Valuing Urban Green Space: Hypothetical Alternatives and the Status Quo

Abstract

Although many cities have guidelines on the quantity of green open space that should accompany residential development, there is less guidance on the type or facilities of these spaces. The study uses an approach to determine whether green space can be valued on the basis of its constituent characteristics and, if so, what characteristics are preferred. The results indicate that preferences vary depending on whether the green space in question is a small local park or a larger municipal park. However, where a base alternative of usual park destination is included in the analysis, the results are affected by collinearity and the actual availability of relevant green space attributes in these destinations. A mixed logit approach is used to tease out this effect from the underlying preference values.

Notes

1 GREENSPACE was funded under the European Commission's Framework 5 Programme. Available at www.green-space.org.

2 The payment vehicle was examined in the focus groups. The groups expressed unanimous disapproval for the use of entrance fees given that parks have always been a public good. Questions were also asked about tax as a payment vehicle, but this elicited much debate on how taxes are misused. Furthermore, Irish local authorities do not collect domestic rates or individual taxes. Journey time was preferred and has been shown to be influential is various studies of Irish parks (e.g. Duffy, 1990; Gormley, 1980).

3 This was a necessary compromise and responses were received from only 24% of the sample.

4 Thanks are due to Dr David Elston of BioSS, Aberdeen, for his assistance with the factorial design.