Recreation benefits of natural area characteristics at the El Yunque National Forest

The paper applies the Contingent Valuation Method using a visitor survey to determine trip values to three rivers in northeastern Puerto Rico. Sample data were obtained from 984 interviews conducted in 13 sites during the summer months. The trip value is statistically decomposed into components representing natural features and recreation activities. The median net economic value of a river visit without waterfalls or foot trails is $96. Recreation at rivers with both waterfalls and foot trails has a median value of $138 per trip. The presence of waterfalls accounts for $23 and foot trails $19 per trip. This information can be pertinent for managers in selecting recreation site locations and protecting them from competing uses.     

我国游乐设施安全法规体系的建立与分析

从我国游乐设施相关法律、法规、规章、技术规范和技术标准5个层次入手,梳理并分析了我国目前游乐设施安全法规与技术标准体系,针对游乐设施法律的欠缺、安全技术规范不能涵盖全部游乐设施及其安全监察、游乐设施的设计理念偏颇、现有游乐设施法规标准对游乐设施的一些要求与国际不接轨且量化要求不足等问题,笔者提出了国家应尽快制定颁布《特种设备安全法》或游乐设施的相关法律,早日填补游乐设施在型式试验、安全评价、评估、寿命预测、预警和进出口大型游乐设施监督管理办法的安全技术规范空白,改变游乐设施设计理念,完善游乐设施安全技术规范和技术标准的量化要求,尽快使我国游乐设施安全法规与技术标准体系适应国情并与国际体系接轨。     

Attitudes and Perceptions about Ecological Resources, Hazards, and Future Land Use of People Living near the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory

This paper examines the attitudes and perceptions of local people about ecological resources, environmental hazards, and future land use of the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL). Such monitoring of attitudes is an important aspect of environmental assessment. We interviewed 262 people who attended the 42nd Annual Free Fishermen's Breakfast at St. Anthony, Idaho, on 23 March 1997. We tested the null hypotheses that there were no differences in perceptions about ecological resources, hazards and future land use of INEEL as a function of gender, age, education, and place of residence. Dumping trash in the ocean and cutting rainforests rated as the environmental problems of highest concern, and ozone, radon and high voltage lines rated the lowest; cleaning up Department of Energy sites rated intermediate. Respondents were most willing to expend government funds to make drinking water clean. Three significant differences were found: 1) women rated environmental problems as more severe than did men, and women were more willing to expend federal funds to solve these problems, 2) respondents under 30 years of age rated environmental problems as more severe than older people, and they were more willing to spend money to solve them, and, 3) respondents who had not finished high school were more concerned with environmental problems and were more willing to spend money to solve them than respondents with a high school education. Maintaining INEEL as a National Environmental Research Park (NERP) rated as the most preferred future land use, followed by continued reprocessing of nuclear materials and hunting. Using INEEL for housing and additional nuclear waste storage rated the lowest. Men rated grazing livestock and additional nuclear waste storage higher than did women. In general, respondents from 30 – 49 rated several economic uses (hunting, grazing livestock, growing crops) higher than did people in other age groups. Respondents with some college rated these economic uses higher than did respondents who had not graduated from high school. These results indicate that respondents living around INEEL believe that INEEL should continue with a reprocessing and NERP mission, but that other peripheral uses, such as hunting, hiking and grazing, should be allowed on some of the land. These views should aid in environmental assessment of the site, and in developing further management plans for INEEL.     

EcoEffect for outdoor environments; the process of tool development

Numerous evaluation tools for the built environment have been developed in recent decades only some however integrate the outdoor environment. In EcoEffect, a Swedish assessment system, the outdoor environment is one of five areas covered. The purpose of this article is to describe and discuss various issues that evolved during the testing and developing phase of the EcoEffect Outdoor tool. The tool is designed to cover all important health risks to people in an outdoor environment, to show the relationship between circumstances in the outdoor environment and the levels specified in Swedish legislation and to enable a speedy and accurate assessment of the outdoor environment on a property. The work has been carried out in cooperation with experts, residents and representatives of the construction and property sectors. The tool has been tested on existing properties, discussed in focus groups, and has been subject to theoretical development. The results have provided a basis for changing both the EcoEffect Outdoors tool and the framework of the EcoEffect system. Important conclusions here include the notion that a clear account should be given of the fundamental values of the tool, that environmental impact should be reported in the same way throughout the whole assessment process and that the tool has to adhere to both scientific and practical validity to be useful for the building sector.     

THE WATER RESOURCES COUNCIL'S PROPOSED PRINCIPLES AND STANDARDS - AN ECONOMIC COMMENT1

The way the Water Resources Council proposes to measure the beneficial effects of national economic development and recreation is questioned and alternatives suggested. In measuring the former, the assumptions specified by the Council are questioned because they do not hold true in the market place. In addition, the Council's method of simulating a price per recreation day implies that an arbitrary price be selected from a range and multiplied times the number of days at no charge for use of the facilities. It is contended that these procedures would over state the economic benefits which in the real market would be measured by the selected price times the quantity demanded at that price.     

