WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (WRM) IN THE VENETO REGION: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

The aim of this work is to illustrate the historical evolution of man's intervention in water resource management in the Veneto region in order to highlight, from both the technical and financial points of view, the ability of the institution of the consortia to join public and private interests and to adapt itself to the changing economical and social needs in this region.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

THE USE OF NEURAL NETWORKS IN THE SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF PROPERTY VALUES

The real-estate market is "where" a multiplicity of economic, cultural, social and demographic factors are synthesised with respect to choices regarding the qualitative and locational aspects of a property. The spatial analysis of the real-estate market and, in particular, of the factors which contribute to determining prices, is a very useful instrument in outlining the geography of the economic development of vast areas. The aim of the paper is the construction of a simulation model, on a spatial level, of real-estate values with reference to the housing market in the urban area of the city of Treviso (I). The model was built using a neural network which gives the possibility of analysing the marginal contribution of single real-estate characteristics independently of the a priori choice of the interpolation function; at the same time it works well even in the presence of statistical correlation among the explicative variables, a serious drawback in multiple regression models. The work is divided into several parts. First, a synthetic picture of the real-estate market of the area studied has been drawn up with reference to the main conditioning factors. Then the problem of the selection of a neural network model for the appraisal of property values is presented. Finally, there is the description of the procedure for the spatialization of obtained results from the neural model for the definition of a values map. The results shows the notable interpretative and predictive capacity of the neural model and it seems very useful in appraisals. Furthermore, the mapping of value fluctuations enables first-hand verification of the "goodness" of the assessed model and its capacity to portray the real situation. The general approach presented seems, therefore, useful both as an instrument of support for urban and territorial planning, as well as a permanent monitoring system of the real-estate market with the aim of creating an informative system of support for the analysis of real-estate investment.Land Economics/Use,

The Impact of Speed Limits on Recreational Boating in the Lagoon of Venice

Speed limits were introduced in the Lagoon of Venice in 2002 to reduce wave motion, which damages environmentally sensitive areas in the broader Lagoon as well as buildings in the city of Venice. In this paper, we estimate the welfare losses experienced by recreational boaters as a result of the speed limits. We fit a single-site travel cost model to a sample of boaters intercepted as they depart from or arrive to marinas and launching ramps on the Lagoon. Our Poisson model is corrected for truncation and endogenous stratification. We construct three measures of the price per trip, which allow us to check the sensitivity of models and welfare estimates to possible measurement errors in the opportunity cost of time. Our results are robust to the measure of price used and conservatively peg the welfare losses of boaters to €7.7-9.6 million per year. Even under conservative assumptions, the welfare losses of boaters are sufficiently large that, given current monitoring and enforcement of the speed limits, we believe there is a strong incentive for boaters to disregard the limits.Travel cost method, Single-site model, Speed limits, Natural resources management

A Multicriteria Approach for the Evaluation of the Sustainability of Re-use of Historic Buildings in Venice

The paper presents a multiple criteria model for the evaluation of the sustainability of projects for the economic re-use of historical buildings in Venice. The model utilises the relevant parameters for the appraisal of sustainability, aggregated into three macro-indicators: intrinsic sustainability, context sustainability and economic-financial feasibility. The model has been calibrated by a panel of experts and tested on two reuse hypotheses of the Old Arsenal in Venice. The tests have proven the model to be a useful support in the early stages of evaluation of re-use projects, where economic improvements are to be combined with conservation, as it supports the identification of critical points and the selection of projects, thus providing not only a check-list of variables to be considered, but an appraisal of trade-offs between economic uses and requirements of conservation.Economic Reuse, Historical Building Conservation

Combining Actual and Contingent Behavior to Estimate the Value of Sports Fishing in the Lagoon of Venice

This paper reports the results of a Travel Cost Method (TCM) study about the recreational use of the Lagoon of Venice for sports fishing. In April-July 2002, we conducted a mail survey of anglers with valid licenses fishing on the Lagoon of Venice to gather data on their fishing trips, behaviors and expenditures over the previous year. We also asked questions about trips that would be undertaken under hypothetical changes in the price of a trip and/or in the catch rate. Actual and hypothetical trips are combined to estimate single-site TCM demand function for trips. We propose several models to test whether it is acceptable to pool hypothetical and actual trip data, focusing on the respondent heterogeneity in the contingent behavior questions. Our models suggest actual and contingent behavior are driven by the same demand function, and can be pooled for estimation purposes. We use this estimated demand function, and its shift when the catch rate is improved, to compute angler surplus at the current catch rate and the change in surplus accruing from a 50% improvement in the catch rate. For the average angler in our sample, the former is about €1,700 a year, while the latter is about €2,800.Sports fishing value, Travel cost method, Environmental improvement

Youth A Multicriteria Approach for the Evaluation of the Sustainability of Re-use of Historic Buildings in Venice

The paper presents a multiple criteria model for the evaluation of the sustainability of projects for the economic re-use of historical buildings in Venice. The model utilises the relevant parameters for the appraisal of sustainability, aggregated into three macroindicators: intrinsic sustainability, context sustainability and economic-financial feasibility. The model has been calibrated by a panel of experts and tested on two reuse hypothesis of the Old Arsenal in Venice.multiple criteria valuation, economic reuse, historical building conservation

