Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The business meeting portion of the workshop included Frank Lupi, Roger von Haefen, Amy Ando, Brent Songhen, Dale Manning, Dan Petrolia, Seong Yun, Robert Hearne, Ben Gramig, Jared Penn, Don McCleod, Scott Shonkwiler, Matt Innteris, Klaus Moeltner, Julie Mueller, Xiang Bi, Michael Jacobsen, Kathleen Bell, John Tanaka, Paul Jakus, Kim Rollins, Rich Ready, and Cloe Garnache.

The meeting began with Ben Gramig rotating off of organizing committee.  Dale Manning is president, with Craig Landry as vice president.  New secretary is Matt Interis—his nomination was seconded and approved by the group.

Action items included a system for compiling accomplishments and impacts from W4133 members.  It was decided that Manning would use a standard format for reporting that would make recharter easier in the future.  After Manning is granted access to reporting system, he is to compile and submit the report.

John Tanaka noted that there is a need for w4133 members to integrate work better, perhaps by jointly seeking grants (e.g., NIFA CAP grants).  Therefore, next year’s meeting will be centered around key topic areas.  After presentations of current work, we will leave time for discussion and potential avenues for joint research moving forward.

John Bergstrom (UGA) submitted a statement voicing concern over capacity for W-4133 meeting; in the future, organizing committee needs to commit to timely release of call for abstracts and attendance to gauge the necessary size of the meeting space early enough to take measures to accommodate all W-4133 members, other researchers (including those at federal agencies), and graduate students.  This will be considered moving forward.

Finally. Julie Mueller was recognized for her work organizing the re-charter effort.

Northern Arizona University used matching methods to understand the impacts of post-wildfire flooding on house prices. The work incorporates GIS hydrological maps into a hedonic property model, and finds that post wildfire flooding has a significant and negative impact on house prices

 Northern Arizona University, led a research effort to further understanding of the impacts of proximity and viewshed on Willingness to Pay (WTP) for forested watershed restoration in Flagstaff, Arizona. The study incorporates data from the largest landscape scale forest restoration project in US history. The results have policy relevance for decision-making regarding future restoration in the Western US.

Northern Arizona University, incorporated valuation methods to estimate preferences for restoration of springs in Grand Canyon National Park. The valuation was aimed at improving understanding of losses from uranium mining and the potential designation of the Grand Canyon National Heritage Monument. The work is published in Land Use Policy.

The Ohio State team conducted economic analysis of natural hazards associated with climate change, including assessment of effects of climate on coastal zones and public and private forestland. In addition, the members of the team examined the costs and benefits of methods to address water quality problems in agricultural systems. 

The Ohio State team made advances in valuation techniques, in particular with continued development of advanced hedonic methods, and to assess the impacts of water quality damages on recreational resources in Ohio.

Members of the Ohio State team assessed impacts and changes to important state, national and international ecosystem services related primarily to forested and aquatic ecosystems, including assessment of how important ecosystem service flows can benefit society through mitigation of climate change.

Research by Pennsylvania State University completed this year, under Objective 1, resulted in an improvement in our understanding of climate change impacts in a number of areas: (1) how water institutions in the U.S. affect the efficient allocation of scarce water; (2) how climate change-induced increases in irrigation can exacerbate unsustainable groundwater extraction; (3) how climate change-induced shifts in location choice in the U.S. is dampened by changes in labor wages; and (4) how FEMA adaptation strategies affect property damages from hurricanes.

Target audience(s) reached during this reporting period include US government agencies (US Department of Energy; US Environmental Protection Agency); United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; National Science Foundation, climate change research community. The project has funded three graduate students in the past year.

Pennsylvania State University will be pursuing two key areas of research.  The first is to continue our work connecting statistical modeling with water balance modeling to study the implications of climate change on irrigation decisions, and the effects on water supply.  We will be connecting this work to a crop model to estimate the effects on crop yields which will be incorporated into a computable general equilibrium model to estimate the effects on crop prices.  Second, we will continue our work on water institutions to study how institutions could be redesigned to allow for a better allocation of water in a water constrained world.

The University of Vermont is using the forest model LPJ-Guess to project the responses of forests across New England to projected climate change. In particular, we are first constructing a set of downscaled regional climate projections using an ensemble set of global climate model projections.  Then we are driving our forest model using this set of downscaled climate projections in order to examine the influence of climate and the spatial scale of climate projections on forest change and composition. Forest response to climate change will have large implications for ecosystem services and economic valuation of forests across New England.

The University of Vermont has completed the first step in our proposed work:  We have statistically downscaled an ensemble of climate data from a series of GCMs that span climate change scenarios.  These data will next be used to drive simulations of the LPJ-Guess forest model.

The University of Florida received funding to study the economic importance of the Ocklawaha river in Florida from Marion County Soil and Water Conservation District; Felburn Foundation, Silver Springs Alliance, Florida Defenders of the Environment, Putnam County Environmental Council, Suwannee-St. Johns Chapter Sierra Club, and St. Johns Riverkeeper. Amounts: 32,000. Feb 2016 to Feb 2007.

The University of Florida delivered the report titled “Economic Importance and Public Preferences for Water Resource Management of the Ocklawaha River” to the funding organizations in Nov. 2017. The report has been posted online by Silver Springs Alliances for improving the public’s understanding on the challenges for water resources management in the Ocklawaha river region. Specifically, the economic impact provided by the river and the reservoir along the river is about $21 million to the local economy and supports 278 jobs. http://silverspringsalliance.org/ocklawaha

The University of Florida improved the public’s understanding on the values of Florida’s natural springs through presentation at the Springs Protection Forum; informed the stakeholders the four springs studied generated 57 million recreation benefits to Florida residents.

Oregon State University published a paper that empirically estimated the economic values associated with public investment in coastal dunes. The primary finding is that coastal dunes increases housing values by approximately 3 percent but that public adaptation efforts may have ancillary impacts that may offset policy goals (i.e. storm protection services).