旅行成本法在我国应用中存在的几个问题

我国旅行成本法案例研究多数未分清旅行成本与旅游目的地本身价格的关系,推导的游憩需求曲线是旅行成本-旅游人次模型,而不是旅游目的地本身的价格-旅游人次需求曲线。文章具体说明了区域旅行成本法的基本原理及操作方法,并用乔光华文章数据重新对达里诺尔国家级自然保护区游憩价值进行计算,对旅行成本的构成等问题进行了讨论,得出其消费者剩余为0.9221×108元a/,比原研究中的0.0937×108元a/高出近10倍。认为乔光华等的研究在推断游憩需求曲线时存在方法上的问题,直接将旅行成本和时间价值作为游憩价值不符合旅行成本法的基本原理和公共物品无(或低)市场价格的经济理论。还对调整后的旅行成本数据进行了计算,得到保护区游憩价值为1.3581×108元a/。     

我国大型游乐设施风险分析研究

通过对我国大型游乐设施的发展概况、风险管理现状、危险因素辨识、风险评价和风险控制等五个方面进行了分析总结.研究发现,目前已初步建立游乐设施法规体系,逐渐形成了法律、法规、规章、安全技术规范和技术标准的五层次体系,大型游乐设施运营单位安全管理正在向标准化、体系化管理方向发展.我国还没有对各类大型游乐设施进行危险性分析,有关标准和规范中并没有提到明确的风险分析和评估方法,在游乐设施的设计、制造、安装、使用、改造、修理和检测过程中也没有形成一套系统、科学的风险分析和评估方法.     

Perception and Attitude of Residents Toward Urban Green Spaces in Guangzhou (China)

Fast economic and social changes in recent years in China have brought massive expansion, redevelopment, and restructuring of cities. These changes offer cities the opportunity to improve environmental quality through urban green spaces (UGSs) and to address the challenges of meeting community aspirations. This study explored peoples’ minds concerning UGSs in Guangzhou city in south China in relation to the following: (1) knowledge and perception of 25 ecosystem services and 8 negative impacts; (2) attitude toward site condition and management; (3) expectation of landscape design; and (4) preference ranking of venues. A questionnaire was designed to solicit opinions from 340 respondents randomly chosen from residents living in the study area. The results indicated widespread recognition of ecosystem services and strong support of UGS programs. Negative responses were weakly expressed. Amelioration of urban microclimate and environmental quality were emphasized. Environmental functions stressed in publicity programs, together with aggravating environmental problems in the city, tended to focus respondents’ attention on UGS benefits. Wildlife habitat, species conservation and other natural ecosystem services drew limited concerns. Awareness of economic benefits was very low. Visual-landscape contributions with strong preference for naturalistic design and recreational benefits were highlighted. Compared with other countries, Guangzhou residents were characterized by visual–scenic–recreation orientation and pragmatic–utilitarian perception of UGSs, reflecting underlying differences in the understanding of inherent ecosystem services of green spaces. Relevant UGS policies and practices could adopt the approaches of market survey, citizen participation, and precision planning in order to meet increasingly mature and refined demands. Citizens’ understanding of high-order ecosystem services could be enhanced to encourage appreciation of nature and their associated benefits.     

Is love of nature in the US becoming love of electronic media? 16-year downtrend in national park visits explained by watching movies,playing video games,internet use,and oil prices

After 50 years of steady increase, per capita visits to US national parks have declined since 1988. This decline, coincident with the rise in electronic entertainment media, may represent a shift in recreation choices with broader implications for the value placed on biodiversity conservation and environmentally responsible behavior. We compared the decline in per capita visits with a set of indicators representing alternate recreation choices and constraints. The Spearman correlation analyses found this decline in NPV to be significantly negatively correlated with several electronic entertainment indicators: hours of television, (rs=-0.743, P<0.001), video games (rs=-0.773, P<0.001), home movies (rs=-0.788, P<0.001), theatre attendance (rs=-0.587, P<0.025) and internet use (rs=-0.783, P<0.001). There were also significant negative correlations with oil prices (rs=-0.547, P<0.025), foreign travel (rs=-0.452, P<0.05), and Appalachian Trail hikers (rs=-0.785, P<0.001). Income was significantly positively correlated with foreign travel (rs=0.621, P<0.005) but negatively correlated with national park visits (rs=-0.697, P<0.005). There was no significant correlation of mean number of vacation days, indicating available vacation time is probably not a factor. Federal funding actually increased during this period, and so was rejected as a probable factor. Park capacity was rejected as limiting since both total overnight stays and visits at the seven most popular parks rose well into the mid-1990s. Aging of baby boomers was also rejected as they are only now reaching retirement age, and thus during the period of visitation decline were still of prime family vacation age. Multiple linear regression of four of the entertainment media variables as well as oil prices explains 97.5% of this recent decline (r=0.975, multiple r2=0.950, adjusted multiple r2=0.925, SE=0.015, F=37.800, P<0.0001). We may be seeing evidence of a fundamental shift away from people's appreciation of nature (biophilia, Wilson 1984) to 'videophilia,' which we here define as "the new human tendency to focus on sedentary activities involving electronic media." Such a shift would not bode well for the future of biodiversity conservation.