{"id":815,"date":"2022-04-09T11:58:32","date_gmt":"2022-04-09T18:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ubcowatershed\/?p=815"},"modified":"2022-05-16T06:50:50","modified_gmt":"2022-05-16T13:50:50","slug":"dollars-from-parks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ubcowatershed\/2022\/04\/09\/dollars-from-parks\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Issues: Expanding Sutherland Waterfront Park (Part I)?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Okanagan rail trail. Photo credit Tourism Kelowna.<\/p><\/div>\n

I like urban parks and pathways.\u00a0 I believe that public green spaces are important for our connection to the environment, to each other, and for encouraging healthy physical activity.\u00a0 My education as an economist also makes me wonder about measuring the value that public green spaces in our cities provide.<\/p>\n

\"\"Oscar Wilde is credited with defining a cynic as someone who “knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”\u00a0 Practitioners of the dismal science (economics) are often seem pretty cynical, and Wilde’s definition sees frequent application to economists who talk about the value of things like public parks.\u00a0 Maybe I’ll confirm Wilde’s cynicism.<\/p>\n

One of the pleasures of being an academic is learning about the research others are doing.\u00a0 Recently, I attended (virtually) a talk by Dr. Peter Tsigaris of Thompson Rivers University.\u00a0 Dr. Tsigaris had charged his students with calculating an estimate of the value of the services provided by a number of Kamloops city parks.\u00a0 Many economists would argue that the best approaches to estimate these values is to carefully observe and interview park users and\/or carefully analyse how property prices are affected by proximity to the park.\u00a0 Both of these primary research approaches are expensive and time consuming, beyond what can be achieved within the time available for a class project.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Kenna Cartwright Park. Photo credit Tourism Kamloops.<\/p><\/div>\n

I would be one of those people who would reveal a high value for using or living close to protected green space.\u00a0 Conducting and reviewing this type of research reminds me that my own values may not be near the average of those in my community.<\/p>\n

The cost and time challenges of primary research have created a demand from policy makers for quicker and cheaper ways to come up with value estimates.\u00a0 The resulting approach, known as ‘Benefit Transfer’, consists of adapting values from primary research done somewhere else to the site where a value of services is sought, those Kamloops parks.<\/p>\n

The trick is finding primary research that is similar enough to the thing for which a value is sought.\u00a0 One solution to this challenge, known as ‘Meta Analysis’, is to collect results from a number of previous research projects and look at how differences among these projects are reflected in different value estimates.\u00a0 One recent meta analysis, by Bockarjova, Botzen and Koetse (2020), collected results from 60 previous studies, identifying features of green and blue nature and the urban settings where they are that predict the estimates of the value of those services reported in those reviewed studies.\u00a0 The results of this analysis were used by Dr. Tsigaris’ students in their Kamloops park value estimates.<\/p>\n

In terms of estimated value provided per hectare of protected area, some of the important features identified by Bockarjova, Botzen and Koetse include:<\/p>\n