COAST-BENEFIT: Ecosystem Service Valuation For Coastal Zone Management: From Promise to Practice

The COAST-BENEFIT project is motivated from the expert report "Natural benefits: On the values of ecosystem services" (NOU 2013: 10). The main objective is to contribute to improved scientific knowledge and competencies relevant for protecting the environment and regulating economic activities that simultaneous rely on and affect coastal and marine ecosystems along the Norwegian coast. Socially optimal decision-making requires specific and full information about trade-offs between social, economic, and environmental considerations. Knowledge of 1) the nonmarket impact of changes in environmental conditions and 2) the behavioral propensities of economic actors, is crucial to society when it seeks to balance policies for industrial development, environmental protection, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. The project begins by recognizing the need for both qualitative and quantitative and non-monetary and monetary information on the relationships between economic activities and the environmental state of the coast zone. Specifically, the project identifies gaps and deficiencies in the scientific knowledge and competencies related to acquiring monetary measures on the benefits of ecosystem services along the Norwegian coast and the costs of deteriorating coastal environmental conditions. For this reason, environmental valuation and benefit-cost techniques from environmental economics comprise the centerpiece of the project. The project has implemented four sub-projects positioned against specific industrial contexts, namely, 1) aquaculture production, 2) recreation and tourism activities, 3) coastal transportation, and 4) wind power deployment, respectively. In doing so, the project has contributed on the conceptual, methodological, and empirical frontiers of environmental valuation, while also generating highly relevant information for real-world decision making. Through its four-year implementation, the project has collaborated and communicated with numerous local, regional, and national stakeholder groups as well as researchers from different social and natural science disciplines in both Norway and internationally. Furthermore, integral to the success of the COAST-BENEFIT project, has been the ability to create synergetic collaborations with other NFR research projects (MARES and WINDLAND). By the project end-date (31.12.2020), the COAST-BENEFIT project had produced a total of 13 peer-reviewed scientific articles, 2 peer-reviewed scientific chapters, 7 scientific reports, 10 master theses, 1 PhD thesis, 14 scientific conference presentations, 12 media contributions (interviews and commentaries/op-eds) and more than 40 other dissemination products (popular-scientific presentations, invited seminars, and guest lectures). It is anticipated that a significant additional output will be produced over the next couple of years in the wake of the COAST-BENEFIT. For example, there are currently eight additional scientific articles underway (either in under review in scientific journal or under preparation for submission), and five additional master theses being written in the Spring of 2021. PUBLICATION HIGHLIGHTS Lopes, A.F., Mariel, P. (2021). On the Validity and Reliability of coastal quality change estimates: Evidence from Norway. Coastal Management (in press). Dugstad, A., Grimsrud, K., Kipperberg, G., Lindhjem, H., & Navrud, S. (2020). Acceptance of wind power development and exposure?Not-in-anybody's-backyard. Energy Policy, 147, 111780. Lopes, A. F., & Kipperberg, G. (2020). Diagnosing Insensitivity to Scope in Contingent Valuation. Environmental and Resource Economics, 77(1), 191-216. Ahi, J. C., & Kipperberg, G. (2020). Attribute Non-attendance in Environmental Discrete Choice Experiments: The Impact of Including an Employment Attribute. Marine Resource Economics, 35(3), 201-218. Skeie, M. A., Lindhjem, H., Skjeflo, S., & Navrud, S. (2019). Smartphone and tablet effects in contingent valuation web surveys?No reason to worry? Ecological Economics, 165, 106390. Kipperberg, G., Onozaka, Y., Bui, L. T., Lohaugen, M., Refsdal, G., & Sæland, S. (2019). The impact of wind turbines on local recreation: evidence from two travel cost method?contingent behavior studies. Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism, 25, 66-75.

Prosjektdeltagere: -Styrket samarbeid mellom miljøøkonomiforskere ved UIS, NMBU og Menon Senter for Miljø- og Ressursøkonomi. -Forfremmelse til full professor for prosjektleder. -PhD grad og påfølgende postdoktor stilling for stipendiat. Brukere/samfunn: -Metodiske synergier er blitt utløst i arbeidet med samfunnsøkonomiske analyser (SØA) hos Kystverket og Miljødirektoratet. Mer inkludering av miljøvirkninger i SØA kan forventes framover. -Bruk og popularisering av resultater av forskningen om folks preferanser for å unngå virkninger av vindkraft og oppdrett som innspill til fremtidig planlegging og regulering. -Bidrag til diskusjonen om innføring av naturavgift i Norge, bl.a. basert på verdsetting av miljøvirkninger. Det jobbes videre med dette i Klima- og Miljødepartementet. -Popularisering av hvordan en kan tenke seg å bruke verdsetting i nasjonalt naturregnskap. Her skjer det utvikling blant annet i regi av Klima- og Miljødepartementet og SSB.

Most decisions regarding natural resources hinges on how people value resources and how those valuations can inform specific decision-making contexts. Traditionally, government agencies have managed coastal resources sector-by-sector, and often with insufficient consideration for the typically unpriced, non-market values of many coastal resources. Using economic methods for valuing ecosystem services (ES) and cost-benefit analysis (CBA) it is in principle possible to examine values associated with many different coastal resources and uses. Yet, significant research challenges remain for ES valuation and CBA to rise from its current promise to wider practical use in coastal zone management and spatial planning. This project therefore aims to begin to bridge that gap by analysing how values of ES can be reliably estimated and combined in an amended CBA framework to better understand and illuminate decision-relevant trade-offs on different spatial and temporal scales within the coastal zone. We first propose refinements in the economic valuation of ES to address methodological and practical concerns, e.g. related to temporal reliability and spatial explicitness of values. Further, we aim to examine how cultural ES that are hard or not meaningful to value in monetary terms can better be represented by other value metrics and included in CBA. We also propose bringing distributional analysis and stakeholder concerns more explicitly into CBA to strengthen its relevance. We then test and triangulate ES valuation methods in four place-based case studies of fish farming, tourism/recreation, sea transport and oil spill risks, and coastal wind power on the west coast of Norway. This value information is then utilised in spatial value maps as inputs into the extended CBA. The final aim is to better inform spatial planning and policy development in the coastal zone, making CBA a more important supplement to other decision-support tools such as environmental impact assessments.