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Valuing Urban Landscape Using Subjective Well-Being Data: Empirical Evidence from Dalian, China

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  • Erda Wang

    (Faculty of Management and Economics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116023, China)

  • Nannan Kang

    (Faculty of Management and Economics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116023, China)

  • Yang Yu

    (School of Economics and management, Dalian Ocean University, Dalian 116023, China)

Abstract

It has been well recognized that the urban landscape ecosystem is able to make a great contribution to the quality of life for people who live in the city and beyond, thus it can potentially accrue a significant economic value to the human well-being. However, due to its public good nature, it is difficult to monetizing its values in a systematic manner. In this paper, we attempt to assess the economic value of the urban landscape through people’s life satisfaction approach utilizing a large sample of dataset complied from the general public survey in Dalian City which is one of the well-known tourism cities in China. The results indicate that most of the urban landscape attributes impose significant effects on people’s life satisfaction, thus accruing a considerable amount of value to the local residents. Taking a 10-point ranking scale for the urban landscape quality as an example, the household willingness to pay on average reaches ¥24,579 per annum for one point of ranking level increase. Relative to the low level of household income, those high-income households are much keener to the changes of the landscape quality. If the urban landscape quality is disaggregated into five levels, household’s marginal willingness-to-pay diminishes as the urban landscape’s rank level is improved.

Suggested Citation

  • Erda Wang & Nannan Kang & Yang Yu, 2017. "Valuing Urban Landscape Using Subjective Well-Being Data: Empirical Evidence from Dalian, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-20, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2017:i:1:p:36-:d:124218
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    2. Barbara Sowińska-Świerkosz & Malwina Michalik-Śnieżek & Dawid Soszyński & Agnieszka Kułak, 2020. "In the Search of an Assessment Method for Urban Landscape Objects (ULOs): Tangible and Intangible Values, Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS), and Ranking Approach," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-23, December.

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