IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/apl/wpaper/16-01.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A Benefit-Cost Analysis of the Middle Fork Greenway Trail

Author

Listed:
  • John C. Whitehead
  • John Lehman
  • Melissa Weddell

Abstract

The Town of Boone, NC Greenway Trail is a 3.84 mile long paved trail with additional unpaved sections that attract many types of users including walkers, joggers, and cyclists. The proposed Middle Fork New River extension would add 6.5 miles to the total paved mileage. In order to estimate recreation benefits of the extension we use revealed and stated preference data to estimate the change in value of current visits and change in visits with the additional mileage. The total opportunity cost of the project includes land acquisition, construction, operation and maintenance costs. Considering only recreation benefits the Middle Fork Greenway Trail passes a benefit-cost test. The net present value is estimated to be $2.78 million. This conclusion does not change after considering a number of partial sensitivity analyses. Key Words:

Suggested Citation

  • John C. Whitehead & John Lehman & Melissa Weddell, 2016. "A Benefit-Cost Analysis of the Middle Fork Greenway Trail," Working Papers 16-01, Department of Economics, Appalachian State University, revised 2016.
    • Handle: RePEc:apl:wpaper:16-01
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://econ.appstate.edu/RePEc/pdf/wp1601.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Timothy C. Haab & Kenneth E. McConnell, 2002. "Valuing Environmental and Natural Resources," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2427.
    2. J.M. Bowker & John C. Bergstrom & Joshua Gill, 2007. "Estimating the Economic Value and Impacts of Recreational Trails: A Case Study of the Virginia Creeper Rail Trail," Tourism Economics, , vol. 13(2), pages 241-260, June.
    3. Carter Betz & John Bergstrom & J. M. Bowker, 2003. "A Contingent Trip Model for Estimating Rail-trail Demand," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(1), pages 79-96.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. New working paper: "A Benefit-Cost Analysis of the Middle Fork Greenway Trail"
      by John Whitehead in Environmental Economics on 2016-01-11 17:30:57

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. R. Martínez-Espiñeira, 2007. "‘Adopt a Hypothetical Pup’: A Count Data Approach to the Valuation of Wildlife," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 37(2), pages 335-360, June.
    2. Rovelli, Roberto & Senes, Giulio & Fumagalli, Natalia & Sacco, Jessica & De Montis, Andrea, 2020. "From railways to greenways: a complex index for supporting policymaking and planning. A case study in Piedmont (Italy)," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    3. Khuda Bakhsh & Iqra Meshaal & Hudda Riaz, 2020. "Evaluating visitors’ travel demand and recreational values in Kallar Kahar Lake, Pakistan," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(8), pages 7951-7967, December.
    4. Roberto Martinez-Espineira & Joe Amoako-Tuffour, 2005. "Recreation Demand Analysis under Truncation, Overdispersion, and Endogenous Stratification: An Application to Gros Morne National Park," Econometrics 0511007, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Zachary Darby & Neelam Chandra Poudyal & Adam Frakes & Omkar Joshi, 2021. "Economic Analysis of Recreation Access at a Lake Facing Water Crisis due to Municipal Water Demand," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 35(9), pages 2909-2920, July.
    6. Prayaga, Prabha, 2017. "Estimating the value of beach recreation for locals in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Australia," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 9-18.
    7. Amoako-Tuffour, Joe & Martınez-Espineira, Roberto, 2008. "Leisure and the Opportunity Cost of Travel Time in Recreation Demand Analysis: A Re-Examination," MPRA Paper 8573, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Verbic, Miroslav & Slabe-Erker, Renata, 2009. "An econometric analysis of willingness-to-pay for sustainable development: A case study of the Volcji Potok landscape area," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(5), pages 1316-1328, March.
    9. Fancello, Giovanna & Tsoukiàs, Alexis, 2021. "Learning urban capabilities from behaviours. A focus on visitors values for urban planning," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    10. John C. Whitehead, 2006. "Willingness to Pay for Low Probability, Low Loss Hazard Insurance," Working Papers 06-08, Department of Economics, Appalachian State University.
    11. Giles Atkinson & Sian Morse-Jones & Susana Mourato & Allan Provins, 2012. "‘When to Take “No” for an Answer’? Using Entreaties to Reduce Protests in Contingent Valuation Studies," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 51(4), pages 497-523, April.
    12. Xenarios, Stefanos & Amarasinghe, Upali A. & Sharma, Bharat R., 2011. "Valuating agricultural water use and ecological services in agrarian economies: evidences from eastern India," IWMI Reports 158839, International Water Management Institute.
    13. Bowker, James Michael & Starbuck, C. Meghan & English, Donald B.K. & Bergstrom, John C. & Rosenberger, Randall S. & McCollum, Daniel W., 2009. "Estimating the Net Economic Value of National Forest Recreation: An Application of the National Visitor Use Monitoring Database," Faculty Series 59603, University of Georgia, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    14. Otrachshenko, Vladimir & Tyurina, Elena & Nagapetyan, Artur, 2022. "The economic value of the Glass Beach: Contingent valuation and life satisfaction approaches," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    15. Tuan, Tran Huu & Navrud, Stale, 2009. "Applying the dissonance-minimising format to value cultural heritage in developing countries," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 53(3), pages 1-17.
    16. Baral, Nabin & Rabotyagov, Sergey, 2017. "How much are wood-based cellulosic biofuels worth in the Pacific Northwest? Ex-ante and ex-post analysis of local people's willingness to pay," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 99-106.
    17. Gemechisa Yadeta Ayana, 2017. "Farmers’ Willingness To Pay For Soil Conservation Practices In Gobu Seyo District, Eastern Wollega Zone, Oromia National Regional State Of Ethiopia," International Journal of Agriculture and Environmental Research, Malwa International Journals Publication, vol. 3(3), June.
    18. Maria José Gil-Moltó & Claudio A. Piga, 2007. "Entry and Exit in a Liberalised Market," Rivista di Politica Economica, SIPI Spa, vol. 97(1), pages 3-38, January-F.
    19. de Ayala, Amaia & Hoyos, David & Mariel, Petr, 2015. "Suitability of discrete choice experiments for landscape management under the European Landscape Convention," Journal of Forest Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 79-96.
    20. Kerstin K Zander & Gillian B Ainsworth & Jürgen Meyerhoff & Stephen T Garnett, 2014. "Threatened Bird Valuation in Australia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(6), pages 1-9, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:apl:wpaper:16-01. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: O. Ashton Morgan (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deappus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.