Oregon State University and collaborators published a paper that uses econometric methods to estimate non-market recreation costs of a land-use policy to protect coastal biodiversity. Results suggest the economic costs of the policy are relatively modest, ranging from $403,000 to $2.07 million annually and provide general support for the National Park Service’s recently implemented off-road vehicle management plan in Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

Iowa State University has advanced several key aspects of environmental valuation methodologies. One project examines how sensitive recreational benefit estimates are to the metric used to measure water quality. These results will help inform policy makers of the implications of using various water quality metrics for cost-benefit analyses. A second project by these researchers tests the stability of welfare estimate from revealed preference methods using a unique panel of recreational visits to lakes within the state of Iowa. This study will provide guidance to policy makers when transferring economic benefit estimates over time.

Iowa State University’s work outlines the history and current state of knowledge for integrated assessment models of air and water pollution. This work helps highlight how these models help inform both ex ante and ex post analyses of federal, state, and local regulations. During this project, Iowa State University continued to develop an integrated assessment model of water pollution in the Upper Mississippi and Ohio Tennessee watersheds. This model will help analyze land use and water quality policies that affect a wide range of water uses such as drinking water and water-based recreational use.

Mississippi State University research has provided a better understanding of if and how producers will accept contracts for growing bio-energy crops.  Our results indicate that many farmers are suspicious of growing such crops as well as the prospect of there being markets in which to sell them.  (Project members involved:  D.R. Petrolia)

Mississippi State University research has provided a better understanding of which flood mitigation strategies communities undertake, and the extent to which these strategies accomplish the purported goals of the FEMA-NFIP Community Rating System: reducing flood risk and increasing NFIP participation. 

Mississippi State University research has provided a better understanding of how valuation estimates differ across alternative choice methods (CVM, repeated choice CE, and repeated choice CE with best-worst elicitation), and has contributed to the ongoing debate regarding the stated-preference methods, and how they can be used for policy-relevant analysis. 

Mississippi State University research has provided a better understanding of consumer preferences for Gulf-Coast grown oysters relative to competing oyster varieties from the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts. 

Michigan State University collected and analyzed survey and spatial data related to the uses and values of coastal sand dune areas in Michigan and provided information to the Office of the Great Lakes on the implications for management of coastal dunes.

Michigan State University designed and developed a web-based platform to conduct an online survey of visitors to coastal sand dune areas in Michigan and collect spatial data about the sites and locations of their visits. The online survey included questions about the number of trips to coastal dunes in the past 12 months, recreation activities, trip spending, and social and cultural values associated with protecting coastal dunes. The online survey was conducted from May to October, 2017.

Michigan State University organized a Dunes Summit that was held May 8, 2017 in Muskegon, Michigan. The objectives of the Summit were to provide the latest scientific information about coastal dune management, and to unveil the online survey platform used in the project.

The University of Rhode Island worked on a project, The Effect of Informational Nudges to Promote Voluntary Behavior to Reduce Nonpoint Source Pollution: A Randomized Controlled Trial in the Field, (sponsored mainly by the NSF EPSCoR [NEWRnet] and partly by the RI Agricultural Experiment Station Hatch Regional – RI0015-W4133) which involved a field experiment related to lawn care management. The goal of this field experiment was to improve our understanding of how people make lawn-care decisions in Southern New England and what impact monetary and non-monetary incentives may have in changing lawn care management.

The University of Rhode Island conducted the research in Rhode Island, U.S., and its neighboring counties in southern Massachusetts and western Connecticut. This region is one of the most densely populated in the U.S. and has a high coverage rate of turfgrass (Milesi et al. 2005). As the urbanization process continues, agricultural and forest land is transformed to urban and suburban usage, and lawns are often planted as ground cover on open spaces attached to houses and buildings (Jenkins 2015). The importance of neighborhood appearance and concern for aesthetics are driving residents to water and fertilize lawns frequently and use other practices to maintain the greenness of their lawns (Nielson and Smith 2005). Significant NPS pollution is generated from these types of lawn care practices, and it is recognized as one of the causes of water quality impairments (e.g., RIDEM 2014).

In 2015, RIDEM started a program to green-certify lawn care companies who adopt BMPs to reduce their environmental impact when managing residential lawns. The green-certified lawn care companies fulfill a menu of BMPs covering a range of activities focusing on efficient turf management and water conservation. They protect environmental quality by reducing pollution, conserving water and other natural resources such as soil. Green-certified lawn care companies need to adopt additional BMPs to get re-certified every two years. Rhode Island has about 400 lawn care businesses, but only ten lawn care companies (about 2.5%) were green-certified as of January 2017.

The green certification program by RIDEM is an example of the state-level effort to reduce NPS pollution by promoting voluntary “green services” from the supply side. Lawn care companies’ behavior varies largely when managing residential lawns (Law et al. 2004). Interviews with lawn care professionals in Rhode Island revealed that owners of companies who pursue this green certification want to fulfill social responsibility and also seek additional customers by receiving the green certification. The premise is that if more consumers adopt professional lawn care services because of the green certification, more lawn care companies will react to the signal and get green-certified. The University of Rhode Island partnered with a state-wide professional landscape association (the Rhode Island Nursery and Landscape Association (RINLA)) and three green-certified landscaping companies to conduct the experiment.

The University of Rhode Island tested the effect of two treatments on stated and revealed preferences for green-certified lawn care: informational nudges and financial incentives. The treatments are varied between participants in a two-by-two design (Table 1). The experiment was implemented in a structured survey coded in Qualtrics, an online survey software. Respondents of the survey are all introduced to RIDEM’s green certification program, and two-thirds of them are randomly chosen to receive the informational nudges treatment. The University of Rhode Island introduced a cross-randomized incentive treatment after the first randomization of information. Three-quarters of the respondents were selected randomly to receive financial incentives, and one-quarter receive none. To differentiate the effects of different informational nudges and different level of financial incentives, The University of Rhode Island implemented two types of nudges and two levels of incentives in the experiment (Table 1).

