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on Environmental Economics |
| By: | Corrado Zoppi |
| Abstract: | Research in the field of urban economics has defined methodologies to assess the degree of consensus of the local communities for policies that derive from land planning decisions. The contingent valuation methods, which are based on people’s expressed thoughts and convic-tions, allow us on the one hand to evaluate their degree of consensus, and, on the other, to in-crease the level of public information and concern towards land planning policies. Undoubt-edly, participation, concern, information and consensus must be deeply tied to each other in order to develop open processes, based on land planning policies, that generate consistency between the planning policies goals and the spatial organization of the city that the local communities would like to realize. In this essay, a case study of contingent valuation is discussed, based on the dichotomous-choice-with-follow-up technique, to rank three planning scenarios concerning the reorganiza-tion of public services and infrastructure for outdoor recreation in the coastal zone of the town of Arbus. Through this technique, the three proposals are ranked with reference to the local community preferences and attitudes concerning a set of decision criteria. The weights of the decision criteria are defined considering the results of the contingent valuation application, and utilized in a multicriteria analysis, developed through the AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process), in order to obtain two rankings of the proposed scenarios: the first ranking is based on the results of the contingent valuation application; the second ranking comes from the weights of the decision criteria derived from the local community preferences. These two alternative rankings give the local planning context (the city administration, entre-preneurs of the profit and non-profit sectors, citizens, civic associations and committees, etc.) a comprehensive frame of the game rules of the decision-making processes, and a sound basis for discussing, recognizing and understanding their mutual convergences and conflicts. This would allow them to define an effective synthesis of their perceived needs, hopes and expecta-tions for the future spatial organization of their city, in view of the implementation of the planning policies. This essay has a marked methodological feature since a general framework- even if perfecti-ble- which should bring near technical and common knowledge is defined in the practice of city planning. This is implemented through discussion and conflict mitigation concerning the relative importance (and weights) of the decision criteria. This should lead to a more-or-less extensive convergence on policy implementation within the city planning processes. |
| Date: | 2004–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa04p147&r=env |
| By: | Seda Kundak |
| Abstract: | Natural hazards, especially earthquakes, cause disasters when they hit large settlements such as metropolitan areas. After the first shock, the damage is counted by deaths and injuries. In a while, the destroying effects of disaster appear on economic asset of the region. Direct losses including damages in buildings and lifelines can caused non-structural or indirect losses as interruption of business activities and services. Loss estimation techniques have been developed to evaluate losses from earthquakes and other natural hazards. Recently, loss estimation models have improved due to advances in information technology and have been automated using Geographic Information Systems. The aim of this paper is to find out economic effects of probable earthquake in Istanbul. In this study, damage ratios of the most probable and the worst-case earthquake scenarios have been used in order to estimate total damage cost from destruction of houses and interruption of business activities. Despite the loss estimation model does not include monetary losses in lifeline system, centers of administration, emergency services and historical assets, the findings show that future losses, caused by a severe earthquake in Marmara Sea, will exceed the total damage cost of Kocaeli earthquake in 1999. |
| Date: | 2004–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa04p196&r=env |
| By: | Yasuhiro Takarada |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to examine the welfare effects of pollution abatement technology transfer in a two-good two-country model with transboundary pollution. In each country, one industry emits pollution as a joint product of output and the sum of domestic and cross-border pollution decreases productivity of the other industry. Then, we show that technology transfer can bene?t the recipient country regardless of the level of cross-border pollution. Moreover, the donor country gains from technology transfer if all pollution is transboundary but it may harm the donor country with out cross-border pollution. We demonstrate that the effects of technology transfer depend on the trade pattern as well as cross-border pollution. Keywords: Environment; Pollution; Technology transfer; Pareto-improving transfer JEL classi?cation: D62; F18; O39 |
| Date: | 2004–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa04p203&r=env |
