Estimating Willingness to Pay for a Future Recreational Park Atop the Current Jakuševec Landfill in Zagreb, Croatia

Marija Opačak,Erda Wang

doi:10.3390/su11216038

Marija Opačak, Erda Wang

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su11216038

Copy DOI

Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Oct 30, 2019
Citations: 15	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Dalian University of Technology

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the economic value potentially accrued by a prospective city park, which is planned to be built as a result of strategic land reclamation of a current landfill in Croatia, based on parkgoers’ marginal willingness to pay. The idea of this land transformation is inspired by recent debate on the issue of how to address air quality and other environmental concerns over the disposal of the landfill site in the city. Like any other nonmarket valuation studies, choosing a proper survey method is a critical step for a successful economic valuation study. We adopted a double bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation method in survey design and data collection, followed by parameter estimation using the logit model. The study reveals—(1) the support of 70% of respondents was estimated; (2) as much as 96% of the respondents are willing to visit the park being presented to the respondents along with the survey questionnaire. The economic valuation indicates that the city residents are willing to pay €3.63 per person for the park’s entrance fees, which can be translated into an aggregate of €2,867,762. By referring this value information to the park budget, we may persuade policy makers to commit to a transformation of the current landfill.

Highlights

Waste management sites such as landfills constitute a challenging problem facing city planners and policy-makers, for example in India [1,2], Vietnam [3], Sri Lanka [4], Australia [5], Germany [6], Japan [7], South Africa [8]
Two statistical models were estimated, single bounded and double bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation method (DCCVM), yet this study is more interested into capturing the willingness to pay (WTP) after the “follow up” question
Waste management sites such as landfills, decommissioned animal feedlots, and manufacturing plants constitute a challenging problem faced by city management, especially for regions and locations which have limited land areas to be utilized for such a purpose

Summary

Introduction

Waste management sites such as landfills constitute a challenging problem facing city planners and policy-makers, for example in India [1,2], Vietnam [3], Sri Lanka [4], Australia [5], Germany [6], Japan [7], South Africa [8] This challenge is related to several constraints, such as land space used for waste disposal and land reuse planning. Urban parks contribute to the beautification of the city and have positive effects on environmental quality, including air freshness, carbon sequestration, water purity, as well as biodiversity They improve city dwellers’ overall quality of life in areas including physical health, social cohesion, tourism and employment and revenues [15,16,17,18,19]. Green spaces can act as leisure, sport, and recreational resources, reducing criminal and anti-social behavior as well as cutting down on obesity, since such spaces encourage physical fitness and exercise [20,21,22,23]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion