As a car-dependent life style has become established in modern day Japan, the urban environment has deteriorated due to air pollution, vibration, noise, etc. generated by car traffic. This study proposes a new method to measure the value of the environment for environmental improvement employing the "Contingent Valuation Method (CVM)". In this study, air pollution, vibration and noise are taken as environmental loads. Value of environmental improvement by introduction of countermeasures is measured using the "Willingness To Pay (WTP)" index. In previous studies, only the range of environmental improvement has been considered in models as an independent variable to estimate its economic value in the CVM. In this study, in order to solve this problem, environmental level before improvement is incorporated as a new independent variable into the model. The significance of consideration of environmental level before improvement is analyzed in the estimation of economic value of environmental change using the CVM. The main results of this study are summarized as follows: (1) A new method to measure the economic value of environmental change is proposed in which the environmental level before improvement is incorporated as a new independent variable into the model in addition to the range of improvement. (2) E level before improvement influences the economic value of environmental change as well as the range of improvement by the model is clarified. For the covering abstract see ITRD E120462.
Abstract