Browsing by Subject "Choice experiment"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Open Access
    A comprehensive approach for agroecosystem services and disservices valuation
    (Elsevier, 2021-05-10) Zabala García, José Ángel; Martínez Paz, José M.; Alcon, Francisco; Economía Aplicada
    The use of the ecosystem services approach for ecosystem management, including the valuation of ecosystem services, has grown in recent decades. Although a common framework is used, each ecosystem has its own characteristics. The agroecosystem, for example, is an anthropised ecosystem where ecosystem service flows are highly interrelated with the environment, positively or negatively. Therefore, agroecosystem services are usually accompanied by disservices. The valuation of agroecosystem services and disservices requires adaptation of existing ecosystem services paradigms to accommodate the innate agroecosystem idiosyncrasies. To this end, in this study, a comprehensive approach for valuation of agroecosystem services and disservices was proposed and validated in a semi-arid western Mediterranean agricultural area through stakeholder assessment, using a choice experiment. The results suggest that all categories of services (provisioning, regulating, and cultural) should be taken into account when valuing agroecosystem services and disservices. In particular, food provision (a provisioning service), water (a provisioning disservice), local climate regulation and biodiversity (regulating services), waste treatment and water purification (regulating disservices), and recreation and tourism (cultural services) are relevant for this purpose. Their relative importance in agroecosystems valuation reached 70% for agroecosystem services and 30% for disservices. Specifically, biodiversity (38%) emerged as the most relevant agroecosystem service to be valued, followed by recreation and tourism (20%), local climate regulation (7%), and food provision (5%). Among the agroecosystem disservices, water and waste treatment (15%), and water purification (15%) together contributed to 30% of the total importance. Agroecosystems should be valued considering their multifunctional character and the integration of agroecosystem services and disservices.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Open Access
    Integrating socio-spatial preference heterogeneity into the assessment of the aesthetic quality of a Mediterranean agricultural landscape
    (Elsevier, 2023-07-22) Albaladejo García, J.A.; Zabala García, José Ángel; Alcón, Francisco; Dallimer, Martín; Martínez Paz, José M.; Economía Aplicada
    Assessing ecosystem services associated with agricultural landscapes is of growing interest to the research and policy/practice communities. One particularly challenging aspect to understand is the value of the aesthetic quality of such landscapes, even though this is one of the main contributions that agricultural landscapes make to cultural ecosystem service provision. Indeed, as increasing demands are placed on agricultural landscapes for food production, infrastructure development and urbanisation, aesthetic qualities can be severely affected, particularly if those landscapes are used for traditional agricultural practices. Here we assess the aesthetic quality of an agricultural landscape by integrating social preferences heterogeneity and spatial aspects of the provision, combining subjective and objective perspectives. We work in landscapes dominated by irrigated flowering fruit trees in Cieza, in south-east Spain as it is an excellent example of a semi-arid Mediterranean agroecosystem that delivers multiple ecosystem services, including aesthetic quality, in addition to food production. Using GIS tools and a choice experiment, we assess the social utility function for this landscape, and demonstrate social preferences heterogeneity for demand for the aesthetic qualities of the landscape. Latent class modelling distinguished three populations, with the majority preferring diversified agricultural landscapes and management policies based on a more natural-looking agricultural landscape. These results provide agroecosystem managers with an additional vision focused on enhancing the combination of the most diverse and natural-looking elements in the landscape in order to underpin the delivery of cultural ecosystem services that also increase social well-being.