Heterogeneous Preferences Over Recreation Sites in Wildfire Prone Areas (original) (raw)
Related papers
Does personal experience affect choice-based preferences for wildfire protection programs?
2013
In this paper, we investigate homeowner preferences and willingness to pay for wildfire protection programs using a choice experiment with three attributes: risk, loss, and cost. A phone-mail-phone survey was used to collect data from homeowners predominantly living in medium and high wildfire risk communities in Florida. We tested three hypotheses: (1) homeowner preferences for wildfire protection programs are risk averse, (2) past personal experience with wildfires increases homeowners’ willingness to pay for protection programs, and (3) subjective perception of risk influences willingness to pay for protection programs. Preference heterogeneity among survey respondents was examined using two econometric models and risk preferences were evaluated by comparing willingness to pay for wildfire protection programs against expected monetary losses. The results showed that nearly all respondents had risk seeking preferences. Only respondents who had personal experience with wildfire imp...
The choice of forest site for recreation: A revealed preference analysis using spatial data
Ecosystem Services
In this paper, we investigate the factors that can influence the site choice of recreation. Relevant attributes are identified by using spatial data analysis from a questionnaire asking people to indicate their most recent forest visits by pinpointing on a map. The main objectives of the study are 1) to examine the preferences of visitors for different forest attributes using data from actual visits and 2) to illustrate how many alternative sites needs to be considered for estimation in case of a large number of potential recreational sites. Estimation is performed using a conditional logit as well as a random parameter logit model. The variables that are found to affect the choice of forest location include: distance, forest area, tree species composition, forest density, availability of historical sites, terrain differences, and state ownership. Regarding the second research objective, we empirically show the possibility of getting consistent parameter estimates through random selection of alternatives. We find that increasing the number of alternatives increases consistency of parameter estimates.
JoDLA, 2023
The aim of this study is to examine public preferences for urban riparian corridors in arid regions using simulation and visual quality analysis scenarios. Ecological landscapes are often subject to trade-offs with aesthetic landscapes that include micro and macro environmental factors such as manicured landscapes. It is suggested that there is a preference for aesthetics in landscape design; however, it is unclear how laypeople prioritize aesthetics over different ecological factors in landscape scenes. This study uses a Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) to elicit the preferences of current or former residents of Jeddah City, Saudi Arabia, for multiple landscape scenes. The method combines ecological landscape characteristics (adopted from the QBR index) found in the study area in Jeddah and aesthetic characteristics commonly suggested in landscape design projects. Participants in this study were exposed to a set of illustrated landscape scenes, including various aesthetic and ecological elements configurations. Participants' choices revealed the influence of their ecological and aesthetic values. Results show that people may prefer unmaintained ecological landscapes if minimal design interventions were provided. This will prevent trading off the ecological unmaintained landscape with aesthetically maintained landscapes within the study area. This study will help researchers and landscape architects advance visual preference research further into the domain of empirical studies. It presents a new powerful technique to elicit the preference of an individual element in landscape scenes, which improves the precision of community-based decision-making.
The sources of preference heterogeneity for nature restoration scenarios
2012
Due to the steady reduction of nature sites in urbanised regions, nature restoration projects are now a focal point of public interest. Policy-makers are required to balance public preferences for nature sites, with the high costs of nature restoration projects. Landscape preferences are, in general, positively correlated with ecological preferences. However this relationship is far from straightforward. Past studies show that different factors, such as personal, site-specific and spatial characteristics, influence preferences, while at the same time, little is known about the relative importance of these factors. This article proposes a conceptual approach for gaining insights into preference heterogeneity, in the context of stated preference environmental valuation studies. We conduct a choice experiment at the Drongengoed (Belgium); an afforested heathland with a diversified mosaic of natural habitats. The experiment determines public preferences towards nature restoration scenar...
Valuing enhancements to forest recreation using choice experiment and contingent behaviour methods
Journal of Forest Economics, 2007
This research utilises two valuation techniques (a frequency-based choice experiment model and a contingent behaviour model) to value a range of improvements to recreational facilities in forest and woodlands in Great Britain. We provide the first comparison in the literature of welfare results from these two approaches. Four groups of forest users are targeted in this research: cyclists, horse riders, nature watchers and general forest visitors, and look also at “sub-groupings” within these classes of forest user. We found that heterogeneity of preferences exists within each of these groups. In particular, more specialist forest user groups attain generally higher values for improvements than general users. For example, downhill mountain bikers were willing to pay more for the provision of dedicated downhill courses than family cyclists for easy cycle trails. It is also argued that the use of a frequency-based choice task in the choice experiment has advantages over the more traditional choice tasks for applications such as forest recreation since a frequency-based task better reflects actual behaviour and encourages respondents to pay closer attention to the “distance travelled” attribute.