More specifically, all respondents are first introduced to RIDEM’s Green Certification program and the green-certified lawn care companies (see Appendix I). The first segment of the introduction presents information on the green certification program and some BMPs implemented by the lawn care companies, followed by an infographic developed for this experiment by a professional designer summarizing the BMPs. The University of Rhode Island also provided information and website links to a few reputable sources about these BMPs from three state universities in the study area (the University of Massachusetts, the University of Connecticut and the University of Rhode Island).

Next, two-thirds of the respondents received additional information that makes salient the relationship between lawn care practices and water quality (Nudge 1). An infographic was developed for this purpose (Appendix I). We envision that the salient information would increase homeowners’ moral cost of  “non-green”  practices on their lawns and thus serve as a nudge to change their behavior. Phrases such as “Runoff flows into aquatic habitats, where, just like your lawn, fertilizer makes plants grow. However, too much growth can lead to not enough oxygen in the water, killing fish and other aquatic lives.” is shown in this infographic.

Furthermore, half of the respondents who received Nudge 1 were shown another infographic (Nudge 2) aimed to test the effect of social comparison. This infographic displays the information about how many households in Rhode Island, i.e., the respondents’ ‘neighbors,’ have already chosen green-certified lawn care contracts in 2016. The University of Rhode Island hypothesize that social comparison could change homeowners’ behavior as it did in the energy saving literature (e.g., Ferraro and Price 2013).

Additionally, one of two levels of financial incentives were given to three-quarters of the subjects. A low financial incentive covers twenty-five percent of the contract fee for one year (or $75 maximum) and a high incentive covers 50% of the contract fee for one year (or $150 maximum). According to RINLA, an average contract fee for a typical green-certified lawn care contract is $300. Of the three-quarters of the respondents, two-thirds received the low financial incentive, and one-third received the high financial incentive.

The survey was officially launched at the end of February 2017 and was scheduled to conclude at the end of March 2017. However, due to inclement weather and the subsequent delay of the start of lawn care season, The University of Rhode Island extended the survey closing date until April 15^th.

The University of Rhode Island used three outcome variables to measure the impact of informational nudges and financial incentives on nudging behavior: stated WTP for green-certified lawn care contracts, stated likelihood to hire green-certified lawn care companies, and whether or not the subject gave personal contact information to the three green-certified lawn care companies. The regression models control for household lawn care characteristics (e.g., the acreage of lawns) and respondents’ characteristics (e.g., age, gender, income, etc.).

The analysis of three outcome variables indicates that information nudges can induce stated willingness of behavior change, but have a limited effect on actual behavior. Specifically, the respondents report WTP premiums and a higher likelihood to sign contracts when we present them the informational nudges. However, the information nudges alone do not induce more respondents to take the first step to obtain contracts. When the informational nudges and the financial incentives are given as a bundle,

The University of Rhode Island detected that a small financial incentive backfires and crowds out the positive effect of informational nudges on stated likelihood. In contrast, the informational nudges do not have a significant impact on the likelihood to take the first step to sign the contracts unless complemented by the financial incentives.

The University of Rhode Island’s findings also suggest financial incentives have a larger effect when people have high NEP Scales. Nevertheless, the combination of informational nudges and a large financial incentive is promising because it has positive effects for both stated and revealed preferences. Financial incentives are complements for informational nudges based on real actions.

The discrepancies between the treatment effects on the stated willingness and real behavior suggest that previous studies that only examine the stated preferences may overestimate the effect of outreach campaigns. The results of this study further point out another direction for state and federal agencies as well as advocacy groups when promoting BMPs to control nonpoint source pollution from residential lawns, i.e., adding financial incentives to outreach campaigns. From the green-certified lawn companies’ point of view, advertising the social benefit of green-certification and proper financial incentives increase the number of contracts.

The University of Rhode Island project, Impact of offshore wind turbines on number of trips and distribution of recreational activities on Block Island, examined the impact of offshore wind energy production on the number of trips taken and on the choice of recreational activities conducted in Block Island. The offshore wind farm in Block Island, Rhode Island, is the first one to be installed in the United States. Literature hypothesizes that visual disamenity is a possible effect of offshore wind farms since it obstructs the view of the sea from coastal landscapes. Block Island is a popular summer tourist destination where both residents and tourists engage in several recreational activities. The University of Rhode Island proposed to conduct a survey to understand whether the installation of these offshore wind turbines have any effect on the number of trips taken and the distribution of recreational activities in Block Island. This study can enable policy makers to gain more insight on the location and placement of future offshore wind turbine installations.

For this research, two focus group sessions were conducted at the URI library in Kingston, Rhode Island. The objective of these sessions was to understand how people engage in recreational activities and their attitudes towards the offshore wind farms constructed in Block Island.

The focus groups’ findings will be used to refine our survey. The survey was coded in Qualtrics, an online survey software and is planned to be officially launched in June 2018. We plan on recruiting subjects from Qualtrics panel. Qualtrics recruits their panel members through an extensive review process. The survey is anticipated to take ten minutes or fewer to complete.

North Carolina State University along with colleagues at NCSU, RTI International, and the University of Maryland, have continued working on an EPA-funded project designed to measure willingness to pay for improvements in water quality in wadeable streams in urbanizing watersheds. Several focus groups designed to better understand how people perceive and value water quality have been conducted in the past year.  These activities have identified four dimensions of water quality that are most important to the public: 1) clarity; 2) algae; 3) ecosystem health; and 4) human health risks. A summary report on all grant-related activities was sent to EPA in August 2017.

North Carolina State University along with colleagues at Michigan State University and the University of Maryland, have been working on a project that aims to assess the natural resource damages associated with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in April 2010.  This multi-year project is funded by NOAA and Gulf Coast states and my collaborators and I are trying to publish our research findings in academic journals.  The team has four drafted papers, two of which are revise and resubmits at leading field journals in environmental economics (Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, and American Journal of Agricultural Economics).  This project is also leading to new research using the extraordinary data collected, and most of these projects are joint with graduate students at North Carolina State University.

