Environmental Valuation Laboratory

Environmental Valuation Laboratory (Envalab)

via Santa Sofia – Economic Area

Person in charge: Giovanni Signorello

Laboratory usage: research

Environmental Valuation Laboratory (Envalab) is a research unit within the Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment of the University of Catania, aimed at advancing and applying economic methods for valuing nonmarket environmental goods and services.

The mission of Envalab is to:

• advance the state of research and practice of economic valuation of nonmarket benefits provided by natural and environmental resources;
• foster nonmarket valuation research in Italy;
• provide a creative and high quality research atmosphere;
• promote student interest in the study of environmental valuation concepts and methods;
• encourage national and international scientific interactions in the field of environmental valuation;
• facilitate the use of nonmarket valuation tools in the conservation and management of environmental goods and services;
• provide consulting services related to natural resource damage assessment under the European Environmental Liability Directive, payment of ecosystem services schemes, social benefit - cost analysis of nature and heritage conservation/restoration projects, economics of protected areas and biodiversity;
• offer support to conservation managers, organizations and agencies to take ecosystem services provided by nature into account.

Envalab also offers consulting services to agencies and resource managers interested in taking adequately into account the economic value of ecosystem services in land management and planning, and in conservation investments.

Members of Scientific Board:

• Anna Alberini, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics University of Maryland, USA
• Richard C. Bishop, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Wisconsin, USA
• Joseph Cooper, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington D.C., USA
• Peter Feather, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington D.C., USA
• Tim Haab, Department of Agricultural, Environmental, Development Economics, Ohio State University, USA
• Michael Hanemann, Department of Economics, Arizona State University, USA
• Bengt Kriström, Department of Forest Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Umeå University, Sweeden
• Pere Riera, Department of Applied Economics, University Autonoma de Barelona, Spain
• Ståle Navrud, School of Economics and Business at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, As, Norway
• Riccardo Scarpa, Business School Durham University (UK) and Department of Management, University of Verona (Italy)
• Giovanni Signorello (Scientific coordinator), Department of Agricultural, Food and Environment, University of Catania (Italy)

Local Collaborators:

• prof. Giuseppe Cucuzza
• dr. Laura Giuffrida (research fellow)
• dr. Marika Cerro (research fellow)

link to ENVALAB

http://www.envalab.unict.it