Estimating Willingness to Pay for a Future Recreational Park Atop the Current Jakuševec Landfill in Zagreb, Croatia

• Published in: Sustainability 2019-11, Vol.11 (21), p.6038
• Main Authors: Opačak, Marija, Wang, Erda
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Air quality; Aquifers; Biodiversity; Data collection; Economics; Environmental quality; Groundwater; Land reclamation; Landfill; Landfill reclamation; Landfills; Logit models; National parks; Parameter estimation; Parks & recreation areas; Planning; Polls & surveys; Research methodology; Sustainability; Tourism; Valuation methods; Waste disposal; Waste disposal sites; Water shortages; Willingness to pay
• ISSN: 2071-1050; 2071-1050
• DOI: 10.3390/su11216038

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the economic value potentially accrued by a prospective city park, which is planned to be built as a result of strategic land reclamation of a current landfill in Croatia, based on parkgoers’ marginal willingness to pay. The idea of this land transformation is inspired by recent debate on the issue of how to address air quality and other environmental concerns over the disposal of the landfill site in the city. Like any other nonmarket valuation studies, choosing a proper survey method is a critical step for a successful economic valuation study. We adopted a double bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation method in survey design and data collection, followed by parameter estimation using the logit model. The study reveals—(1) the support of 70% of respondents was estimated; (2) as much as 96% of the respondents are willing to visit the park being presented to the respondents along with the survey questionnaire. The economic valuation indicates that the city residents are willing to pay €3.63 per person for the park’s entrance fees, which can be translated into an aggregate of €2,867,762. By referring this value information to the park budget, we may persuade policy makers to commit to a transformation of the current landfill.