Finally, North Carolina State University has a project centered on the Marine Resource Information Program (MRIP) data set that NOAA collects to measure recreational catch.  The data set is extraordinary in its spatial and temporal scale, and there has been surprisingly little research done with it.  One line of research coming out of this project is an assessment of the off-road vehicle (ORV) restrictions in Cape Hatteras National Seashore, which has led to a publication in Marine Resource Economics and media coverage in several state and local news outlets. A second line of research examines how willingness to pay for recreational fishing trips varies across time (1998-2017) and space (Maine to Louisiana).  A third line of research looks at how weather correlates with coastal recreation fishing with an eye towards assessing how climate change may impact coastal recreation fishing.

Colorado State University has partnered with researchers from universities across the Ogallala region to expand our modeling of water resource management to the rest of the region.  This effort includes an interdisciplinary effort to model economic decisions as a function of agronomic and hydrologic conditions that producers face.

Colorado State University has also obtained a grant to examine how crop insurance affects land and water management decisions on agricultural land.  As part of this, we have formed a partnership with ERS researcher, Roger Claassen. 

Finally, Colorado State University has received notice that we will be funded to work with Kim Rollins and others at UN-Reno on water institutions and climate change adaptation.

Colorado State University completed a survey of producers to examine attitudes towards water conservation policy.  This survey aimed to quantify the impact of scientific and economic information about policies on the acceptability of policies.

Virginia Tech, in collaboration with Reed College, developed a new Bayesian matching estimator to evaluate the discount on residential properties from being located in a high-risk flood zone in coastal and inland areas of Connecticut. Virginia Tech and collaborators are the first to find that such impacts are by far the strongest along a slim band of 0.25 miles from the coastline. Since all high-risk zoned properties face the same insurance obligations and rates, our findings imply that inland properties de fact subsidize coastal properties, given the large differential in both actual and market-revealed flood risk.  A paper based on this research was submitted to a peer-reviewed journal.

Concurrently, Virginia Tech developed a repeated sales model as well as novel matching estimators to estimate the impacts on housing markets of watershed improvement project along the Johnson Creek streambed in the Portland, OR area. We find that impacts vary based on project stage (pre, during, post, mature), distance from the project area, and type of intervention. 

Virginia Tech submitted three papers based on this research to peer-reviewed journals.

Economists and social scientists from University of Maine, University of Massachusetts, Cornell University, and University Vermont conducted economic analyses to better understand the priorities and decision-making of private forest landowners in the Northeast as they negotiate changing forest product markets, land management policies, regional economies, demographics, and environmental conditions. Initial research focused on owner management of land transitions indicates that landowners make tradeoffs when considering the future ownership and use of their forest lands; while a majority of these landowners have wills, fewer landowners are using formal estate planning tools to designate the future use of their forest lands (Markowski-Lindsay et al. 2017). Collaborating with extension staff from four states and with USDA, USFS staff, these researchers are using their findings to help update communication and outreach tools designed to support forest landowners. 

Economists from University of Maine, Clark University, and Bowdoin College advanced a conceptual model linking economic theory to the management of small natural features on private lands (Bauer et al., 2017). Collaborating with ecologists, these researchers also helped advance broader discussions of conservation approaches and strategies for the provision of ecosystem services (Hunter et al. 2017; Calhoun et al. 2017).

Economists from University of Maine and Clark University completed an assessment of the search for health and safety information by visitors to Maine and New Hampshire beaches (Kaminski et al., 2017) and the potential allocation of funds by citizens to distinct coastal water quality management options (Evans et al., 2017). Findings suggest beach users are more aware of safety risks associated with surf conditions than risks associated with poor water quality conditions and that differing support for preventative actions versus adaptive measures could help explain heterogeneous support for coastal zone management programs. Working with collaborators from state agencies, researchers are helping improve decision-support tools related to these natural and man-made coastal hazards. 

Economists and social scientists from University of Maine and Bowdoin College completed analyses of river restoration efforts to better understand institutional and community responses to changing river systems. Results to date suggest mismatches between actual changes in river conditions and public perceptions of those changes can influence watershed management strategies and amenity infrastructure investments (Johnson, E., Bell, K.P., and Leahy, J. 2017 and 2018).

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign completed a manuscript to inform management of flood hazards and submitted it for review. The university used a contingent valuation survey to evaluate homeowner willingness to pay for a novel pre-flood agreement such that the homeowner pre-commits to relocating if a flood damages their home by more than 50% of its value, in exchange for which they gain an expedited and streamlined buyout process with payment equal to the full market value of their home. The study finds that nearly all homeowners would gain value from being able to enter into such a contract.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign worked with coauthors to complete and publish a paper that sets forth principles for optimal spatial targeting of conservation investment to reduce outcome risk with the smallest possible reduction in the expected level of ecological benefits when the decision maker is interested in multiple distinct environmental targets.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has collaborated with researchers in Missouri to identify key attributes of water quality improvements in the Corn Belt that should be valued. The university is now working with a graduate student to refine a choice-experiment survey to estimate how an individual’s WTP for water quality improvements in a watershed in Illinois is affected by their proximity to the area where landscape changes are implemented to accomplish the change and by their affiliation with farming, the affected economic sector.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign collaborated with Reed College to write a review of the literature estimating the values of green infrastructure.

A team of researchers from W4133 partner universities UIUC and Oregon State wrote an analytical review of research on the economics of species conservation. The partners analyzed research on the values of species conservation and optimal policy design for species conservation.