Information and Willingness to Pay in a Contingent Valuation Study: The Value of S. Erasmo in the Lagoon of Venice

This paper reports on a contingent valuation study eliciting willingness to pay for a public program for the preservation of lagoon, beach and infrastructure in the island of S. Erasmo in the Lagoon of Venice. A referendum dichotomous choice approach with a follow-up question is used to obtain information about willingness to pay from a sample of residents of the Veneto Region in Italy. We use split samples to investigate the effect of providing different levels of information to respondents before asking the payment questions. Our experimental treatment is a reminder of possible reasons for voting in favor or against the proposed program before the referendum question. We find that reminding respondents of the reasons for voting for or against the public works increases WTP among less highly educated respondents, and decreases WTP among more highly educated respondents.Contingent valuation, Effects of information

Le coperture verdi

La tecnologia nota come “verde pensile” fa riferimento ad una superficie vegetale continua che non presenta, per posizione, giacitura o modalità di realizzazione, continuità fisica, geometrica ed ecologica con il suolo naturale inverdito. Infatti, la sua principale applicazione si concretizza nell’involucro di edifici o volumi architettonici o tecnici fuori terra, oppure ancora interrati in tutto o in parte, ed assolve a svariate funzioni riferibili agli ambiti architettonico, energetico, della salvaguardia ambientale e della sostenibilità sociale. Il contenuto tecnologico delle coperture verdi risulta perciò arricchito – almeno in parte – dai benefici usualmente associati al suolo naturale vegetato, pur evidenziandone la differente composizione ed un conseguente diverso comportamento . Le diverse tecnologie afferenti al “verde pensile”, applicabili all’intero involucro edilizio, si differenziano dalle altre tipologie di involucro in quanto le finiture sono costituite da individui appartenenti a specifiche specie vegetali – e non da materiali inerti ‘tradizionali’

Redeveloping Derelict and Underused Historic City Areas: Evidence from a Survey of Real Estate Developers

Infill redevelopment—the transformation of previously used urban sites—is generally regarded as an important way to attain environmental and urban sustainability goals. At many locales, however, such urban renewal, community development, and tax revenue goals must be reconciled with historic preservation objectives. Are economic incentives and regulatory relief useful tools for encouraging reuse of abandoned or underutilized urban sites with historic buildings? Answering this question is of key importance for many European cities and for older US cities, and has important implications in terms of urban sustainability and “smart growth” initiatives. We use conjoint choice experiments to explore the relative importance of economic incentives, regulatory relief, land use and property regime offerings at underutilized historical sites in Venice, Italy. We survey real estate developers and investors, and ask them to choose between pairs of hypothetical projects in three Venice locations, as well as between one of these projects and the alternative to do a development project elsewhere. Statistical models of the responses to these choice questions indicate that respondents are sensitive to the price of acquiring the land (and hence to any policies that influence prices), and especially sensitive to the property regime that would be granted to developers and investors and to the allowable land use. Contrary to expectations, our respondents were insensitive to tightening or relaxing the stringency of building conservation restrictions. Our findings sound a common theme with Howland (2004), who warns that redevelopment of previously used sites in Baltimore is impaired by obsolete land uses, zoning and infrastructure (but not by suspected or actual contamination). We conclude that the City should focus on offering land uses and property regimes that are more in tune with developer demand.Conjoint Choice Experiments, Real Estate Developers, Building Conservation Restrictions, Redevelopment Incentives, Brownfields, Infill Redevelopment

Redeveloping Derelict and Underused Historical City Areas: Evidence from a Survey of Real Estate Developers

Infill redevelopment—the transformation of previously used urban sites—is generally regarded as an important way to attain environmental and urban sustainability goals. At many locales, however, such urban renewal, community development, and tax revenue goals must be reconciled with historic preservation objectives. Are economic incentives and regulatory relief useful tools for encouraging reuse of abandoned or underutilized urban sites with historic buildings? Answering this question is of key importance for many European cities and for older US cities, and has important implications in terms of urban sustainability and “smart growth” initiatives. We use conjoint choice experiments to explore the relative importance of economic incentives, regulatory relief, land use and property regime offerings at underutilized historical sites in Venice, Italy. We survey real estate developers and investors, and ask them to choose between pairs of hypothetical projects in three Venice locations, as well as between one of these projects and the alternative to do a development project elsewhere. Statistical models of the responses to these choice questions indicate that respondents are sensitive to the price of acquiring the land (and hence to any policies that influence prices), and especially sensitive to the property regime that would be granted to developers and investors and to the allowable land use. Contrary to expectations, our respondents were insensitive to tightening or relaxing the stringency of building conservation restrictions. Our findings sound a common theme with Howland (2004), who warns that redevelopment of previously used sites in Baltimore is impaired by obsolete land uses, zoning and infrastructure (but not by suspected or actual contamination). We conclude that the City should focus on offering land uses and property regimes that are more in tune with developer demand.conjoint choice experiments, real estate developers, building conservation restrictions, redevelopment incentives, brownfields, infill redevelopment