De betalingsbereidheid van de Vlaming voor het behoud van bouwkundig en landschappelijk erfgoed

De betalingsbereidheid van de Vlaming voor het behoud van bouwkundig en landschappelijk erfgoe

A new method for fine-scale assessments of the average urban Heat island over large areas and the effectiveness of nature-based solutions

People living in cities experience extra heat stress due to the so-called Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. To gain an insight into the spatial variability of the UHI for the Netherlands, a detailed map (10 m horizontal resolution) has been calculated that shows the summer-averaged daily maximal UHI situation. The map is based on a relationship between the UHI, mean wind speed at 10 m height and the number of people living within a distance of 10 km, derived from simulations of over 100 European cities with the extensively validated urban climate model UrbClim. The cooling effect of green and blue infrastructure is also taken into account in the map, based on these simulation results. The presented map will help local authorities in defining target areas for climate adaptation measures and estimate the impact of nature-based solutions

Chapter 1 Setting the Scene

peer reviewe

Ecosystem services mapping and assessment for policy- and decision-making: Lessons learned from a comparative analysis of European case studies

This paper analyses and compares a set of case studies on ecosystem services (ES) mapping and assessment with the purpose of formulating lessons learned and recommendations. Fourteen case studies were selected during the EU Horizon 2020 “Coordination and Support Action” ESMERALDA to represent different policy- and decision-making processes throughout the European Union, across a wide range of themes, biomes and scales. The analysis is based on a framework that addresses the key steps of an ES mapping and assessment process, namely policy questions, stakeholder identification and involvement, application of mapping and assessment methods, dissemination and communication and implementation. The analysis revealed that most case studies were policy-orientated or gave explicit suggestions for policy implementation in different contexts, including urban, rural and natural areas. Amongst the findings, the importance of starting stakeholder engagement early in the process was confirmed in order to generate interest and confidence in the project and to increase their willingness to cooperate. Concerning mapping and assessment methods, it was found that the integration of methods and results is essential for providing a comprehensive overview from different perspectives (e.g. social, economic). Finally, lessons learned for effective implementation of ES mapping and assessment results are presented and discussed

Valuation of health benefits of green-blue areas for the purpose of ecosystem accounting: a pilot in Flanders, Belgium

In recent years, a vast amount of scientific literature has highlighted the benefits of nearby greenspace for physical and mental health, but the large variation in scope, methods and indicators used in these studies hampers the assessment of these benefits in the context of natural capital accounting. To our knowledge, this paper is one of the first studies to quantify and value these benefits in the context of natural capital accounting. A method was developed and applied to the Flemish region in Belgium for 2013 and 2016. The physical supply and use accounts for health are based on a set of selected dose-effect relations that quantify the impact of the availability of greenspace on 7 specific indicators for physical and mental health, including mortality, cardio-vascular diseases, diabetes and depression. The indicator for green-blue areas is the % of green-blue areas in total land use, calculated for 0.5, 1 and 3 km radius from the residence, based on detailed land-use maps (10m x 10m) for Flanders, Belgium. The base-line data for mortality and illness are average data for the Flemish region. These health impacts are weighted using Daly's (disability-adjusted life years) and aggregated. The total health benefits due to the availability of green-blue areas for the total Flemish population was estimated almost 85.000 DALY’s. This is 27% of the estimated total burden of disease in 2016 for the 7 selected diseases. The monetary accounts include assessments of avoided costs of illness (e.g. hospitalisation costs) and avoided absenteeism and productivity loss. In addition, we valued the years of life lost due to cardio vascular mortality based on simulated exchange values. The total monetary benefits amount to 464 Euro per inhabitant per year or 3 billion Euro per year for Flanders. This corresponds to 1.3% of the GDP, which reflects the importance of these benefits. Productivity gains and avoided costs of illness account for respectively 52 % and 36% of these costs. The methodology is incomplete as not all health indicators are covered, mainly due to a lack of dose-effect relations. The research priority for potential users of the accounts is a better indicator for contact with greenspace that does differentiate between ecosystems, their quality, accessibility or their use. This requires more systematic health impact studies that take these elements into account, as well as more systematic data on the daily use of greenspace by citizens. In the meantime,  an additional set of condition accounts on these elements can be used, especially to follow changes in quality and use of green blue areas over time.

