6281e950d12eeca6cdc579178dc51aa (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-05-19 / The need to save and protect the environmental goods and services against the uncontrolled human consumption and interventions led to the institutionalization and creation of the Conservation Units. And these, in addition to ensuring the conservation of a certain biome's natural patrimony and biodiversity, carry with them environmental, social, economic, cultural values, among others, attributed by people, due to the use and non-use of their environmental goods and services. For the evaluation of the values related to that kind of unit, this work took place in the São Jorge District, City of Alto Paraíso de Goiás, State of Goiás, Brazil, in the Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park (PNCV), with the intention of evaluate the importance of the Conservation Unit in the context of the development of the region, identifying the values that people (residents and visitors) attribute to the Park's set of goods and services and the District surroundings. At first, it became a study case of the elapsed historical context in the region, to analyze the socioeconomic activities developed there since the time of mining, until the tourism arising from the National Park, in order to apprehending the notion of value of the local residents. Then proceeded to a environmental valuing, based in the Travel Cost Method, to measure the values that the visitors attribute to the PNCV's set of goods and services, according to their expenses with the travel. It was found that the Park represents a range of values for the residents of the District and surroundings, since the economic, environmental and sociocultural, constituting in a element of development to the region. To the visitors, the highlighted values refer to the monetary, related to the travel cost, which reveals a willingness to pay for the goods and services that the PNCV has. Were also obtained, but not measured, non-monetary values related to knowledge, social interaction, culture, among others, that a travel like this provides. / A necessidade de se resguardar e proteger os bens e serviços ambientais frente ao seu consumo e intervenções humanas descontroladas levou à institucionalização e criação das Unidades de Conservação. E essas, além de garantir a conservação do patrimônio natural e da biodiversidade de um determinado bioma, encerram em si valores ambientais, sociais, econômicos, culturais, entre outros, atribuídos pelas pessoas, em função do uso e do não uso de seus bens e serviços ambientais. Para avaliação dos valores relacionados a uma unidade desse tipo, realizou-se este trabalho, no Distrito de São Jorge, município de Alto Paraíso de Goiás-GO e no Parque Nacional da Chapada dos Veadeiros (PNCV), com o intuito de analisar a importância da Unidade de Conservação no contexto do desenvolvimento da região, identificando os valores que as pessoas (moradores e visitantes) atribuem ao conjunto de bens e serviços do Parque Nacional e nos arredores do Distrito. Em um primeiro momento, fez-se um estudo de caso do contexto histórico transcorrido na região, para análise das atividades socioeconômicas aí desenvolvidas, desde a época da garimpagem até o turismo decorrente do Parque Nacional, com vistas a apreender a noção de valores dos moradores locais. Em seguida, procedeu-se uma valoração ambiental baseada no Método do Custo de Viagem para aferir os valores que os visitantes atribuem ao conjunto de bens e serviços ambientais do PNCV e arredores, em função de seus gastos com a viagem. Constatou-se que o Parque Nacional representa uma gama de valores para os moradores do Distrito e imediações, desde o econômico, ambiental e sociocultural, constituindo-se em um elemento de desenvolvimento para a região. Para os visitantes, os valores destacados referem-se aos valores monetários, relacionados ao custo de viagem, que revela uma disposição a pagar pelos bens e serviços que o PNCV possui. Também foram captados, mas não mensurados, valores não monetários vinculados ao conhecimento, ao convívio social, à cultura, entre outros, que uma viagem como essa propicia.

No description available.

Coastlines are particularly susceptible to the necessary trade-offs which occur between different ecosystem services. Should the areas be managed for biodiversity or for people? Where sandy beaches are found there is usually a management decision to be made between managing for recreation or for biodiversity. Many popular tourist beaches (particularly those with a Beach Award) are often groomed with mechanical equipment to remove any stranded seaweed and associated litter which can get entangled in the wrack. This is likely to be having a negative impact on coastal biodiversity, with wide ranging implications for the entire habitat, including the intertidal zone, sand dunes and shorebirds. Beached wrack should be allowed to naturally decompose providing a habitat for numerous species of macro-invertebrates. These macro-invertebrate communities not only include many endemic species found exclusively along the strandline but they also provide a very rich source of food for shorebirds. The re-mineralised nutrients resulting from the decomposed macrophytes should then become available to provide a rich source of nutrients to dune, strandline and marine ecosystems populations of the strandline. In previous studies grooming has been shown to have a negative impact on the invertebrates of the strandline and this study reveals that tidal range has an effect on the impacts of grooming with a higher tidal range having a more negative impact on the invertebrates. A study to observe the impacts of grooming on both adult plant and seed bank communities of the sand dunes found that grooming is having a negative impact on these populations. Grooming is predominantly driven by beach managers who aspire to gain Beach Awards in order to attract tourists to their beaches. Using non-market valuation in the form of a stated preference choice experiment and a travel cost model, it was observed that Beach Awards are not valued by beach goers but are instead influenced to visit a particular beach by good bathing water quality, high levels of biodiversity and low levels of litter. It was also shown that stranded seaweed on the beach does not deter visitors. Future management suggestions include attempting to reduce the confusion arising from the presence of multiple beach awards by either removing them altogether or by making their criteria more clear and direct with consistency in their design and designation. Bathing water quality should be completely removed from the Beach Award system and real-time information in the form of electronic signage and a publicly available App should replace it.

