1,721,201 research outputs found
Legal and Economic aspects of crop selection for phytoremediation purposes and the production of biofuel
No full textnot availabl
Legal and Economic aspects of crop selection for phytoremediation purposes and the production of biofuel
No full textnot availabl
The recreational value of a peri-urban forest in Morocco
No full textPeri-urban forests provide a range of important benefits to urban dwellers, such as, for example, nature-based recreation. This cultural ecosystem service is of significant importance in the developing world: It helps to increase urban resilience and stress recovery, which, in turn, can help mitigate many urban-life-related psychological and physical health issues, and socio-cultural problems caused by rapid urbanization and population growth. However, in developing countries such as, for example, Morocco, the heavy use of peri-urban forests for recreation and the limited management funds that do not keep up with the growing need for development and conservation result in anthropogenic pressures that lead to the degradation of these valuable natural sites. Non-market valuation of peri-urban forest recreation can help inform decision-making, conceive more effective management of these natural areas and increase funding for their conservation. This study estimates the recreational benefits of Val d'Ifrane, a broad peri-urban forest within Ifrane National Park in Morocco, to its domestic visitors, thereby filling a research gap in the non-market valuation of nature-based recreation in developing countries in general, and the geographic region of Morocco specifically. The study uses the individual single site Travel Cost Method with a correction for zero-truncation and endogenous stratification to estimate the recreational use-value of Val d'Ifrane. Results suggest an annual recreational value of 159.59 million DH (€ 14.71 million) or an average of 1,063.94 DH (€ 98.08) per visit per year (confidence intervals of 12.78 million DH (€ 1.17 million) to 306.40 million DH (€ 28.24 million) per annum, or 85.21 DH (€ 7.86) to 2,042.68 DH (€ 188.30) per visit per year). Robustness of the results is tested with regard to the operationalization of the travel cost and the opportunity cost of time, as well as the consideration of multi-site and multi-destination trips. The total annual recreational value is found to be 35 times higher than the cost for the last management and investment carried out by local environmental authorities in more than ten years. This information can assist decision-makers in their deliberations on funding for Val d'Ifrane restoration and development to maintain its recreational value while minimizing the negative impacts on natural capital and preserving the site for future generations.The authors are indebted to the reviewer and editors of the Journal of Urban Forestry and Urban Greening for their constructive criticism and useful suggestions. The authors would like to thank the VLIR-UOS (Flemish Inter-University Council) for funding this research in the frame of the Project 5 “Environment and territorial development” of the Institutional University Cooperation Project with the Universit´e Moulay Ismail in Morocco. The funding source had no involvement in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. Special recognition goes to Khadija Ait Kaddour, Anne Nobel, and Pieter Fonteyn for their support during survey design and data collection and analysis. Our gratitude extends to the Ifrane Provincial Administration of the Environment, the Ifrane Forest Administration, and the Management of Ifrane National Park, for providing information
about Val d’Ifrane and helping with the implementation of the survey
The Gentle Touch: supporting practical plant-based remediation solutions for contaminated sites
No full textCan immersive virtual reality increase respondents' certainty in discrete choice experiments? A comparison with traditional presentation formats
No full textStated preference methods such as discrete choice experiments (DCEs) are used to elicit respondents' preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for environmental goods or services whose value cannot be observed in actual markets. However, DCEs may deliver biased estimates because of respondents' unfamiliarity with the hypothetical scenarios to be valued. There is evidence that visualization techniques can enhance respondents' cognitive ability and improve the evaluation and interpretation of complex information. We leverage recent technological advances to create an immersive virtual reality environment delivered to respondents via a head-mounted display in order to conduct a split split-sample experiment on the value of urban greenery (i.e., trees, bio-retention planters) using three different presentation formats (text only; video; virtual reality). We find that (i) respondent certainty can be increased by employing more immersive visualization techniques such as virtual reality, and that (ii) the presentation format has a significant impact on WTP estimates for different types of urban green and can change respondents' rank order for the urban green options considered in the study.This work was supported by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) [grant numbers 12G5418N, 12B2917N]
Biobrandstoffen: Feiten en mythes rond het voedsel vs. bio-energie debat
No full textDe voedselcrisis en (tijdelijke) stijging in de graanprijzen worden in media toegeschreven aan de opkomst van energieteelten. Nochtans kende rijst de grootste prijsstijging van alle grondstoffen sinds 2004 (verdubbeling), terwijl het een teelt is die hoegenaamd niet gebruikt wordt voor bio-energie. Van de graanteelten is de aanwending voor non-food de laatste jaren eveneens slechts een marginaal gegeven geweest in vergelijking met de totale productie: in Europa wordt slechts 3,5 miljoen van de 254 miljoen ton tarwe gebruikt voor non-food(<1,5%)(Synagra,2008). Dit aandeel ligt overigens beduidend lager dan het areaal verplichte braakligging die in Europa werd ingevoerd om voedseloverproductie en dumping van overschotten in het zuiden in te perken. De FAO stelt dat jaarlijks 250 miljard dollar landbouwsteun in het Westen zorgt voor export(dumping) van voedseloverschotten naar het Zuiden, ver onder de lokale productiekost. In Dakar bijvoorbeeld, de grootste landbouwmarkt van West-Afrika, worden aldus geïmporteerde landbouwteelten uit Europa verhandeld aan een derde van de prijs van hun lokale tegenhangers, waardoor landbouw in het zuiden niet van de grond komt(Ziegler,2006; special VN rapporteur on food security). De huidige voedselcrisis en stijging van de voedselprijzen kent dus een andere , meer complexe achtergrond dan de ietwat vereenvoudigde afschildering van de biobrandstoffen als zondebok voor de huidige (tijdelijke) voedselcrisis
The Gentle Touch: supporting practical plant-based remediation solutions for contaminated sites
No full textAre Smart Grids the Holy Grail of Future Grid Mix? Economic, Environmental, and Regulatory Opportunities for Smart Grid Development in Northwestern Europe
No full textThe impact of wildfires on the recreational value of heathland: A discrete factor approach with adjustment for on-site sampling
No full textThis study extends the finite mixture model proposed by Landry and Liu (2009) to control for on-site sampling in the context of a system of recreation demand equations. We apply the model to a quasi-panel of recreational trip data under current and hypothetical wildfire conditions. We use the estimated model to provide the first estimate of recreational value for heathland in a European protected area and for how wildfires affect this value. Although we find statistical support for our proposed on-site sampling correction, we find that the correction generates no significant impact on welfare measures in our application.AN, SL, and NW are all funded by fellowships of the Research Foundation Flanders (respectively 11G2319N, 12G5418N and 12B2917N)
Are Smart Grids the Holy Grail of Future Grid Mix? Economic, Environmental, and Regulatory Opportunities for Smart Grid Development in Northwestern Europe
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