Temporal stability of preferences and willingness to pay for natural areas in choice experiments: a test-retest

The main objective of this paper is to test the temporal stability of stated preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) values from a Choice Experiment (CE) in a test–retest. The same group of participants was asked the same choice tasks in an internet-based CE, conducted twice with a time interval of one year without interviewer interference. We examine choice consistency at individual choice task level and transferability of the underlying indirect utility function and associated WTP values. The results show that choices are consistent in 57 percent of the choice occasions. Comparison of the choice models over time shows that the estimated preference and scale parameters are significantly different, suggesting that choice behaviour changed between the two surveys. Differences between marginal WTP estimates for individual choice attributes are statistically significant only at the 10 percent level. However, we show that this can result in significantly different WTP values for policy scenarios. The instability of estimated mean WTP values for different policy scenarios asks for caution when including WTP values in cost-benefit analysis

Towards an improved methodology for the valuation of ecosystem services

Selected for full sponsorship by the Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE)status: publishe

Valuation of health benefits of green-blue areas for the purpose of ecosystem accounting: a pilot in Flanders, Belgium

In recent years, a vast amount of scientific literature has highlighted the benefits of nearby green space for physical and mental health, but the large variation in scope, methods and indicators used in these studies hampers the assessment of these benefits in the context of natural capital accounting. To our knowledge, this paper is one of the first studies to quantify and value these benefits in the context of natural capital accounting. A method was developed and applied to the Flemish Region in Belgium for 2013 and 2016.The physical supply and use accounts for health are based on a set of selected dose-effect relationships that quantify the impact of the availability of greenspace on seven specific indicators for physical and mental health, including mortality, cardio-vascular diseases, diabetes and depression. The indicator for green-blue areas is the percentage of green-blue areas in total land use, calculated for 0.5, 1 and 3 km radius from the residence, based on detailed land-use maps (10 m x 10 m) for Flanders, Belgium. The base-line data for mortality and illness are average data for the Flemish Region. These health impacts are weighted using Daly's (disability-adjusted life years) and aggregated. The total health benefits due to the availability of green-blue areas for the total Flemish population was estimated at almost 85,000 DALYs. This is 27% of the estimated total burden of disease in Flanders in 2016 for the seven selected diseases.The monetary accounts are based on a detailed assessment for mortality and morbidity of three different cost components, i.e. avoided medical costs (e.g. hospitalisation) and avoided absenteeism and welfare loss due to suffering and reduced life expectancy. Productivity gains from avoided absenteeism is valued, based on statistics on absenteeism for specific diseases for and labour market data from Belgium and account for 52% of the total monetary value of green spaces. Cost of illness is valued, based on market data and illness specific studies for Belgium or Europe and account for 36% of total values. Welfare gains from increased life expectancy are valued on the basis of European studies for the VOLY (value of a life year lost), based on the simulated exchange value for the willingness-to-pay for increased life expectancy. This accounts for 12% of the total monetary value of green space. The total monetary benefits amount to 464 Euro per inhabitant per year or 3 billion Euro per year for Flanders. This corresponds to 1.3% of the GDP, which reflects the importance of these benefits.The methodology is incomplete as not all health indicators are covered, mainly due to a lack of dose-effect relationships. The research priority for potential users of the accounts is a better indicator for contact with green space that does differentiate between ecosystems, their quality, accessibility or their use. This requires more systematic health impact studies that take these elements into account, as well as more systematic data on the daily use of green space by citizens. In the meantime, an additional set of condition accounts on these elements can be used, especially to follow changes in quality and use of green-blue areas over time