Economics and Public Value of Urban Forests, Parks and Open Spaces, Volksgarten Cologne

1
Economics and Public Value of Urban Forests,
Parks and Open Spaces, Volksgarten - Cologne

• Team
• Akin Akinola
• Kariem El Kholy
• Mauro Hirose
• Sam Masolo

Tutors Prof. Dr. Hartmut Gaese Dipl. Volks. Rui
Pedroso
2
Introduction

• The economic value of environmental goods like
  open spaces is based on the contribution its
  services make to the human well-being
• Preferences of individuals over alternatives
  (ordering) are the basis for putting a value upon
  an environmental good

3
Introduction

• Environmental goods provide services like
• Materials
• Life supporting services
• Amenities
• Waste disposal
• Several of them are non-marketed services

4
Introduction

• Willingness-to-pay

WTP
5
Problem

• Open spaces provide environmental services that
  are difficult to express in monetary terms
• Urban planners and environmental managers require
  this information in order to take wiser decisions
  and maximize the human well-being in their
  communities and to get an appropriate share of
  the yearly public budget
• Valuation methods allow estimating the monetary
  value of changes in the provision of
  environmental services.

6
Objective

• Contribute to a better management of the green
  infrastructure of Cologne
• Estimate the public value of improvement measures
  in Volksgarten

7
Case Study Volksgarten

• Location
• South of Cologne between Eifel- and
  Vorgebirgstrasse
• Area
• 13.9 Ha
• Developed
• Between 1887 and 1889

Source Google Earth
8
Methodology

• Contingent Valuation Method (CVM)
• Stated preferences method
• Survey based
• Allows the estimation of monetary values of
  non-marketed goods or services.

9
MethodologyQuestionnaire

• Frequency of visits
• Valuation of hypothetical scenario
• Description of valuation scenario (Improvement
  measures)
• Method of provision (Förderverein)
• Vehicle of payment (yearly fee)
• Socio-economic information

10
MethodologyCollection of data

• Personal interview of randomly chosen visitors
• Counting people entering the park for ten hours
  every 15 minutes at the 9 main entrances for a
  period of 2 weeks

11
ResultsProfile of visitors

• Age
• Gender
• Personal status
• Education level
• Income lt 1000
• Income between 1000 and 2000

• 33 years on average
• 61 women
• 71 single
• 24 married
• 48 University degree
• 38
• 39

12
ResultsFrequency of visits
13
ResultsPostal code of visitors
5
2
5
17
33
2
3
7
5
14
Results Rating of improvement
15
ResultsFactors influencing WTP

• Determined by linear regression
• Rating of improvement measures
• Frequency of visits
• Postal code

WTP f(Measures Rating ,Visits, Postal Code)
16
Results Public value of improvement measures

• Aggregation of the WFP function to the estimated
  number of visitors (approx. 400,000 p.a.)
• Mean WTP of approx. 19 p.a.
• Public value of improvement measures of approx.
  8,200,000 p.a.

17
Conclusions

• The aim of this study was the estimation of the
  public value of improvement measures at the
  Volksgarten
• The findings revealed that the visitors of the
  Volksgarten attach high value to it
• The value of the WTP can be derived not only from
  socio-economical characteristics of the
  interviewees but also from his visiting habits

18

• Thank you
• for
• your attention