| By: | Dubravka Jurlina Alibegoviæ; Željka Kordej De Villa |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the role of different levels of government in the design, implementation and enforcement of environmental regulatory measures, including environmental financing mechanisms. The first section presents basic theoretical insights of fiscal federalism. Further, it reviews factors which most affect the decision regarding the governmental level to be responsible for environmental protection – externalities, information, costs, interjurisdictional competition, and government capabilities. The second section elaborates the institutional and administrative framework of environmental policy and questions why local authorities are reluctant to take a more active role in shaping and financing environmental policy. One «success story» of local initiative in Croatia is described. Additionally, this section presents some evidence on budget revenues related to environmental protection and natural resource management, both at central and local levels. The last section summarizes our analysis and offers several recommendations aiming at the improvement of environmental policy. |
| Date: | 2004–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa04p220&r=env |
| By: | Neil Sang |
| Abstract: | Consultation with and inclusion of the public on measures to manage and improve water resources is a key tenet of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). This involves establishing people’s opinions but also the perspectives (both metaphoric and literal) which inform these. In particular water is a complex and dynamic spatial entity with many spatial expressions relating to its various functions, so perspectives as to its utility and proper management are equally various. In establishing a catchment rather than discipline based approach to management, the WFD recognises the spatially integrated nature of the issues. It also poses a challenge to research, in that the pattern presented by the interaction between human and biophysical processes is a compound of the complexities of the two systems. Capturing the detail of such a pattern from a sample requires a strategy which is sensitive to the relevant dynamics of each system. This paper considers a case study relating to a postal survey carried out by the Macaulay Institute on behalf of the EU Life Environment Fund’s Ythan Project, which aimed to develop wider participation in the protection of the River Ythan (Scotland’s first Nitrate Vulnerable Zone). A thousand questionnaires were sent to residents and farmers in the Ythan catchment in spring 2002, for comparison the adjacent River Ugie and the more distant Loch Leven catchments were surveyed the following year. The methodology presented represents the attempt to maximise at the design stage the utility this data would have for analysis of responses in relation to both respondent’s social-environs and the proximity of the water body, as well as to ensure a representative over all sample. The somewhat awkward term “water body” highlights the difficulties for the key issue of definition, be that for rivers and lochs, or people, residences and urban areas. The decisions made with regards to definition are explained and results from the survey presented illustrating the practical significance of initial object definitions in conditioning the outcome. The importance of considering spatial aspects post survey is also highlighted. Keywords: Spatial, Sampling, Water Framework Directive, Survey. |
| Date: | 2004–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa04p233&r=env |
| By: | Giovanna Corridore; Elena Santini |
| Abstract: | The Geographical Information System (GIS) works on databases that contain different kinds of information (town-planning, geographical and environmental). It is able to correlate, to integrate and to consult them just using simple or complex inquiries allowing in any moment the introduction of new data or the updating of those available. The management of the natural resources well it is lent to be done through the creation of a GIS : natural resources are connected to the punctual knowledge of the territory but have to be referred to lots of other factors, primarily linked to human activities, that contributes to organize and transform them. It is needed a suitable cartography containing the basic dates and the general subjects to overlap to the whole other series of information, different for origin and contents. The aim is to represent the natural and human structure of the territory, to know the spontaneous or induced events, to manage the norms and to plan the existing resources: from the integration of all the information it is created an adding value. A concrete example of this statement is represented by a project, in course of elaboration, promoted by the province of Rome for the Realization of an Ecological Network in the mountainous complex of the Lucretili-Simbruini-Ruffi. The study area is situated in the centre of Italy and more precisely in Lazio region throw the border with Abruzzo. The location of this place makes it to be a key element in the environmental continuity at territorial scale, therefore the study of the same one will be made analysing more levels, beginning from the landscape, in its components natural and human, continuing with the definition of the functional ecological network, and concluding with the aspects of managerial nature, that more than the others will receive advantages from the creation of the GIS. There are essential elements able to suggest guidelines for planning and maintaining with ecological criteria: it means to verify the planning instruments, to point out the areas with different kind of constraints and to analyze the incongruities and the conflict points that will become the most important in the new action-plan. |
| Date: | 2004–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa04p235&r=env |
| By: | Victor Figueira; Francisco Guerreiro |
| Abstract: | It is the aim of the present paper firstly to provide a theoretical frame which enables us to characterize the development of tourism, highlighting the application of the concept of sustained development, and the role played by tourism in the development of rural areas. Aimed as an example and focussing this analysis on the cultural patrimony as a tourist resource, the paper also intends to present the intervention carried out in Cabeço de Vide’s railway station, both as far as the buildings and the green areas are concerned, so as to transform it into a tourist resort, seeking to achieve an adjusted, adequate and agreed integration of the tourist activity. |
| Date: | 2004–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa04p272&r=env |
| By: | Michael Dooms; Elvira Haezendonck |
| Abstract: | Haezendonck (2001) introduced an ecological dimension in conventional port portfolio analysis for seaports and applied it to the seaports in the Hamburg – Le Havre range. Given the fast growth of inland waterway transport, and the development of inland ports in the hinterland of seaports, the analysis can also be extended to evaluate the ‘green’ competitiveness of inland ports, as they are considered as important enablers to reach objectives of sustainable development. In this paper, the ‘green port portfolio analysis’ is applied to a range of eight inland ports in Western Europe. This results in (1) a number of specific methodological issues related to the inland port environment, (2) an interesting research agenda both for policy-makers at the local and regional level as well as for inland port managers. Keywords: Strategic management, port management & development |
| Date: | 2004–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa04p274&r=env |
| By: | Minki Bae; Deokho Cho; HongSuk Um; Dongho Shin |
| Abstract: | The goal of this study is to build a geographic information system for environmental policymaking. To achieve this goal, this study first surveys the local environment status. Based upon the collected environmental data, it forecasts the future environmental status of each city in Gyeongbuk province and generates a geo-referencing code. Finally, by using these data, it builds up a future environmental geographic information system for supporting environmental policymaking. This study consists of three major parts: 1) developing integrated environmental indicators, 2) establishing an environmental capacity database on the local level, 3) building up an environmental capacity geographic information system, and 4) making an environmental policy monitoring system. The results of this study will contribute to establish a warning system to prevent an excess of environmental capacity. They will also provide the framework and standard for integrating various environmental databases with a local environmental and geographic information system. Key words: Environmental indicators, geographic information system, geo-coding and geo-referencing, environmental policy |
| Date: | 2004–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa04p319&r=env |
| By: | Keiko Hirota; Minato Kiyoyuki; Kii Masanobu |
| Abstract: | After the Kyoto Conference (COP3), the Japanese transport sector was required to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 16% by 2010. The Japanese government has decided to improve the fuel economy standard in 2010 by improving it by an average of 22.8%. However, Japanese consumers tend to prefer heavier passenger cars such as four-wheel drive or recreational vehicles. Because of the difficult target of COP3, environmental policy should involve not only automotive technologies but also non-technical measures. Since Japanese vehicle taxes are expensive compared to other OECD countries, we would like to introduce the “feebate”, a word composed from “fee” and “rebate”, as a “Green Tax” at the acquisition stage. The feebate system charges a fee for less fuel-efficient vehicles and refunds for vehicles more fuel efficient than the fuel efficiency standard. This system is a market based alternative by fuel efficiency standards so that it can be tax neutral. Acquisition tax does not affect to environmental sustainability. Since social marginal cost has increased more and more, it is not always realistic to impose all the costs at the motoring tax level. The feebate system could partially share the social marginal cost and might mitigate the rebound effect at the motoring stage. We use the data set from 1995-2001 on fuel efficiency by vehicle type and the fuel efficiency standards of 1995. The contribution of this paper will be to propose a combination of feebate rate and CO2 emission reduction by vehicle gross weight group. |
| Date: | 2004–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa04p328&r=env |
| By: | Federico Martín Palmero; Marcos Fernández Francos; Fernando Gonzalez Laxe |
| Abstract: | In the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), the bases for a world sustainable development were set. Ten years later it took place in Johannesburg the World Summit on Sustainable Development, where it was discussed about the fulfilled advances and it favoured actions for century XXI. This document analyses the concern on sustainability in the Spanish regions by means of the creation of a global synthetic index of sustainable development that fulfils three conditions: it is adapted to Pressure-State-Answer principles, it adopts the Local Agenda 21 mandates and it fits in the four basic dimensions of sustainability: institutional, environmental, economic and social. Over the calculation of the changes taken place in the aforementioned decade in a set of selected variables – grouped in indicators and sub-indicators and classified according to the four dimensions aforementioned in the sustainable development – it is proceeded to the estimation of the synthetic index for the Spanish Autonomous Regions, what is useful as an instrument of analysis to make those regions hierarchical according to their degree of adaptation to the sustainability commitment developed in the Summit in Rio. JEL Classification: Q2, R1 Key Words: Sustainable development, regional analysis, Spain |
