Abstract
Open spaces, including waterfront areas, are critical to coastal communities and provide many benefits, including recreation opportunities, economic development, ecological benefits, and other ecosystem services. However, it is not clear how values of waterfront ecosystem services vary across geographical areas which prevents development and adoption of site-specific natural resource conservation plans and suitable long-term land management strategies. This study estimated the monetary value of distance to different waterfront types in coastal counties of Mississippi and Alabama (U.S.) using a geographically weighted regression (GWR) approach as an extension to a traditional hedonic pricing method (HPM). In addition, the study utilized publicly available data from the U.S. Census Bureau instead of certified rolls of county property assessors and Multiple Listing Service (MLS) data which can be costly and difficult to obtain. Residents valued most waterfront types which was reflected in greater assessed prices for houses in proximity to these waterfronts. However, the value of ecosystem services associated with waterfronts differed geospatially. The marginal implicit prices ranged from −$6343 to $6773 per km depending on a waterfront type. These estimates will be useful to city developers, land-use planners, and other stakeholders to make more informed and balanced decisions related to natural resource preservation associated with coastal areas, land-use planning, and zoning. In addition, information from this study can be used in developing healthy living environments where local economy can benefit from increased property tax revenues associated with waterfronts and their ecosystem services.
Highlights
As coastal areas experience rapid population growth, waterfront open space is increasingly limited resulting in overuse and a decreased potential to provide ecological, sociocultural, and economic benefits [1,2]
Findings suggested that the geographically weighted regression (GWR) model was more suitable than the ordinary least squares (OLS) model because it explained 57.2% of total model variation while maintaining lower RSS and AICc score
This study suggested there was spatial variation and the global (OLS) model did not capture the geographical variations in house values across the study area and provided ambiguous coefficients reflecting a net effect of proximity to waterfront ecosystem services that may not be appropriate for all areas
Summary
As coastal areas experience rapid population growth, waterfront open space is increasingly limited resulting in overuse and a decreased potential to provide ecological, sociocultural, and economic benefits [1,2]. Urban waterfronts represent publicly or privately-owned landscapes that are part of a city and in contact with a water body such as an ocean, lake, river, or estuary [3,4,5,6]. These areas provide many benefits and ecosystem services such as natural scenery; ecological benefits such as wildlife habitat and urban heat reduction; recreational opportunities such as hiking and boating; and produce economic benefits related to higher real estate values and increased tax revenues [7,8,9,10]. Distribution of waterfronts across the community landscape, including its socioeconomic geography, can identify ways to improve resident access to open space ecosystem services.
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