Geospatial Analysis of Nonmarket Values to Prioritize Forest Restoration

Adrienne B. Soder (), Julie Mueller, Abraham E. Springer and Katelyn E. LaPine
Additional contact information
Adrienne B. Soder: School of Earth and Sustainability, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA
Abraham E. Springer: School of Earth and Sustainability, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA
Katelyn E. LaPine: School of Earth and Sustainability, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 9, 1-13

Abstract: Forest restoration is necessary for maintaining healthy watersheds and the ecological spatial networks that provide environmental goods and services. Consideration of the dollar value of these provided benefits in restoration planning is essential to the efficient use of limited resources available to project implementation. Nonmarket valuation is a methodology of economics commonly used to estimate monetary values for environmental goods and services that are not typically bought or sold in a traditional market. Valuation studies are prolific within the restoration literature; however, the use of nonmarket values as decision support is not well represented. We introduce a method using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to spatially analyze the results from a nonmarket valuation study that estimated dollar values for the attributes of forest restoration characteristic of a semi-arid watershed in the Southwest United States. Map layers were created for the five attributes valued by the study and represent areas in the watershed that are designated as critical habitats, determined to influence surface water quality, prone to high-severity wildfire, representative of culturally significant areas, and contribute to aquifer recharge. A series of overlay analyses were performed to create a composite benefit map that spatially displays nonmarket values throughout the watershed. The per acre benefit values range from USD 0 to USD 104 where all five attributes are present.

Keywords: decision support; forest restoration; GIS; nonmarket valuation; spatial prioritization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/9/1387/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/9/1387/ (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:jlands:v:11:y:2022:i:9:p:1387-:d:896155

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

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