Contingent Valuation of Measures against Urban Heat: Limitations of a Frequently Used Method
Publication: Journal of Urban Planning and Development
Volume 143, Issue 3
Abstract
Cities increasingly face the necessity to choose among possible policy measures to counter urban heat and then to justify them. The contingent valuation method (CVM) is a frequently applied approach to estimate the monetary value of environmental policy measures. The authors scrutinized the appropriateness of the CVM to estimate the value of trees and drinking fountains as measures against urban heat in Vienna, Austria. First, to elicit meaningful per-unit estimates, the respondents’ willingness to pay depending on the scenario’s number of units was tested. It was found that the number of trees does not influence the average willingness to pay. Second, in the case of many possible policy measures, negative valuations are possible. The authors estimated a negative mean willingness to pay for fountains when allowing for negative values. These two findings render the CVM results questionable for policy recommendations. The authors believe that these limitations are typical of the CVM and refer to alternative methods to monetarily value measures against urban heat.
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Acknowledgments
This research would not have been possible without the help of many people. In particular the authors would like to thank the project team Christiane Brandenburg, Doris Damyanovic, Forian Reinwald, Brigitte Allex, Birgit Gantner, Christina Czachs, and Martin Kniepert. The authors received valuable support from Jürgen Preiß, Christian Härtl, Eva Krickler, Elisabeth Matheis, Leonhard Keteku, Wolfgang Haider, Gerald Pruckner, Karl Moder, Wolfgang Plautz, Ursula Liebl, the participants of the UHI workshop at MA22 in the City of Vienna on December 2, 2013, and the participants of the seminar at BOKU on January 23, 2014. The original research project was funded by the Environmental Department of the City of Vienna. Last but not least, the authors thank those who returned their questionnaires.
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Published In
Journal of Urban Planning and Development
Volume 143 • Issue 3 • September 2017
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 22, 2016
Accepted: Dec 19, 2016
Published online: Mar 28, 2017
Discussion open until: Aug 28, 2017
Published in print: Sep 1, 2017
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