Willingness to Pay for the Maintenance of Green Infrastructure in Six Chinese Pilot Sponge Cities

Xiu-Juan Qiao,Thomas B Randrup

doi:10.3390/w14030428

Abstract

Due to the increasingly devastating impact of pluvial flooding on human beings’ lives and properties in cities, the use of green infrastructure to manage stormwater onsite is becoming more popular worldwide. The maintenance of green infrastructure to ensure its function has become one of the most pressing tasks facing policy makers. However, there is limited research regarding the willingness to pay the stormwater fee as a form of maintenance funding. This study utilized contingent valuation data obtained from a survey of 1101 respondents living in six pilot sponge cities in China to estimate the willingness to pay for the green infrastructure maintenance. The findings indicated that two-thirds of all respondents were willing to pay, 17% would like to pay around 6–10 RMB/month (0.95–1.59 US dollars/month), and 17.8% would like to pay more than 20 RMB/month (3.2 US dollars/month). The educational level and age of the respondents were significant determinants of the probability of willingness to pay and the amount they would like to pay. Knowledge of the concept of sponge cities was another significant influencing factor for the willingness to pay, but it did not influence the amount of payment. The findings could help policy makers make better strategies regarding the maintenance of green infrastructure and its costs.

Highlights

Introduction and Richard CSmardonContinuous urbanization and global climate change have created great challenges for the piped-drainage systems, causing cities around the world to suffer from waterlogging or problems related to pluvial flooding [1,2,3]
The method has been used in many similar studies [1,3,21,37,42,44,45,46,47]; the method is well described and tested, but to our knowledge has not been applied in assessing willingness to pay for green infrastructure (GI) maintenance
Based on the bivariate correlation analysis between willingness to pay (WTP) and variables, the results showed that the places and the cities where the questionnaires were collected did not influence the WTP

Summary

Introduction

Continuous urbanization and global climate change have created great challenges for the piped-drainage systems, causing cities around the world to suffer from waterlogging or problems related to pluvial flooding [1,2,3]. GI is often used to tackle climate change impacts by favoring infiltration, reducing runoff volumes, and providing reliable and efficient adaptation measures [4,5,6]. It has been reported that maintenance is of significance for ensuring GI functions effectively [11,12,13,14,15]. In early 2008, it was reported that to keep wet ponds functioning, routine monitoring and regular sediment cleaning are necessary [16].

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion