An integrated approach to landscape economic evaluation

• Main Author: Tagliafierro, Carolina
• Published: Queen's University Belfast 2017
• Subjects: 333.73
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.728672

Landscape is regarded as a multifunctional resource: it provides society with goods and services, which are valued differently by stakeholders. In a sustainable planning perspective, such values need to be taken into account if policy makers want to design effective instruments, like incentives, to steer landscape use towards sustainable management practices. Non-market valuation methodologies can prove a valuable support in this task, as long as they manage to represent landscape complex nature and the perception people have of it. Individuals interpret landscape in a holistic way, that is they perceive it as a whole through its single components. These components need to be identified and represented in f he economic models to interpret and understand the mechanisms behind people preferences and choices about landscape. This thesis addresses this problem and suggests a transdisciplinary approach based on landscape ecology and landscape economics methodologies integrated by using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) - based techniques. The case study is the Peninsula of Sorrento (Italy). A landscape ecology GIS-based analysis of the study area provides the spatial information on landscape structure, identifies landscape components and quantifies them through indicators. Using the view on the ground, the indicators are calculated in a three dimensional space to provide a more realistic representation of landscape components and are subsequently used as variables in the monetary valuation of the landscape in a contingent valuation framework. To our knowledge, such an intense integration of landscape ecology methodologies and GIS-based techniques is new in stated preference analysis. Final results are the estimates of economic value of landscape components and of individuals’ welfare changes related to the implementation of landscape preservation programs. Integration of analytical methodologies and information from different disciplines has proved useful in tackling landscape complexity and its representation in economic models by identifying the components of actual landscapes that determine individuals’ choice and quantifying them in variables.