Une analyse de la fonction récréative de la forêt a été réalisée sur lensemble de la Région wallonne. Cette approche régionale confère à cette étude une indéniable originalité. La définition de cette fonction a été précisée en se limitant aux activités non marchandes. Lanalyse de la demande du public a été effectuée via trois modalités denquêtes : une enquête téléphonique auprès dun échantillon de la population wallonne et bruxelloise, une enquête au sein de 40 massifs et durant 6 périodes et enfin une enquête auprès des responsables de ladministration forestière régionale pour cartographier le niveau de fréquentation de lensemble des massifs forestiers wallons. Quant à loffre récréative de la forêt wallonne, elle a été appréhendée par lintermédiaire dune compilation de très nombreuses données. Ces données relatives à la demande et à loffre ont servi de base à lélaboration dun modèle destimation du nombre de visites pour lensemble de la forêt wallonne en distinguant la population locale, les touristes dun jour et les vacanciers. Une estimation économique de ces visites et de lensemble de la fonction récréative de la forêt wallonne a été effectuée en adaptant, moyennant un certain nombre dhypothèses, les méthodes des coûts de déplacement et de lévaluation contingente au contexte régional wallon ainsi quaux données disponibles. Lensemble de méthodes dinvestigation mises en oeuvre ont permis de quantifier limportance de la fonction récréative au niveau régional tout en soulignant aussi les variations locales. Des recommandations en termes de prise en compte de la fonction récréative dans la politique forestière, tant au niveau régional quau niveau local ont pu dès lors être proposées.

This thesis explores the theoretical basis of non-market valuation techniques; discusses in detail, the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) and the Travel Cost Method (TCM); highlights the advantages and disadvantages of various non-market valuation techniques and their suitability under different conditions; and identifies the Contingent Valuation Method as the most appropriate non-market valuation technique to apply to Pekapeka Swamp, the case study site. The overall objective of the study is to apply the most appropriate non-market valuation technique to estimate the total economic value (TEV) of the restoration and preservation of Pekapeka Swamp and to test Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s (HBRC) restoration programme for the Pekapeka Swamp using economic efficiency criteria. An appropriate contingent valuation mail survey questionnaire was designed to elicit responses to the dichotomous choice (DC) and open-ended valuation questions, and to collect socio-economic data and information on households’ attitude towards the environment. Responses to the survey questionnaire were analysed (using ordinary least squares regression for the open ended question, and logistic regression, for the DC question) to identify the factors that influence households’ willingness to pay (WTP) for the restoration and preservation of the Pekapeka Swamp and to estimate TEV. A number of functional forms of the logit and open-ended WTP models were fitted from which WTP functions were estimated. Households were asked a DC question followed by an open-ended question regarding the value they placed on the restoration and preservation of Pekapeka Swamp. Out of an initial mail-out of 958 questionnaires, an overall response rate of 46.13% was achieved after two follow-ups. Results from the final usable sample of 231, after removing protests and inconsistent responses, indicate that households in the Hawke’s Bay region would pay, on average, between NZ$30.00 and NZ$76.89 per annum for five years. Unit value ranges between NZ$17,898 and NZ$45,866 per hectare per year; and net present values for the restoration and preservation programme for Pekapeka Swamp based on our ‘best estimates’ range between NZ$5.05 million and NZ$18.20 million depending on the model and discount rate used.

The dissertation consists of four essays that treat different aspects or the evaluation of public policy. Two essays are applications of the travel cost method. In the first of these, recreational travel to the Swedish coast is studied to obtain estimates of the social benefits from reduced eutrophication of the sea. The second travel cost essay attempts at estimating how the probability that a woman will undergo mammographic screening for breast cancer is affected by the distance she has to travel to undergo such an examination. Using these estimated probabilities, the woman's valuation of the examination is obtained. The two other essays deal with automobile taxation. One essay analyzes how taxation and the Swedish eco-labeling system of automobiles have affected the sale of different car models. The last essay treats the effects of taxes and of scrappage premiums on the life length of cars. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 1999