The valuation of campus built heritage from the student perspective: comparative analysis of Rhodes University in South Africa and St. Mary’s College of Maryland in the United States

Pre-printMany universities and colleges around the world have done extensive surveys of their campus built heritage resources. A detailed description and accounting of a campus's built heritage, landscape heritage and archaeology, are often used for historic preservation planning, and sustaining built culture is also an important aspect of campus master planning of future buildings. Such institutions of higher education have deep historical roots, in Europe it is not uncommon for buildings to be dated prior to the sixteenth century. In countries where European colonies were established, institutions of higher education often date to the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Once students have arrived at their chosen campus, however, except for perhaps the first week orientation rituals, do the students actually develop ties to their campus built heritage? This research investigates the knowledge students possess of their respective campus built heritage and the importance of built heritage as a legacy to them. Two institutions are included in this study in an effort of draw comparative assessments. A student questionnaire was administered at Rhodes University in South Africa and St. Mary's College of Maryland in the United States during April 2008. Results indicate students on both campuses place positive intrinsic value on their respective campus built heritage. Just over half (52%) of Rhodes students and about 68% of St. Mary's students were willing to pay some positive amount to protect campus built heritage. Empirical probit model results combining the data from both institutions found that current student knowledge of their respective campus built heritage did not positively relate to the value they place on preservation, even though the visual identity was significant for students and influenced their decision to attend the particular institution. The lack of significance regarding a racial variable coefficient estimate suggests that the use of an institution's visual identity in terms of built heritage may have important marketing implications, particularly in cases where universities or colleges are trying to attract students from more diverse backgrounds. We found no significant relationships between willingness to pay to preserve an institution's built heritage and the demographic variables included in our empirical model. Fundraising data analysis includes positive willingness to pay for conserving built heritage, yet funding for new construction was not significant

The Value of Additional Central Flyway Wetlands: The Case of Nebraska\u27s Rainwater Basin Wetlands

Waterfowl habitat is a biological resource which is neither bought nor sold in the traditional market sense. Nebraska, which is situated near the center of the North American Central Flyway, contains unique wetland habitat. Recognizing this, resource managers working in Nebraska promote regulatory protection of such areas. This study found that Nebraskans positively value their state\u27s Rainwater Basin wetland region in that they are willing to pay to have it maintained and expanded. In addition, this study demonstrates how this value was estimated and illustrates how such a value can assist in policy decisions regarding habitat acquisition programs

The value of additional central flyway wetlands in Nebraska\u27s Rainwater Basin: Three essays

Nebraska\u27s Rainwater Basin (RWB) wetlands are recognized internationally as a significant wetland complex, providing habitat to North America\u27s central flyway migratory waterfowl. At the turn of the century, this region encompassed some 100,000 acres and by the early 1990s only approximately 34,000 remained. The objective of this study is to use the contingent valuation method (CVM) to estimate the value of the RWB wetland region and to determine if willingness-to-pay (WTP) varies significantly with the size of the government wetland acquisition program. Finally, this study estimates welfare changes given referendum based taxation scenarios. During 1996, a closed-ended, double bounded CVM questionnaire was mailed to 2,400 Nebraska households. A response rate of 46% was obtained. The questionnaires were stratified such that bids and changes in the scope or size of the hypothetical program varied. The distribution of WTP in the population was modeled directly using both the Weibull and log-normal distributions. The Weibull model demonstrated a better fit. The median and mean WTP estimates of additional taxes were $4.96 and \$24.23, respectively. Significant variables which positively influence a household\u27s WTP include: whether they\u27ve visited the RWB; whether they camp or birdwatch; whether they contribute to environmental organizations; income; and education. Significant variables that negatively influence a household\u27s WTP include: household location relative to the RWB region; agricultural income; age; and household size. In terms of scope, acreage or program size variables were insignificant, indicating that changes in WTP scope could not be identified within this household sample. The sample responses were corrected for bias in terms of higher education and income, yielding weighted mean and median WTP estimates of$21.05 and \$4.17, respectively. Welfare analysis showed the net social value to Nebraskans of a 41,000 acre RWB wetland acquisition program was about$8 million (net of the social opportunity cost of these wetlands)

THE VALUE OF ADDITIONAL CENTRAL FLYWAY WETLANDS: THE CASE OF NEBRASKA'S RAINWATER BASIN WETLANDS

Waterfowl habitat is a biological resource which is neither bought nor sold in the traditional market sense. Nebraska, which is situated near the center of North American Central Flyway, contains unique wetlands habitat. Recognizing this, resource managers working in Nebraska promote regulatory protection of such areas. This study found that Nebraskans positively value their state's Rainwater Basin wetland region in that they are willing to pay to have it maintained and expanded. In addition, this study demonstrates how this value was estimated and illustrates how such a value can assist in policy decisions regarding habitat acquisition programs

THE VALUE OF ADDITIONAL CENTRAL FLYWAY WETLANDS: THE CASE OF NEBRASKA'S RAINWATER BASIN WETLANDS

Waterfowl habitat is a biological resource which is neither bought nor sold in the traditional market sense. Nebraska, which is situated near the center of North American Central Flyway, contains unique wetlands habitat. Recognizing this, resource managers working in Nebraska promote regulatory protection of such areas. This study found that Nebraskans positively value their stateÂ’'s Rainwater Basin wetland region in that they are willing to pay to have it maintained and expanded. In addition, this study demonstrates how this value was estimated and illustrates how such a value can assist in policy decisions regarding habitat acquisition programs.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Objective versus Subjective Measures of Water Clarity in Hedonic Property Value Models

This paper examines and compares objective, scientific measures of environmental quality with subjective measures of individuals’ perceptions obtained from survey information within the context of hedonic property value models. The specific application is to water clarity of freshwater lakes in Maine. Non-nested, J-test results indicate that the objective measure of water clarity was either preferred, or equally preferred, to the subjective measure for explaining variation in sale prices. These results are promising for hedonic applications employing scientific measures of environmental quality, however robustness of these results to other environmental amenities, and more complex environmental quality measures are of course needed.