Ecosystem Service Valuation For Coastal Zone Management: From Promise to Practice

Informations

Funding country

Norway

Acronym

COAST-BENEFIT

URL

-

Start date

1/1/2016

End date

12/31/2021

Budget

993,225 EUR

Fundings

Abstract

The COAST-BENEFIT project is motivated from the expert report "Natural benefits: On the values of ecosystem services" (NOU 2013: 10). The main objective is to contribute to improved scientific knowledge and competencies relevant for protecting the environment and regulating economic activities that simultaneous rely on and affect coastal and marine ecosystems along the Norwegian coast. Socially optimal decision-making requires specific and full information about trade-offs between social, economic, and environmental considerations. Knowledge of 1) the nonmarket impact of changes in environmental conditions and 2) the behavioral propensities of economic actors, is crucial to society when it seeks to balance policies for industrial development, environmental protection, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. The project begins by recognizing the need for both qualitative and quantitative and non-monetary and monetary information on the relationships between economic activities and the environmental state of the coast zone. Specifically, the project identifies gaps and deficiencies in the scientific knowledge and competencies related to acquiring monetary measures on the benefits of ecosystem services along the Norwegian coast and the costs of deteriorating coastal environmental conditions. For this reason, environmental valuation and benefit-cost techniques from environmental economics comprise the centerpiece of the project. The project has implemented four sub-projects positioned against specific industrial contexts, namely, 1) aquaculture production, 2) recreation and tourism activities, 3) coastal transportation, and 4) wind power deployment, respectively. In doing so, the project has contributed on the conceptual, methodological, and empirical frontiers of environmental valuation, while also generating highly relevant information for real-world decision making. Through its four-year implementation, the project has collaborated and communicated with numerous local, regional, and national stakeholder groups as well as researchers from different social and natural science disciplines in both Norway and internationally. Furthermore, integral to the success of the COAST-BENEFIT project, has been the ability to create synergetic collaborations with other NFR research projects (MARES and WINDLAND). By the project end-date (31.12.2020), the COAST-BENEFIT project had produced a total of 13 peer-reviewed scientific articles, 2 peer-reviewed scientific chapters, 7 scientific reports, 10 master theses, 1 PhD thesis, 14 scientific conference presentations, 12 media contributions (interviews and commentaries/op-eds) and more than 40 other dissemination products (popular-scientific presentations, invited seminars, and guest lectures). It is anticipated that a significant additional output will be produced over the next couple of years in the wake of the COAST-BENEFIT. For example, there are currently eight additional scientific articles underway (either in under review in scientific journal or under preparation for submission), and five additional master theses being written in the Spring of 2021. PUBLICATION HIGHLIGHTS Lopes, A.F., Mariel, P. (2021). On the Validity and Reliability of coastal quality change estimates: Evidence from Norway. Coastal Management (in press). Dugstad, A., Grimsrud, K., Kipperberg, G., Lindhjem, H., & Navrud, S. (2020). Acceptance of wind power development and exposure?Not-in-anybody's-backyard. Energy Policy, 147, 111780. Lopes, A. F., & Kipperberg, G. (2020). Diagnosing Insensitivity to Scope in Contingent Valuation. Environmental and Resource Economics, 77(1), 191-216. Ahi, J. C., & Kipperberg, G. (2020). Attribute Non-attendance in Environmental Discrete Choice Experiments: The Impact of Including an Employment Attribute. Marine Resource Economics, 35(3), 201-218. Skeie, M. A., Lindhjem, H., Skjeflo, S., & Navrud, S. (2019). Smartphone and tablet effects in contingent valuation web surveys?No reason to worry? Ecological Economics, 165, 106390. Kipperberg, G., Onozaka, Y., Bui, L. T., Lohaugen, M., Refsdal, G., & Sæland, S. (2019). The impact of wind turbines on local recreation: evidence from two travel cost method?contingent behavior studies. Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism, 25, 66-75.