Assessing Local Communities’ Willingness to Pay for River Network Protection: A Contingent Valuation Study of Shanghai, China

Zhaoyi Shang, Yue Che, Kai Yang and Yu Jiang
Additional contact information
Zhaoyi Shang: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Urbanization and Ecological Restoration, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
Yue Che: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Urbanization and Ecological Restoration, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
Kai Yang: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Urbanization and Ecological Restoration, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
Yu Jiang: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Urbanization and Ecological Restoration, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China

IJERPH, 2012, vol. 9, issue 11, 1-17

Abstract: River networks have experienced serious degradation because of rapid urbanization and population growth in developing countries such as China, and the protection of these networks requires the integration of evaluation with ecology and economics. In this study, a structured questionnaire survey of local residents in Shanghai (China) was conducted in urban and suburban areas. The study examined residents’ awareness of the value of the river network, sought their attitude toward the current status, and employed a logistic regression analysis based on the contingent valuation method (CVM) to calculate the total benefit and explain the socioeconomic factors influencing the residents’ willingness to pay (WTP). The results suggested that residents in Shanghai had a high degree of recognition of river network value but a low degree of satisfaction with the government’s actions and the current situation. The study also illustrated that the majority of respondents were willing to pay for river network protection. The mean WTP was 226.44 RMB per household per year. The number of years lived in Shanghai, the distance from the home to the nearest river, and the amount of the bid were important factors that influenced the respondents’ WTP. Suggestions for comprehensive management were proposed for the use of policy makers in river network conservation.

Keywords: river network; attitude; contingent valuation; willingness to pay; Shanghai (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/9/11/3866/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/9/11/3866/ (text/html)

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:gam:jijerp:v:9:y:2012:i:11:p:3866-3882:d:20996

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().