(WP 2005-05) Assessing the Determinants of Willingness to Pay for Urban Flood Control: The Role of Locational, Demographic and Attitudinal Factors

The urbanization of urban watersheds can influence flooding risks. Traditional Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood risk maps identify 100 year floodplains. These maps are updated infrequently. However, as a community urbanizes, flood risks can change, especially for downstream residents. Thus, one would expect that the willingness to pay (WTP) to prevent the worsening of flooding risk would depend in part on the location of the household in the community and their associated flooding risk. Economists and regional scientists have evaluated the role played by traditional demographic factors. However, attitudinal factors measuring community norms, political philosophy, and other psychological factors that may be unique to the individual have not received the same level of scrutiny. Milwaukee, WI has experienced major flooding events, classified as floods with an expected frequency of once every 100 years or less, in 1986 and most recently in 1997 and 1998. In this study, 1000 residents of the Menomonee watershed in Milwaukee were interviewed in a two-wave panel survey (i.e., telephone interviews took place in 2000 and 2001) to determine their willingness to pay for a referendum which would prevent flood risks from worsening. The interviews queried respondents about their attitudes concerning flooding and ecological risks, political beliefs, information seeking behavior, and other psychological factors unique to the respondent. Information was also gathered on demographic characteristics of the respondent, and also that individuals address. The address was geocoded and hydrologic modeling was used to determine the unique flood risk associated with the residence. A willingness to pay function was estimated using Tobit analysis. Preliminary findings indicated that all three categories of factors influence willingness to pay, with psychological factors and flood risk factors having a relatively strong impact on willingness to pay

Urban Watershed/Water Body Restoration - The Driving Forces

Urban streams are used for several purposes. Some uses are conflicting and some are complementary. The use of urban water bodies and the resolution of conflicts is driven by anthropogenic and biocentric/ecocentric interests that must be optimized and the conflicts resolved. This article examines and analyzes land ethics (biocentric) and socio-economic (anthropocentric) drives for stream restoration of urban watersheds located in the Milwaukee (WI) metropolitan area. The basins experienced increased flooding, significant degradation of sediment and water quality, and loss of aquatic species, all due to urbanization. It was found that the primary drivers for restoration of urban streams are the ethical attitudes of population towards the ecocentric benefits of restoration in combination with a desire for flood control. A Contingent Valuation Survey of citizens residing in two Milwaukee watersheds revealed that those who see the watershed in ecocentric terms appear to have a greater Willingness to Pay for watershed/water body improvements than those who see the benefits solely in anthropogenic terms of reduction of flood damages

Integrated tools for control-system analysis

The basic functions embedded within a user friendly software package (MATRIXx) are used to provide a high level systems approach to the analysis of linear control systems. Various control system analysis configurations are assembled automatically to minimize the amount of work by the user. Interactive decision making is incorporated via menu options and at selected points, such as in the plotting section, by inputting data. There are five evaluations such as the singular value robustness test, singular value loop transfer frequency response, Bode frequency response, steady-state covariance analysis, and closed-loop eigenvalues. Another section describes time response simulations. A time response for random white noise disturbance is available. The configurations and key equations used for each type of analysis, the restrictions that apply, the type of data required, and an example problem are described. One approach for integrating the design and analysis tools is also presented

Juveniles and the Death Penalty - A Square Peg in a Round Hole - Thompson v. Oklahoma

Note

Does International Trump Domestic Trade? The Seed Potato Market in Canada

trade, potato, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Development,

Does International Trump Domestic Trade? The Seed Potato Market in Canada

trade, potato, Canada, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Development, International Relations/Trade,

The essential ideal in group cohomology does not square to zero

Let G be the Sylow 2-subgroup of the unitary group $SU_3(4)$. We find two essential classes in the mod-2 cohomology ring of G whose product is nonzero. In fact, the product is the ``last survivor'' of Benson-Carlson duality. Recent work of Pakianathan and Yalcin then implies a result about connected graphs with an action of G. Also, there exist essential classes which cannot be written as sums of transfers from proper subgroups. This phenomenon was first observed on the computer. The argument given here uses the elegant calculation by J. Clark, with minor corrections.Comment: 9 pages; three typos corrected, one was particularly confusin