AVVISO:
A seguito degli avvisi di allerta meteo diramati questo pomeriggio dalla Protezione Civile regionale, per la giornata di martedì 20 gennaio 2026, sono sospese tutte le attività didattiche in presenza (lezioni, esami, sedute di laurea) previste in tutte le sedi dell'Università di Catania (incluse le strutture didattiche di Ragusa e Siracusa). Le strutture di Ateneo resteranno pertanto chiuse e le attività potranno essere erogate in modalità online.
VALUING NATURAL CAPITAL AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
Academic Year 2018/2019 - 2° Year
Teaching Staff: Giovanni Signorello
Credit Value: 6
Course Language: English
Taught classes: 28 hours
Exercise: 28 hours
Term / Semester: 1°
Credit Value: 6
Course Language: English
Taught classes: 28 hours
Exercise: 28 hours
Term / Semester: 1°
Learning Objectives
To provide expertise for the development of professional and disciplinary skills in assigning sound economic value to natural capital and ecosystems services by means of concepts, methods and tools .
Course Structure
Lectures and exercises
Detailed Course Content
The natural capital as asset. Ecosystem services. Classification of ecosystem services. Goals of economic valuation. Principles of welfare economics. The Total Economic Value paradigm. General overview of economic valuation methods. Valuation methods based on revealed preferences. Travel cost method (single sites and multiple sites approaches). Hedonic price method. Defensive behavior. Damage cost method. Valuation methods based on stated preferences. Contingent valuation. Choice Experiments. Secondary methods: Benefit Transfer. The environmental damage estimates in the European courts. Equivalence Analysis. Examination of selected valuation case-studies.
Textbook Information
- Boyle K.J., Brown T.C., Champ P.A. (eds.), A Primer on Nonmarket Valuation, 2nd edition, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 2016
- Freeman A. M. III, Herriges J. A., and Kling C., The Measurement of Environmental and Resource Values, 3rd ed., RFF Press, Washington D.C., 2014
- Signorello G. (ed.), Valuing Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services: Supplementary Material and Readings, Università di Catania, 2018