Joint estimation using revealed and stated preference data: An application using a national forest
Journal of Forest Economics, 2013
We combine contingent behaviour with travel cost data to estimate the change in the recreational use value of a National Forest due to quality and price changes. Instead of the usual improvement scenario, a hypothetical deterioration in the conditions of the forest due to a fire is considered. A dataset containing five observations for each respondent enabled the estimation of three models for which the number of scenarios differed. The results show that visitors are sensitive to price and quality changes and that in the forest fire scenario the intended number of trips would be reduced and that respondents would experience a welfare loss. Signs of inconsistency between preferences expressed by revealed and intended behaviour were found. This research also provides some indications that strategic bias affects answers to price changes.
Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 2001
This analysis examines the dynamic path of recreational values following a forest fire in three different states in the intermountain western United States. The travel cost demand analysis found that annual recreation values after a fire follow a highly nonlinear intertemporal path. The path is S-shaped, providing a range of benefits and losses in the years following a fire. While the results discourage the use of a single value throughout the Intermountain West, they do provide a range of likely values that public land managers can apply to fire-affected areas in their jurisdictions. Résumé : Les auteurs ont analysé l'évolution des valeurs récréatives suite à un feu de forêt dans trois États différents situés dans la zone montagneuse de l'ouest des États-Unis. L'analyse de la demande via le coût des voyages révèle que les valeurs récréatives annuelles suivent une courbe inter-temporelle fortement non linéaire après un feu. La courbe est en forme de S et fournit toute une gamme de bénéfices et de pertes au cours des années qui suivent un feu. Bien que les résultats suggèrent de ne pas utiliser une valeur unique partout dans la zone montagneuse de l'ouest, ils fournissent une gamme de valeurs probables que les gestionnaires de terres publiques peuvent appliquer aux zones affectées par le feu dans leurs juridictions. [Traduit par la Rédaction] Englin et al. 1844 Recreation-demand model Modeling the demand for hiking trails should address the fact that a characteristic of hiking demand is that trips taken to a site are typically small integers. A class of models that
2018
This paper focuses on the e↵ect of wildfires on the value of recreation in four national forests surrounding the Los Angeles metropolitan area, namely, the Angeles, Cleveland, Los Padres, and San Bernardino. These forests are unique for multiple reasons. First, they represent the primary outdoor recreation opportunity to many urban residents due to their proximity to the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Second, because they share similar characteristics and are accessible for day trips from Los Angeles, they are substitutes. Third, their vegetation, which consists of shrubs and oak woods in the low lands and conifers at high elevation, is highly prone to wildfire. Last, they are under great levels of stress due to severe droughts, increased frequency and intensity of wildfires, and their heavy use by the public. For example, California recently experienced its largest wildfire in contemporary records, the Thomas fire which burned over 280,000 acres including large portions of the Los Padres National Forest. The recreation value of these sites and an understanding of how these values change as a result of increased wildfire is thus policy-relevant. In addition, the paper makes several novel contributions: first, our empirical strategy allows us to exploit time variation to recover e↵ects fire has on views along with a full set of site-level fixed e↵ects to control for omitted variables; second, we replicate the novel method of Von Haefen (2015) to estimate a zonal travel cost model within the rich substitution structure of a nested logit demand system, and third, we apply the model to value some of the e↵ects of California's largest modern wildfire.
Marine Policy, 2018
In order to analyze preferences for various management options at the Atlantic Islands National Park in Spain, a stated choice survey was carried out. The complexity of responses and the identification of a wide variety of heterogeneous preferences and motivations were studied through the analysis of follow up questions. The application of a latent class model employing the information gathered in the follow-up questions has proved useful to disentangle different preferences and motivations. The results show that not considering this heterogeneity in the estimation process may lead to biased results, and therefore to an erroneous interpretation of individual's management preferences. In particular, results seem to indicate that those individuals with rational responses prefer to pay more for actions to improve the quality of the National Park rather than to expand it; while those with a protest attitude are more reactive to some measures, such as visits control and the creation of smoking areas.