| Date: | 2004–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa04p383&r=env |
| By: | Francesco Prota; Francesco Contò |
| Abstract: | The delocation of firms is often viewed as a major outcome of a stiff environmental policy. In this paper, we study the impact of a strict anti-pollution policy pursued by a government on domestic firms locational decisions and determine the main variables that interact with such a policy. Some preliminary welfare implications are also provided. Keywords: Environmental policy; Plant location; Imperfect competition. JEL classification: H7; R3; D4. |
| Date: | 2004–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa04p413&r=env |
| By: | Bernardino Romano |
| Abstract: | About the matter of the environmental fragmentation due to settlement structure, an important issue is the “fragmentation tendency”. This phenomenon is linked to territorial sprawl sensibility and is determined by different land and urban characteristics. If the general ecological conditions are good, we can be sure that every animal species will increase their individuals number and will occupy larger areas and places. So we can say that this phenomenon is the same for human component, when the morphological, economic, climatic and social conditions are favorable. This means that we could draw the probable evolution of the settlement pattern in the future in order to particular aspects of the territory, as the altitude, slope, land use, exposure, infrastructures and urban location. We can also obtain the particular index (sprawl index) from the cited parameters, to measure the territorial sensibility toward the urban sprawl phenomena and individuate which areas are more critical than others in terms of future environmental fragmentation. Is very interesting to compare the results of these elaborations with the contents of the local planning instruments, to verify if the plan follows and favours these “human ecological” tendencies. The elaboration of the SIX (Sprawl Index) that we present in this paper has been developed and experimented on the study case of Umbria Region (Italy) in the context of the studies finalized at the RERU (Umbria Region Ecological Network). |
| Date: | 2004–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa04p441&r=env |
| By: | María A. García-Valiñas |
| Abstract: | In a context in which environmental protection have become in an important issue, the paper analyses which would be the optimal division of environmental policymaking functions among the different government levels. From the point of view of the fiscal federalism theory, we will design the most appropriate level of decentralization in each situation. In this sense, a proposal of decentralization has been shown, analyzing the consequences that a lax environmental policy could generate on future generations. Key words: Fiscal federalism, environmental policies, water management. Clasificación JEL: H77, Q25, Q28 |
| Date: | 2004–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa04p492&r=env |
| By: | Tüzin Baycan-Levent; Peter Nijkamp |
| Abstract: | Urban green spaces play a key role in improving the liveability of our towns and cities. The quality and viability of cities depend largely on the design, management and maintenance of urban green as well as of open and public spaces in order to fulfil their role as an important social constellation and a visual focus. Actually, urban green spaces are seen as an important contribution to a sustainable development of cities. However, the potential of green spaces is not always realized, so that current management practices are sometimes sub-optimal. From a “policy perspective”, the results of several case studies have shown important needs and priorities for the development and management of urban green spaces. It is of strategic importance to compare and evaluate urban green space policies for highlighting the “best practices” for relevant policy recommendations and guidance for society and planning authorities to improve the quality of life in cities. The present study investigates urban green spaces from a policy evaluation perspective and analyses European cities in order to obtain strategic and policy relevant information on the key features of urban green. The study aims to compare and evaluate the current management practices in European cities on the basis of the performance of urban green space policies. The data and information used for comparison and evaluation are based on extensive survey questionnaires filled out by relevant departments or experts of municipalities in European cities that aim to share their experience in innovative green space policies and strategies. A recently developed artificial intelligence method is deployed to assess and identify the most important factors that are responsible for successes and failures of urban green space policies. This approach reveals the most critical policy variables. |
| Date: | 2004–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa04p660&r=env |