University of Wyoming is working on a grant, “Investigating Potential Impacts of Non-Attainment Risk on Conservation Exchange Outcomes”, January 1, 2016 through December 31, 2018 Grant requested amount is $74,317.  Research has been completed regarding habitat conservation markets using experimental economics methods.  University of Wyoming conducted experiments and analysis was completed.  Presentation were made at Center for Behavioral, and Experimental Agroenvironmental Research Conference.  Paper was submitted to Environmental and Resource Economics.  Outreach publication sent to stakeholders on habitat conservation markets including Environmental Defense Fund, Wyoming Stockgrowers Association, and others involved in developing habitat exchange in Wyoming.

University of Wyoming worked on a grant, “Incentivizing Open Spaces in Wyoming to Promote Pollinator Habitat: Applying Agglomeration Bonuses to Unite Fragmented Habitat.” (2014-2015). Grant amount was $10,192.  Research was completed regarding pollinator habitat policy design using experimental economics methods. Economic Experiments were conducted and analysis completed. Two papers were submitted for publication.  An invited presentation was made at the Department of Plant Sciences Seminar at the University of Wyoming.  Manuscript were accepted and published in Land.  One was submitted to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  It was rejected.  Now in revision for resubmission to American Journal of Agricultural Economics.  Paper also accepted for presentation at the World Congress of Environmental Economics.

University of Wyoming worked on a grant, “Overcoming Honeybee Pollination Market Deficiencies in the Intermountain West and Pacific Coast,” 2015-2017. Grant amount was $149,585. Research was completed regarding almond growers’ valuation of honey bee pollination services using a choice experiment.  Abstract were submitted for presentation at the Western Agricultural Economics Annual Meetings. The manuscript is in preparation for submission to an academic journal.  

University of Wyoming is working on a project, determining the relationship between development pattern and the costs of public services in the Mountain West as part of Hatch Project. Local fiscal impacts pertaining to exurban development are being examined. These are important in the face of limited local service provision budgets. Pilot studies that should be of use to local county officials and planners have been conducted.  GIS technology and economic models have provided insights as to why dispersed residential development brings greater cost per unit tax revenue when law enforcement resources are used to achieve public safety. These results are being shared with county planning groups.  A manuscript has submitted and additional data is to be analyzed.  An AFRI Grant Proposal has been submitted, “Determining the Relationship between Development Pattern and the Costs of Public Services.”  Amount requested is $466,689.  A manuscript is in review.

University of Georgia commenced research project on microeconomics of household food waste (with Travis Smith) food waste has major implications for misallocation of land and water resources (one paper accepted at Journal of Food Products and Marketing; another is in revise and resubmit American Journal of Agricultural Economics)

Ando, A.W., A. Howlader, and M. Mallory. 2018. “Diversifying to reduce conservation outcome uncertainty in multiple environmental objectives.” Agricultural and Resource Economics Review. Forthcoming.

Ando, A.W. and N. Netusil. 2018. “Valuing the benefits of green stormwater infrastructure.” Oxford Encyclopedia of Water Resources Management and Policy. Forthcoming.

Ando, A.W. and C. Langpap. 2018. “The economics of species conservation.” Annual Review of Resource Economics. Forthcoming.

Bastian, C. T., C. M. Keske, D. M. McLeod, and D. L. Hoag. 2017. “Landowner and Land Trust Agent Preferences for Conservation Easements: Implications for Sustainable Land Uses and Landscapes,” Landscape and Urban Planning. 157:1-13. Lead article.

Bauer, D.M., Bell, K.P., Nelson, E.J. and A.J.K. Calhoun. 2017. “Managing small natural features: a synthesis of emergent economic issues and opportunities.” Biological Conservation 211:Part B:80-87, DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2017.01.001.

Behrer, A. Patrick*, Dale T. Manning, and Andrew Seidl. 2017. “The Impact of Institutional and Land Use Change on Local Incomes in Chilean Patagonia.” Journal of Development Studies. Forthcoming

Calhoun AJK, Mushet DM, Bell KP, Boix D, Fitzsimons JA, Isselin-Nondedeu F.  2017. “Temporary wetlands:  challenges and solutions for protecting a "disappearing" ecosystem.” Biological Conservation 211 (Part B):3-11, DOI:10.1016/j.biocon.2016.11.024.

Calvin, K., K. Fisher-Vanden, 2017. “Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture: The role of Integrated Assessment Models.” Environmental Research Letters, 12:115004, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa843c.

Davlasheridze, M., K. Fisher-Vanden, A. Klaiber, 2017. “The Effects of Adaptation Measures on Hurricane Induced Property Losses,” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 81:93-114.

Dundas, S. J., R. H. von Haefen, and C. Mansfield. 2018. “Recreation Costs of Endangered

Species Protection: Evidence from Cape Hatteras National Seashore,” Marine Resource Economics 33:1:1-25.

Dundas, S. J. 2017. “Benefits and Ancillary Costs of Natural Infrastructure: Evidence from the

New Jersey Coast.” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 85:62-80.

Ehrlich*, O., X. Bi, T. Borisova, S. Larkin. 2017. “A Latent Class Analysis of Public Attitudes toward Water Resources with Implications for Recreational Demand.” Ecosystem Services, 28:A:124-132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2017.10.019

Evans, K.S., Noblet, C.L., Fox, E., Bell, K.P., and A. Kaminski. 2017. “Public acceptance of coastal zone management efforts: The role of citizen preferences in the allocation of funds,” Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, 46:2: 268-295, DOI: 10.1017/age.2017.9

Favero, A., Mendelsohn, R. and Sohngen, B., 2017. “Using forests for climate mitigation: sequester carbon or produce woody biomass?” Climatic Change. 144:2:195-206.

Fortmann, L., Sohngen, B. and Southgate, D., 2017. “Assessing the Role of Group Heterogeneity in Community Forest Concessions in Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve.” Land Economics. 93:3:503-526.

Gopalakrishnan, S., Landry, C.E. and Smith, M.D., 2017. “Climate Change Adaptation in Coastal Environments: Modeling Challenges for Resource and Environmental Economists.” Review of Environmental Economics and Policy. https://doi.org/10.1093/reep/rex020

Gopalakrishnan, S., McNamara, D., Smith, M.D. and Murray, A.B., 2017. “Decentralized management hinders coastal climate adaptation: the spatial-dynamics of beach nourishment.” Environmental and Resource Economics, 67:4:761-787.

