Investigating habitat value to inform contaminant remediation options: approach

Habitat valuation methods are most often developed and used to prioritize candidate lands for conservation. In this study the intent of habitat valuation was to inform the decision-making process for remediation of chemical contaminants on specific lands or surface water bodies. Methods were developed to summarize dimensions of habitat value for six representative aquatic and terrestrial contaminated sites at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP) on the US Department of Energy Oak Ridge Reservation in Oak Ridge, TN, USA. Several general valuation metrics were developed for three broad categories: site use by groups of organisms, site rarity, and use value added from spatial context. Examples of use value metrics are taxa richness, a direct measure of number of species that inhabit an area, complexity of habitat structure, an indirect measure of potential number of species that may use the area, and land use designation, a measure of the length of time that the area will be available for use. Measures of rarity included presence of rare species or communities. Examples of metrics for habitat use value added from spatial context included similarity or complementarity of neighboring habitat patches and presence of habitat corridors. More specific metrics were developed for groups of organisms in contaminated streams, ponds, and terrestrial ecosystems. For each of these metrics, cutoff values for high, medium, and low habitat value were suggested, based on available information on distributions of organisms and landscape features, as well as habitat use information. A companion paper describes the implementation of these habitat valuation metrics and scoring criteria in the remedial investigation for ETTP.     

Air Quality Improvement Estimation and Assessment Using Contingent Valuation Method, A Case Study in Beijing

The aim of the paper is to estimate and assess residents' willingness to pay to improve air quality in the urban area of Beijing using the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM). The mean willingness to pay (WTP) for a 50% reduction of harmful substances in the air was 143 CNY per household per year, and the total WTP of the residents in the study area was 336 million CNY per year. As a proportion of household annual income, the mean WTP amounted to 0.7%. Four socio-economic variables were found to have significant impacts on residents' willingness to pay. The analysis results illustrated that WTP increases with income and education level, and decreases with household population and age. The willingness was larger for residents in the urban districts than those in the suburban districts. It was found that most of the protest bids lay on interviewees' incomplete perception of the values of environmental amenity. The influence of household income on people's willingness to pay illustrated in this study reflects a causal force of Beijing's transition to market economy that households created to have disposable income are more likely to care about environmental quality. The results of this study strike an optimistic note on the possibility of measuring the total economic value of environmental quality improvement by using the CVM in China. Suggestions on implication of the CVM for both academics and policy makers are provided in the paper.     

Beyond buffer zone protection: a comparative study of park and buffer zone products' importance to villagers living inside Royal Chitwan National Park and to villagers living in its buffer zone

Even after 30 years of strict de jure protection, today's de facto extraction of products from Nepal's Royal Chitwan National Park (RCNP) and their great economic importance to local households suggests that this reality should be explicitly internalised in managing this world heritage park. Several studies have quantified local people's use of protected areas and estimated the value of such areas to them. However, few studies incorporate economic analyses to investigate the effect of management interventions on local communities' resource use and collection behaviour. In Nepal, buffer zones and especially buffer zone community forestry are seen as means to define and demarcate places, where local people may legally extract goods that are either identical to or relevant substitutes for products that are collected in protected areas. The intention is to resolve park-people conflicts over resource use. This article presents the findings of an in-depth study of the importance of natural resources to the livelihoods of 18 households. One village was located inside RCNP with no realistic alternatives to Park resources, while the other is located in the buffer zone with equal distance to the Park, a national forest and their community forest. For each household, the collection of products, allocation of time, and purchase and sale of goods were recorded daily through 12 consecutive months and economic values were calculated on the basis of local market prices and recorded quantities. The study shows that products from RCNP are of great importance to the livelihoods of local people. Furthermore, we find that products collected in the national forest substitute products from the Park, while the substitution effect of the community forest is small. Accordingly, the study illustrates that, irrespective of buffer zone community forestry, there is still a gap between local people's need for supplementing natural resources and their rights to satisfy them on a legal basis, which is likely to be unsustainable in the longer term. This calls for a thorough evaluation of actual park-people relations and how these may be improved through local participation that goes beyond the current form of buffer zone community forestry and the admitted 7-14 annual days of open access grass cutting within the park.     

