Valuing Chicago’s beaches across race and income

Travel cost method;Non-market valuation;Chicago;Urban recreation;Environmental justice;Beaches

Munaretto, Claire Margaret ; Ando ; Amy W.

关键词: Travel cost method;    Non-market valuation;    Chicago;    Urban recreation;    Environmental justice;    Beaches;   

Others  :  https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/97422/MUNARETTO-THESIS-2017.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

美国|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

Much research has estimated the recreational values of natural areas, but that research has largely neglected the values of natural areas in urban environments, and has focused on generating total or median household values rather than exploring how benefits are distributed among racial, ethnic, and socio-economic sub-groups of society. This paper fills those gaps by estimating the value of Chicago's public beaches and how the distribution of that value is affected by income, race, access to transportation, and age. We analyze data from a travel cost survey of over 750 diverse households in the greater Chicago area. Results indicate that willingness to pay (WTP) for these urban beaches is especially high among African-Americans in the community, and that WTP first increases but then declines with increasing income. Final results will contribute to broad scholarly knowledge about the benefits of urban natural recreation sites and how those benefits accrue to people of various racial and socio-economic groups. This research can also help urban park and beach managers to understand value gained from urban beaches by locals and visitors from surrounding suburbs as well as inform decisions about expansion of neighborhood beaches or public transportation routes to access existing beaches.