title: Benefit transfer and spatial heterogeneity of preferences for water quality improvements.
abstract: The improvement in the water quality resulting from the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive is expected to generate substantial non-market benefits. A wide spread estimation of these benefits across Europe will require the application of benefit transfer. We use a spatially explicit valuation design to account for the spatial heterogeneity of preferences to help generate lower transfer errors. A map-based choice experiment is applied in the Guadalquivir River Basin (Spain), accounting simultaneously for the spatial distribution of water quality improvements and beneficiaries. Our results show that accounting for the spatial heterogeneity of preferences generally produces lower transfer errors.
authors.affiliation: The James Hutton Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen AB15 8QH, United Kingdom. julia.martinortega@hutton.ac.uk
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Martin-Ortega
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Brouwer
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ojea
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Berbel
mesh_terms: D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D058735:Environmental Policy; D006801:Humans; D017059:Models, Econometric; D058996:Quality Improvement; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D045483:Rivers; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013030:Spain; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D060753:Water Quality; D014881:Water Supply