Haab, Timothy, and John Whitehead. 2017. “What do Environmental Economists Think? Results from a survey of AERE members.” Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, 11:1:43-58.

Hansen, K., C. T. Bastian, A. Nagler, and C Jones Ritten. 2017. “Designing Markets for Habitat Conservation: Lessons Learned from Agricultural Markets Research.” Bulletin. Cooperative Extension Service, University of Wyoming, B-1297.

Haruna, B., Sohngen, B., Yahaya, I. and Wiredu, A.N., 2017. “Effects of Weather-Index Insurance: The Case of Smallholder Maize Farmers in Northern Ghana.” International Journal of Food and Agricultural Economics. 5:3:75-85.

Hrozencik, Aaron*, Dale T. Manning, Jordan Suter, Christopher Goemans, and Ryan Bailey 2017. “The Heterogeneous Impacts of Groundwater Management Policies in the Republican River Basin of Colorado.” Water Resources Research. 53/12: 10757-10778.

Huanping, H., J. M. Winter, E. C. Osterberg, R. M. Horton, B. Beckage. 2017. “Total and extreme precipitation changes over the Northeastern United States.” Journal of Hydrometeorology. 18(6): 1783-1798. DOI: 10.1175/JHM-D-16-0195.1.

Hunter, M.L., Acuña, V., Bauer, D.M., Bell, K.P., Calhoun, A.J.K., Felipe-Lucia, M.R., Fitzsimons, J.A., González, E., Kinnison, M., Lindenmayer, D., Lundquist, C., Medellin, R., Nelson, E.J., and P Poschlod. 2017. “Conserving small natural features with large ecological roles: a synthetic overview.” Biological Conservation. 211:Part B:88-95, DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2016.12.020.

Irwin, NB, Klaiber, HA and Irwin, EG. 2017.  “Do Stormwater Basins Generate Co-Benefits? Evidence from Baltimore County, Maryland.”  Ecological Economics. 141:202-212.

Jarrad, M., N.R. Netusil, K. Moeltner, A.T. Morzillo, J.A. Yeakley. “Urban Stream

Restoration Projects: Do Project Phase, Distance, and Type Affect Nearby Property Sale Prices? “Land Economics.  Forthcoming.

Johnson, E., Bell, K.P., and J.E. Leahy. 2017. “Changing course: Comparing emerging watershed institutions in river restoration contexts.” Society & Natural Resources. 30:6:765-781, DOI:10.1080/08941920.2016.1239292.

Johnson, E.S., Bell, K.P., and J.E. Leahy. 2018. “Disamenity to amenity: spatial and temporal patterns of social response to river restoration progress.” Landscape and Urban Planning. 169: 208-219, DOI: 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2017.09.008.

Jones Ritten, C., C. T. Bastian, J. F. Shogren, T. Panchalingam, M. Ehmke, and G. Parkhurst.  2017. “Understanding Pollinator Habitat Conservation Under the Current Policy Using Economic Experiments,” Land. 6:57(2017):2-13.  Available online August 24.  doi:10.3390/land6030057.

Kaminski, A., Bell, K.P., Noblet, C.L. and K.S. Evans. 2017. “An Economic Analysis of Coastal Beach Safety Information-Seeking Behavior.” Agricultural and Resource Economics Review. 46:2:365-387, DOI: 10.1017/age.2017.17

Keiser, D.A., and N.Z. Muller. 2017. “Air and Water: Integrated Assessment Models for Multiple Media.” Annual Review of Resource Economics. 9:1:165-184.

Kim, J.B., E. Monier, B. Sohngen, G. Pitts, R. Drapek, J. McFarland, S. Ohrel, and J. Cole, 2017. “Assessing climate change impacts, benefits of mitigation, and uncertainties on major global forest regions under multiple socioeconomic and emissions scenarios.” Environmental Research Letters. 12:4:045001

Klaiber, HA, Abbott, JK and Smith, VK.  2017. “Some Like it (Less) Hot:  Joint Valuation of the Urban Heat Island and Cooling Vegetation in an Arid City.”  Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resoure Economists.  4:1053-1079.

Klaiber, A.H., Gopalakrishnan, S. and Hasan, S. 2017. “Missing the forest for the trees: balancing shale exploration and conservation goals through policy.” Conservation Letters. 10:1:153-159.

Klaiber, HA, Salhofer, K and Thompson, SR. 2017. “Capitalisation of the SPS into Farmland Rental Rates under the 2013 CAP Reform.”  Journal fo Agricultural Economics.  68:710-726.

Landry, C.E. 2017. “Experimental Methods in Economic Valuation” Chapter 10 in A Primer on Non-Market Valuation, 2^nd Edition, Champ, P., K. Boyle, and T. Brown (Eds), Springer: New York, NY.

Li, J. and C.E. Landry. 2018. “Flood Risk, Local Hazard Mitigation, and the Community Rating System of NFIP” forthcoming Land Economics.

Landry, C.E., M. Ahmadiani, and G. Colson. 2017. “Structural Empirical Analysis of Decisions under Natural Hazard Risk” in The Future of Risk Management, University of Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia, PA.

Lauer, Stephen, Matthew Sanderson, Dale Manning, Jordan Suter, Aaron Hrozencik, Bridget Guerrero, Karina Schoengold, and Bill Golden. “Values and Groundwater Management in the Ogallala Aquifer Region.”  Journal of Soil and Water Conservation.  Forthcoming.

Lieske S., R. Coupal and D. McLeod. “Political jurisdiction, reputation and urban form: a more complete specification of public service costs.” Submitted to Papers in Regional Science. In Review September 2017.

Maas, Alexander*, Christopher G. Goemans, Dale T. Manning, Stephan Kroll, Mazdak Arabi and Mariana Rodriguez-McGoffina. 2017. “Evaluating the Effect of Conservation Motivations on Residential Water Demand.” Journal of Environmental Management 196:July:394-401.

