A valuation study to identify the determinants of the demand for time spent outdoors among users of hospital facilities, their willingness-to-pay for green infrastructure improvements, and the implications for planning

ABSTRACT

Green infrastructure has been promoted as an urban planning tool for the achievement of health and environmental policy objectives. The capacity of economic valuation methods to estimate monetary benefit values for intangible goods, such as mental health and wellbeing, renders them useful in justifying green infrastructure interventions and guiding their implementation. In this case study we used stated preference methods to elicit cross-sectional data on the preferences of staff (n=118), visitors (n=88), and inpatients (n=35) of Musgrave Park Hospital in Northern Ireland, for improvements in the hospital’s outdoor grounds. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to use the contingent behavior method to examine the demand for time spent on the improved outdoor grounds of a hospital and the first to use the contingent valuation method to obtain the respective willingness-to-pay values. The results show that the three hospital user groups differed in their preferred types of green infrastructure and their motivations for using the outdoor grounds, an important input for planning the transformation of the outdoors. Other findings suggest that to maximize health and well-being benefits, complementary measures to address the issues of sedentary lifestyles and inadequate use of the outdoors as a stress-coping mechanism are needed.

KEYWORDS:

• Green infrastructure
• contingent behaviour
• contingent valuation
• hospital facilities
• time spent outdoors

View correction statement:

Correction

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article was originally published with errors, which have now been corrected in the online version. Please see Correction https://doi.org/10.1080/23748834.2024.2330237.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the UK Prevention Research Partnership [MR/V049704/1], which is funded by the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, Health and Social Care Research and Development Division (Welsh Government), Medical Research Council, National Institute for Health Research, Natural Environment Research Council, Public Health Agency (Northern Ireland), The Health Foundation and Wellcome. The work was also supported by the HSC Research and Development Office Northern Ireland [COM/5634/20], and by the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. Finally, we are thankful to the editor and the reviewers for their constructive approach in aiding the improvement of this work.

Notes on contributors

Marios Zachariou

Marios Zachariou is an economist specializing in environmental and natural resource economics. While finishing his Ph.D. at Queen’s University Belfast, he joined the economics research branch of the Agri-Food and Science Institute to assist in developing recreation and land use models for Northern Ireland while exploring the methodological aspects of economic valuation. His work primarily entails the use of non-market valuation techniques, microeconometric analysis, and geographic information analysis.

Alberto Longo

Alberto Longo is an applied economist whose main research interest is in using non-market valuation techniques – discrete choice experiments, contingent valuation, travel cost, hedonic pricing model – microeconometrics, experimental economics and behavioural economics to investigate people’s behaviour, behaviour change, preferences, attitudes, and monetary values for public health interventions and programmes, and for environmental goods and services. His recent work has looked at the monetary public health value of urban green and blue spaces (MRC MR/V049704/1 - GroundsWell), behavioural interventions to reduce car dependency (MRC MR/V00378X/1- MICA), farmers’ behaviour for adopting climate change mitigating technologies and practices (Horizon 2020), and behavioural interventions to reduce households’ food waste (EPA).