Evaluating Revealed Preferences for Street Tree Cover Targets: A Business Case for Collaborative Investment in Leafier Streetscapes in Brisbane, Australia

Lyndal Plant, Alicia Rambaldi () and Neil Sipe

Ecological Economics, 2017, vol. 134, issue C, 238-249

Abstract: Many cities are seeking to optimise the ecosystem service benefits of urban trees by incorporating goals for increasing tree canopy cover into strategies that promote liveability and urban sustainability. We adapt revealed preference valuation techniques as a combined policy evaluation and business case tool with broader application to urban forest planning and investment. We use spatial hedonic price modelling of 2,299 house sales across 80 sample sites in 52 residential Brisbane suburbs, to reveal home-buyers willingness to pay 3.73% more for houses in streets with target levels of footpath tree cover (50% tree canopy coverage of the footpath zone by 2031) nearby (within 100m). An estimate of the contribution of 2010 levels of footpath tree cover (35%) to the prices of houses sold in 2010 ($US15.03 – 15.91 million) far exceeded annual costs to those home owners in local property taxes. Associated annual rates revenues ($US 0.51 – 0.53 million) to local government and stamp duty revenues ($US 0.53 – 0.60 million) to state government help justify ongoing collaborative investment to achieve target levels of footpath tree cover.

Keywords: Street trees; Canopy cover targets; Hedonic pricing model; Business case (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800916303585
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:134:y:2017:i:c:p:238-249

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.12.026

Access Statistics for this article

Ecological Economics is currently edited by C. J. Cleveland

More articles in Ecological Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().