Maas, Alexander S.*, Christopher G. Goemans, Dale T. Manning, Stephan Kroll, Thomas C. Brown.  2017. “Dilemmas, Coordination and Defection: How Uncertain Tipping Points Induce Common Pool Resource Destruction.” Games and Economic Behavior. 104:760-774.

Maas, Alexander*, Dale T. Manning, Christopher Goemans, and Andre Dozier*. 2017. “Water Storage in a Changing Environment: The Impact of Allocation Institutions on Value.” Water Resources Research. 53:1:672-687.

Manning, Dale T., Christopher Goemans, and Alexander Maas*. 2017. “Producer Responses to Surface Water Availability and Implications for Climate Change Adaptation.” Land Economics. 93:4:631-653.

Manning, Dale T., Salvador Lurbé*, Louise H. Comas, Thomas J. Trout, Nora Flynn, and Steven J. Fonte.  2018. “Economic Viability of Deficit Irrigation in the Western US.” Agricultural Water Management. 196:114-123.

Markowski-Lindsay, M., Catanzaro, P., Bell, K.P., Kittredge, D., Leahy, J., Butler, B., Markowitz, E., Milman, A., Zimmerer, R., Allred, S. and M. Sisock. 2017. “Estate planning as a forest stewardship tool: A study of family land ownerships in the northeastern US.” Forest Policy and Economics. 83:36-44, DOI:10.1016/j.forpol.2017.06.004.

Mei, Y., Hite, D. and Sohngen, B., 2017. “Demand for urban tree cover: A two-stage hedonic price analysis in California.” Forest Policy and Economics. 83:29-35.

Mei, Y., Sohngen, B. and Babb, T., 2018. “Valuing urban wetland quality with hedonic price model.” Ecological Indicators. 84:535-545.

Miteva DA, Kramer RA, Brown ZS, Smith MD. 2017. “Spatial Patterns of Market Participation and Resource Extraction: Fuelwood Collection in Northern Uganda.” American Journal of Agricultrural Economics [Internet]. 2017;0(0):1–19. Available from: https://academic.oup.com/ajae/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/ajae/aax027

Monger, Randall*, Jordan F. Suter, Dale T. Manning, and Joel P. Schneekloth. 2018. “Retiring Land to Save Water: Participation in Colorado's Republican River Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program.” Land Economics 94:1:36-51.

Mueller, Julie M., Lima, Ryan, E., and Springer Abraham E. 2017. “Can Environmental Attributes Influence Protected Area Designation? A Case Study Valuing Preferences for Springs in Grand Canyon National Park.” Land Use Policy. 60:196-205.

Oakleaf JR, Matsumoto M, Kennedy C, Baumgarten L, Miteva DA, Sochi K, Kiesecker J.  2017.  “LegalGEO: Conservation Tool to Guide the Siting of Legal Reserves under the Brazilian Forest Code.” Applied Geography. 86, 53e65. Available here:  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0143622816306658

Robinson BE, Masuda Y, Kelly A, Holldand M, Bedford C, Childress M, Fletschner D, Game E, Ginsburg C, Hilhorst T, Lawry S, Miteva DA, Musengezi J, Naughton L, Nolte C, Sunderlin W, Veit P.  2017. “Incorporating land tenure security into conservation.” Conservation Letters. (June 2017):1–12. Available here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/conl.12383/full

Sills E, Sassi C de, Jagger PA, Lawlor K, Miteva DA, Pattanayak SK, et al.  2017. “Building the evidence base for REDD+: Study design and methods for evaluating the impacts of conservation interventions on local well-being.” Global Environmental Change [Internet]. 2017;43:March:148–60. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2017.02.002

Steinman, AD BJ Cardinale, WR.Munns,Jr ME Ogdahl, JD Allan; T Angadie; S Bartlett; KBrauman; M Byappanahallih; M Dossi; D Dupont; A Johnsk; D Kashian; F Lupi; P McIntyre; T Miller; M Moore; RL Muenich; RPoudel; J Pricer; B Provencher A Reat; J Read S Renzetti; B Sohngen; and E Washburn. 2017. “Ecosystem services in the Great Lakes.” Journal of Great Lakes Research. 43:3:161-168. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jglr.2017.02.004

Towe, C, Klaiber, HA and Wrenn, D.  2017. “Not My Problem: Growth Spillovers from Uncoordinated Land Use Policy.”  Land Use Policy.  67:679-689.

van Berkel, D.B., Rayfield, B., Martinuzzi, S., Lechowicz, M.J., White, E., Bell, K.P., Colocousis, C.R., Kovacs, K.F., Morzillo, A.T., Munroe, D.K., Parmentier, B., Radeloff, V.C., and B.J. McGill. 2017. “Recognizing the ‘sparsely settled forest’: Multi-decade socioecological change dynamics and community exemplars.” Landscape and Urban Planning. DOI: 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2017.10.009.

Winter, J. M., B. Beckage, G. Bucini, R. M. Horton, and P. J. Clemins. 2016. “Development and evaluation of high-resolution climate simulations over the mountainous northeastern United States.” Journal of Hydrometeorology. 17:3:881-89.

Wrenn, DH, Klaiber, HA and Newburn, DA.  2017. “Confronting Price Endogeneity in a Duration Model of Residential Subdivision Development.”  Journal of Applied Econometrics.  32:661-682. 

Wolf*, D and Klaiber, HA.  2017.  “Bloom and Bust: Toxic Algae’s Impact on Nearby Property Values.”  Ecological Economics.  135:209-221.

Wolf*, D, Georgic*, W and Klaiber, HA. 2017.  “Reeling in the Damages: Harmful Algal Blooms’ Impact on Lake Erie's Recreational Fishing Industry. Journal of Environmental Management. 199:148-157.

