Abstract
Ecological river restoration projects aim to revitalize healthy and self-sustaining river systems that can provide irreplaceable benefits to human society. Cheonggyecheon and Anyangcheon are two sites of recent river restoration projects in Korea. To assess the economic value of two rivers, count data was collected to conduct the individual travel cost method (ITCM) in this study. Five statistical models such as the Poisson, the negative binomial, the zero-truncated Poisson, the negative binomial, and negative binomial model adjusted for both truncation and endogenous stratification were used in the analysis due to the nature of count data. Empirical results showed that regressors were statistically significant and corresponded to conventional consumer theory. Since collected count data indicated over-dispersion and endogenous stratification, the adjusted Negative Binomial was selected as an optimal model to analyze the recreational value of Cheonggyecheon and Anyangcheon. Estimates of the annual economic value of two river restoration projects were approximately US $170.1 million and US $50.5 million, respectively.
Highlights
Healthy and self-sustaining river and stream systems provide various irreplaceable benefits, which we often treat as ecosystem goods and services including abiotic and biotic components, that enable the sustainability of human life [1,2]
There is a wide range of studies that have investigated the economic value of restoration projects using various valuation methods, including the contingent valuation method with survey data and the travel cost method with count data
To minimize problems of endogenous stratification due to the survey data collecting on site, the Poisson model adjusted for both truncation and endogenous stratification (TSP) and the negative binomial model adjusted for both truncation and endogenous stratification (TSNB) can be applied
Summary
Healthy and self-sustaining river and stream systems provide various irreplaceable benefits, which we often treat as ecosystem goods and services including abiotic (e.g., water) and biotic components (e.g., fishes), that enable the sustainability of human life [1,2]. Most on-going or completed river restoration projects around the world have concentrated to meet both environmental and economic goals which are controversial targets to achieve simultaneously Such projects are being conducted conventionally by either central or local government aimed at specific targets and purposes with billions in public investments. There is a wide range of studies that have investigated the economic value of restoration projects using various valuation methods, including the contingent valuation method with survey data and the travel cost method with count data The latter, called the revealed preference method, is widely used to analyze the consumer welfare attributable to quality improvement on a recreation site. We investigated the revealed preference in terms of consumer welfare in two distinguished and completed river restoration projects in the Republic of Korea and analyzed the effectiveness of public investment in improving environmental quality at the rivers. The last section concludes the paper with discussions of policy implications and limitations of this research
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