Assessment of Social Preferences for an Alternative Regeneration Coastlines Against a Marina in Teis (Vigo)

Texto dispoñible en galego e españolA importante presenza de portos deportivos nas costas galegas e as previsións de crecemento na oferta de prazas de atracada invitan á reflexión sobre a súa incidencia no benestar da sociedade. É por isto que a incorporación na análise custo-beneficio dos custos sociais asociados resulta útil e necesaria para unha asignación eficiente dos recursos dispoñibles. Neste artigo empregouse o método de valoración continxente para estimar a disposición ao pagamento (DAP) ou variación compensatoria dos residentes por un plan de rexeneración do litoral fronte ao proxecto de ampliación dun porto deportivo en Punta Lagoa en Teis (Vigo). Para a análise das respostas empregouse un modelo paramétrico e un non paramétrico, que non precisa asumir ningunha forma funcional da distribución da disposición ao pagamento. As estimacións obtidas amosan unha DAP de 48 €/fogar e de 34 €/fogar, respectivamente. Destes resultados derívase que o plan de rexeneración do litoral levaría consigo unha ganancia de benestar social respecto da ampliación do porto deportivo ou, o que é o mesmo, que existe un custo social asociado a este último. Ao mesmo tempo, á luz dos resultados e ante as vantaxes que ofrece o estimador Turnbull, recoméndase un maior emprego dos métodos non paramétricos para obter estimadores a partir de datos de valoración continxenteLa importante presencia de puertos deportivos en las costas gallegas y las previsiones de crecimiento en la oferta de plazas de atraque invitan a la reflexión sobre su incidencia en el bienestar de la sociedad. Es por esto que la incorporación en el análisis coste-beneficio de los costes sociales asociados resulta útil y necesaria para una asignación eficiente de los recursos disponibles. En este artículo se empleó el método de valoración contingente para estimar la disposición al pago (DAP) o variación compensatoria de los residentes por un plan de regeneración del litoral frente al proyecto de ampliación de un puerto deportivo en Punta Lagoa en Teis (Vigo). Para el análisis de las respuestas se empleó un modelo paramétrico y uno no paramétrico, que no precisa asumir ninguna forma funcional de la distribución de la disposición al pago. Las estimaciones obtenidas muestran una DAP de 48 €/hogar y de 34 €/hogar, respectivamente. De estos resultados se deriva que el plan de regeneración del litoral llevaría consigo una ganancia de bienestar social respecto de la ampliación del puerto deportivo o, lo que es lo mismo, que existe un coste social asociado a este último. Al mismo tiempo, a la luz de los resultados y ante las ventajas que ofrece el estimador Turnbull, se recomienda un mayor empleo de los métodos no paramétricos para obtener estimadores a partir de datos de valoración contingenteThe important presence of marinas in the Galician coast and the likely increase in docking spaces in the near future make it necessary to analyze their effects on social welfare. Consequently, the adding of social costs in Cost-Benefit Analysis is useful and necessary to achieve an efficient allocation of available resources. In this article, the contingent valuation method was applied to estimate willingness to pay (WTP) of residents for a coastal regeneration plan, confronted to a project of marina extension in Punta Lagoa (Teis, Vigo). To analyze the answers a parametric estimation was carried out, and also a non parametric estimation to avoid assumptions about the functional form of the willingness to pay function. The estimations obtained show a WTP of 48 €/household, and 34 €/household, respectively. These results allow us to conclude that the regeneration plan provides a social welfare gain compared to the marina extension project, that is, there is a social cost associated to this last project. Moreover, from the results and from the advantages of Turnbull estimator, the use of non parametric estimation methodologies, to obtain estimators based on contingent valuation data, should increaseS

Valuation of terrestrial and marine biodiversity losses caused by forest wildfires

This study presents an economic valuation survey to estimate the social demand of a convenience sample for undertaking forest management measures aimed at reducing the negative impact of forest fires on terrestrial and marine ecosystems. The paper spans the traditional focus in forest economics by considering also the negative effects caused by forest fires in coastal areas, highlighting this way how the externalities go beyond the terrestrial area and can also affect marine ecosystems. Results from a willingness to pay in space modelling approach show that people are sensitive to the biodiversity losses produced by forest fires and are willing to pay (work on a voluntary basis) to undertake activities that reduce their impact. The main negative externalities are concerned to the terrestrial wildlife (animals and vegetation), following by the erosion and marine biodiversity losses and the pests and diseases prevention

Application of choice models in tourism recommender systems

Choice models (CM) are proposed in the field of tourism recommender systems (TRS)with the aim of providing algorithms with both a theoretical understanding of tour-ist's motivations and a certain degree of transparency. The goal of this work is toovercome some of the limitations of current state-of-art algorithms used in TRSs byproviding: (1) accurate preferences, which are learnt from user choices rather thanfrom ratings, and (2) interpretable coefficients, which are achieved by means of theset of estimated parameters of CM. The study was carried out with a gastronomicdata set generated in an ecological experiment in the tourism domain. The perfor-mance of CM has been compared with a set of baseline algorithms (rating-based andensembles) by using two evaluation metrics: precision and DCG. The CM out-performed the baseline algorithms when the size of the choice set was limited. Thefindings suggest that CM may provide an optimal trade-off between theoreticalsoundness, interpretability and performance in the field of TRSThis research was sponsored by EMALCSA/Coruña Smart City under grant CSC-14-13, the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain under grant TIN2014-56633-C3-1-R, the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain under grant MTM2013-41383P, the Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria (accreditation 2016-2019, ED431G/08), and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)S