Greenbelt investment with temporal preference in uncertain environments

Abstract

While greenbelt is recognized as an essential part of sustainable cities, yet its investment with time preference can be affected by environments. Here, we demonstrated that the present bias problem substantially impeded the willingness to pay for greenbelt. We proposed a game with environmental feedbacks where investment in greenbelt was assessed based only on temporal preference. By studying urban environments of Tokyo, we concluded that total investment increased 2.7 times due to long-term preference in real-world scenario. Total investment increased 1.04 times due to urban warming, 1.1 times due to population centrality, and 1.2 times due to urban greening. Also, population aging of Tokyo reduced investment in greenbelt. Our findings highlight the understanding of intergenerational investment in urban policy to support development of adaptation strategy to environments.