可持续发展定量研究的几种新方法评介

可持续发展衡量的指标体系及其评价方法和模型研究是可持续发展研究的重要内容,它可以为政府的可持续发展决策提供重要的科学依据和优先考虑的问题,还可以为公众提供可持续发展的有效信息。在分析国际上和国内衡量可持续发展的指标体系的基础上,本文介绍了９０年代中期以来国际上提出的几种新的、有代表性的基于货币化估值的指标体系和以具体生物物理衡量的指标体系,并系统分析比较了它们的优特点。     

Derivative mine valuation: strategic investment decisions in competitive markets

Successful management in competitive markets requires evaluation methods that respond to global market dynamics and provide investors with relevant information to make strategic investment decisions. These strategic decisions include decisions on investment timing, feasibility study and risk management and mine operating options. Conventional methods do not have the built-in capabilities to help investors handle these strategic issues. Advances in modern finance have had profound impacts on financial markets for options, futures and collaterized securities and offer appropriate tools in solving these problems. In this paper, the authors have extended the Brennan and Schwartz mineral resource model to develop the derivative mine valuation method based on the dynamic arbitrage theory. A copper mining venture has been evaluated using the derivative mine valuation and conventional methods. The results show that the derivative mine valuation method allows investors to maximize the venture's market value by exercising these strategic options.     

Ethics and Environmental Attitudes With Implications for Economic Valuation

This paper tests the hypothesis that different ethical belief systems are unrelated to the attitude an individual takes towards the environment. More specifically, the neoclassical economic approach is seen to require a belief in utilitarianism while many individuals may operate on the basis of a deontological or rights-based approach to decision-making. The concern with this relationship arises from the use of the cost–benefit analysis approach to environmental policy and the specific application of the contingent valuation method. Evidence is found to support the view that environmentalists choose to operate on a rights-based approach which rejects the relative welfare arguments of economics and positively attributes compensation to future generations for environmental damages. This implies that the contingent valuation of environmental attributes will lead to values which are biased towards technocentric optimists and against the environmental movement. In terms of policy, environmental management on the basis of totalling economic values is liable to be undemocratic because of the systematic exclusion of a section of the general public.     

RESERVOIR WATER LEVEL IMPACTS ON RECREATION,PROPERTY, AND NONUSER VALUES1

ABSTRACT: Wise interbasin management of Southeastern U.S. water resources is important for future development. Alabama‐Coosa‐Tallapoosa and Apalachicola‐Flint‐Chattahoochee River basins' water usage has evolved from power generation to multiple uses. Recreation and housing have become increasingly valuable components. Changing use patterns imply changing resource values. This study focused on six Alabama reservoirs, using contingent valuation questions in on‐site, telephone, and mail surveys to estimate impacts on lakefront property values, recreational expenditures, and preservation values for scenarios of permanent changes to reservoir water quantity. As summer full‐pool duration decreased, lakefront property value decreased, and as duration increased, property values increased, but at a lesser rate. Similar findings occurred for winter draw down alternatives. Permanent one‐foot reductions in summer full‐pool water levels resulted in a 4 to 15 percent decrease in lakefront property values. Recreational expenditures decreased 4 to 30 percent for each one‐foot lowering of reservoir water levels. Current nonusers of the six reservoirs showed strong preferences for protecting study reservoirs with willingness to pay values of 47 per household or approximately 29 million for the entire six‐reservoir watershed basin area. Resource management based on historic use patterns may be inappropriate and more frequent and comprehensive valuation of reservoir resources is needed.     

江汉油田废弃水基钻井液对环境的影响研究

通过对废弃水基钻井液基本组分及生物毒性效应的分析,详细评价了废弃水基钻井液对浮游生物生长、卤虫孵化、土壤植物及糠虾的生物毒性影响。结果表明：江汉油田废弃钻井液对无节生物幼虫的影响不严重,不会影响卤虫的孵化率,但会影响其孵化速度;由于废钻井液中的含盐量高,ｐＨ值较高,因此对土壤及植物的生长有一定影响;其ＬＣ５０均大于３０００ｍｇ／Ｌ,基本上符合美国联邦环保局（ＥＰＡ）颁布的陆相水域排放钻井液和钻屑的条例。     

USING CONTINGENT VALUATION AND BENEFIT TRANSFER TO EVALUATE WATER SUPPLY IMPROVEMENT BENEFITS1

ABSTRACT: Many water systems in small cities and rural areas throughout the United States are facing water quality and supply problems. These problems are typically not the result of an unexpected event, but are the result of growth trends or decreasing water quality experienced over several years. This analysis uses the contingent valuation and benefit transfer methods to evaluate the willingness to pay for a rural water system in northcentral Montana. Both of the procedures resulted in similar values, ranging from about $4.05 to $7.50 per household per month for urban residents and $5.40 to $11.50 per household per month for rural residents, which is equal to 11 percent to 23 percent of current average water costs. The willingness to pay estimates do not include non-household water users. This analysis shows that useful planning information can be obtained from relatively inexpensive contingent valuation mail survey data and the benefit transfer method as long as the limitations of the data are understood. The willingness to pay for ensuring good quality rural water supplies in the future is likely to be low compared to the costs of extensive diversion and treatment systems. Willingness to pay estimates provide decision makers with information that can be used to avoid building a large water supply system that water users do not want to connect to because of high costs.