VALUING NATURAL CAPITAL AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
Academic Year 2023/2024 - Teacher: Giovanni SIGNORELLOExpected Learning Outcomes
The student will know theoretical concepts and methods for assigning to natural capital and ecosystems services economic values that can be used in Beneft Cost Analysys of investments in nature conservation and restoration, and in Natural Resource Damage Assessment court cases.
Course Structure
Teaching includes 21 hours of frontal participatory and cooperative lectures, and 42 hours of various typologies of exercises, including practical exercise, team works, examination f relevant study cases, field visits, individual researchs and presentations, seminars.
As a guarantee of equal opportunities and in compliance with current laws, interested students can ask for a personal interview in order to plan any compensatory and/or dispensatory measures, based on their specific needs and on teaching objectives of the discipline. It is also possible to ask the departmental contacts of CInAP (Center for Active and Participatory Integration - Services for Disabilities and/or DSAs)
Required Prerequisites
Detailed Course Content
Content of frontal lectures:
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.
Exercises deal with the topics of frontal lectures.
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, 2023
Course Planning
| Subjects | Text References | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The natural capital as asset. | Signorello G. (ed.), Valuing Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services: Supplementary Material and Readings, Università di Catania, 2023 |
| 2 | Ecosystem services | Signorello G. (ed.), Valuing Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services: Supplementary Material and Readings, Università di Catania, 2023 |
| 3 | Classification of ecosystem services | Signorello G. (ed.), Valuing Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services: Supplementary Material and Readings, Università di Catania, 2023 |
| 4 | Goals of economic valuation. | Boyle K.J., Brown T.C., Champ P.A. (eds.), A Primer on Nonmarket Valuation, 2nd edition, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 2016 |
| 5 | Principles of welfare economics | 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, |
| 6 | The Total Economic Value paradigm. | 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, |
| 7 | General overview of economic valuation methods. | 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, |
| 8 | Travel cost method (single sites and multiple sites approaches). | 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, |
| 9 | Hedonic price method. | 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, |
| 10 | Defensive behavior. | 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, |
| 11 | Damage cost method. | 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, |
| 12 | Contingent valuation | Boyle K.J., Brown T.C., Champ P.A. (eds.), A Primer on Nonmarket Valuation, 2nd edition, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 2016Signorello G. (ed.), Valuing Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services: Supplementary Material and Readings, 2023 |
| 13 | Choice Experiments | Boyle K.J., Brown T.C., Champ P.A. (eds.), A Primer on Nonmarket Valuation, 2nd edition, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 2016 Signorello G. (ed.), Valuing Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services: Supplementary Material and Readings, Università di Ca |
| 14 | Benefit Transfer approach | 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, |
| 15 | Environmental damage estimates in the European courts. | Signorello G. (ed.), Valuing Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services: Supplementary Material and Readings, Università di Catania, 2023 |
| 16 | Equivalence Analysis. | Signorello G. (ed.), Valuing Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services: Supplementary Material and Readings, Università di Catania, 2023 |
| 17 | Examination of selected valuation case-studies | Signorello G. (ed.), Valuing Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services: Supplementary Material and Readings, Università di Catania, 2023 |