Yoder, Jonathan, Jennifer Adam, Michael Brady, Joseph Cook, Stephen Katz, Shane Johnston, Keyvan Malek, John McMillan, and Qingqing Yang. 2017. “Benefit-Cost Analysis of Integrated Water Re- source Management: Accounting for interdependence in the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan.” Journal of the American Water Resources Association 53:2:456-477. DOI: 10.1111/1752-1688.12507.

Papers, Presentations, and Reports

Ahmadiani, M and C.E. Landry. 2017. “Economic Value of Multi-peril Coastal Hazard Insurance” Working Paper University of Georgia: Athens, GA; SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2907033

Arbogast¹, Alan F., Brad Garmon², Jonathan Jarosz³, Alek Kreiger⁴, Sarah Nicholls¹, Clayton Queen¹, Robert B. Richardson¹, Elaine Sterrett Isely⁵. 2018. Valuing Michigan’s Coastal Dunes: GIS Information and Economic Data to Support Management Partnerships. Report submitted to the Michigan Coastal Zone Management Program, Office of the Great Lakes, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.  (¹Michigan State University, ²Michigan Environmental Council, ³Heart of the Lakes, ⁴Ducks Unlimited, ⁵West Michigan Environmental Action Council)

Borisova, Tatiana, Xiang Bi, Alan Hodges and Stephen Holland. 2017. Is the Tide is Changing? Accessing Costs and Benefits of Dam Removal and River Restoration: a Case Study in Florida. Selected paper, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, Mobile, AL, Feb 4-7, 2017. Available at http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/252833/2/Borisova-et-al-SAEA-2017.pdf

Borisova, Tatiana, Xiang Bi, Alan Hodges, and Stephen Holand. Paper. Economic Importance and Public Preferences for Water Resource Management of the Ocklawaha River. University of Florida Water Institute Symposium, Gainesville, FL. Feb 6-7. 2018.

Griscom B, Adams J, Ellis P, Houghton RA, Lomax G, Miteva DA, Schlesinger WH, Shoch D,  Woodbury P, Zganjar C, Blackman A, Campari J, Conant RT, Delgado C, Elias P, Hamsik M,  Kiesecker J, Landis E, Polasky S, Putz FE, Sanderman J,  Siikamäki J, Silvius M, Wollenberg, L,  Fargione J. 2017. Natural pathways to climate mitigation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114:44:11645-11650. Available here: http://www.pnas.org/content/114/44/11645.full

Kriesel, W.,  C.E. Landry, and M. Ahmadiani. 2017. “Are Some Natural Amenities as Good as Gold?  Evidence from Coastal Real Estate and Marshlands” Working Paper University of Georgia: Athens, GA, SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract_id=2885909.

Laird, H., C.E. Landry, S. Shonkwiler, and D. Petrolia. 2017. “Riders on the Storm: Hazard Insurance and Mitigation” Working Paper University of Georgia: Athens, GA; SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2957192

Landry, C.E. presentation on risk management, Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography and the Resilience Collaborative, Old Dominion University: Norfolk, VA

Landry, C.E. presentation on risk management, American Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting: Chicago, IL

Landry, C.E. presentation on risk management, Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Kentucky: Lexington, KY

Landry, C.E. presentation on risk management, SEC Academic Conference, The Future of Water: Regional Collaboration on Shared Climate, Coastlines, and Watersheds: Starkville, MS

Landry, C.E. and J.C. Whitehead. 2017. “Estimating Willingness to Pay with Referendum Follow-up Multiple-Bounded Payment Cards” Working Paper University of Georgia: Athens, GA.

Landry, C.E. and T. Allen. 2017. “Hedonic Property Prices and Coastal Beach Width” Working Paper University of Georgia: Athens, GA; SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2474276

Landry, C.E., J.S. Shonkwiler, and J.C. Whitehead. 2017. “Economic Values of Coastal Erosion Management: Joint Estimation of Use and Passive Use Values with Recreation Demand and Contingent Valuation Data” Working Paper University of Georgia: Athens, GA.

Miao H., Trandafir, S., Uchida, E., Price, M., 2018. "The Effect of Informational Nudges to Promote Voluntary Behavior to Reduce Nonpoint Source Pollution: A Randomized Controlled Trial in the Field",  Paper presented at the 6^th World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economists (WCERE), Gothenburg, Sweden.

Miao H., Trandafir, S., Uchida, E., Price, M., 2017.  "The Effect of Informational Nudges to Promote Voluntary Behavior to Reduce Nonpoint Source Pollution: A Randomized Controlled Trial in the Field", Paper presented at the Conference on Behavioral and Experimental Agri-Environmental Research: Methodological Advancements and Applications to Policy (CBEAR_MAAP), Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

Miao H., Trandafir, S., Uchida, E., Price, M., 2017.  "The Effect of Informational Nudges to Promote Voluntary Behavior to Reduce Nonpoint Source Pollution: A Randomized Controlled Trial in the Field", Paper presented at the 19th BIOECON conference, Tilburg University, the Netherlands.

Padowski, Julie C., Michael P. Brady, Eric Jessup, Qingqing Yang, Jonathan K. Yoder. 2016. Coordinating Mitigation Strategies for Meeting In-Stream Flow Requirements in the Skagit River Basin, WA. American Geophysical Union Conference, Dec 12-16, San Francisco, CA.

Qianyan Wu(g), Xiang Bi, Tatiana Borisova, and Kelly Grogran. Valuing the Recreation Benefits of Springs in North Central Florida. Spring Protection Forum, Gainesville, FL., U.S. Feb 15, 2018.

Richardson, Robert B. 2017. “Characterizing ecosystem services of freshwater coastal dunes.” Presented at the biennial meeting of the U.S. Society for Ecological Economics, Saint Paul, Minnesota, July 27, 2017.

Yoder, Jonathan. 2017. Economic Assessment of Integrated Water Resource Management. The Yakima Basin Integrated Plan. October 18. Invited Lecture, Oregon State University, Corvallis.