An Economic Assessment of the Amenity Benefits Associated with Alternative Coastal Protection Options

Mike Christie and Oliver Colman

No 25541, 2006 Annual Meeting, August 12-18, 2006, Queensland, Australia from International Association of Agricultural Economists

Abstract: Current government guidelines for the appraisal of coastal defence projects in the UK do not require that non-market amenity benefits to be considered . However, a new option in coastal defence, namely multi-purpose reefs, provides an opportunity to integrate coastal defence with significant amenity provision. This paper reports the findings of a choice experiment study that evaluated the amenity benefits of four alternative coastal defence systems currently being considered for Borth in west Wales. The results indicate that traditional coastal defence options such as timber and rock groynes do not generate amenity benefits, while a multipurpose reef would generate significant benefits in terms of improvements in the visual appeal of the beach, safer swimming opportunities and improved surfing conditions. Importantly, these benefits were found to be significant for all members of the local community and not just surf ers. Based on our findings, we recommend that guidelines for the appraisal of coastal defence projects should be amended to incorporate non-market amenity benefits.

Keywords: Resource/Energy; Economics; and; Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 16
Date: 2006
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:iaae06:25541

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.25541

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