Download presentation
Presentation is loading. Please wait.
1
Amenity Value of Proximity to National Wildlife Refuges Timothy Hamilton North Carolina State University Camp Resources XVIII
2
National Wildlife Refuges 502 NWRs in the lower 48 states Operations = $362m, Maintenance = $140m ~ 40 million visitors each year Most open to public 70% have hiking/walking trails 60% have visitor facilities 50% open fishing and hunting 70% offer educational programs Habitat conservation
3
Management Problem NWR establishment removes land from the tax base. FWS pays $1.65 per acre By comparison, Cape May refuge in NJ. Average home value/acre implies $1,732 per acre in property tax revenue.
4
Management Problem However, NWRs provide local communities benefits: Ecological functions Recreation benefits to larger community Localized property value impacts Proximity to NWR may increase value of nearby homes increases tax base Quantification of these benefits continues to be a key challenge for federal agencies
5
Hedonic Valuation There are dozens of hedonic estimates of the capitalization value of proximity to open space: Permanent vs. agricultural and/or developable open space Boyle, Paterson and Poor (2002); Neumann, Boyle and Bell (2009) Case-study of four NWRs (one near an UA, two more remote) Obtain transaction data Hedonic analysis of sales data to determine value of proximity to NWR 4.8% increase for homes in the urbanized area; significantly less for non-urbanized area.
6
Hedonic Valuation Broader programmatic approach desired Census Microdata offers an opportunity to consider broad geographic models Davis (2011) Proximity to power plants Use census microdata across the U.S. Rabindran and Timmins (2011) Proximity to superfund site Use both census and transaction data
7
Study Area Begin with GIS of all NWR boundaries Overlay with GIS of all urbanized areas (UA) Contiguous, densely settled census blocks/groups that meet minimum population density requirements (1,000 people/sq.mile, 500 in surrounding blocks) NWR boundary must be within two miles of the boundary of an UA (188)
8
8/7/11
9
Study Area, continued Final sample must also have: NWR established in 1999 or earlier Final Sample: 90 NWRs Northeast: 34 Southeast: 20
10
Link NWRs to Census Blocks Census geography is defined as: Block: smallest geography available Typically defined by geography Population taken into consideration Census data links household to blocks
11
8/7/11
13
Proximity to an NWR Linear distance between census block centroid and NWR boundary is measured Each census survey is linked to the block in which the house is located
14
Housing Data Confidential Census Data: decennial census long-form with block identifier One-in-six sample of entire U.S. Housing characteristics Housing type, age of structure, total # rooms, bedrooms, heating type, parcel size ( 10 acres) Housing value Owner-report, 24 categories.
15
Basic Model X i = housing/household characteristics Z b = block characteristics K g = neighborhood/block group characteristics D b = distance of block centroid to NWR Fixed effects by NWR and tracts
16
Model Covariates Housing Characteristics # of rooms and bedrooms, lot size, age of house Block Characteristics: GIS Proximity of a block to: Nearest Interstate Highway Nearest national or state park Coastline Urbanized area boundary Centroid of the nearest MSA
17
Model Covariates Other open space 2001 National Land Cover Database Based on satellite imagery in 30-meter pixels Calculate % of each census block in each land classification calculated. 29 land use categories aggregated to: % open water % developed open space % developed low, medium or high density % forest % shrub/grassland
18
Model Covariates Neighborhood/Block Group Characteristics Population density Median family size Median number of children 18 and under Median number of adults over 65 Median household income % Owner occupied % Vacant for seasonal use % Single family detached % Apartment
19
Impact of Distance to NWR Continuous Distance d(D b ) = β 1 D b + β 2 (D b ) 2 Discrete Intervals d(Db) = β 1 I[0,.5] + β 2 I(.5,1] + β 3 I(1,1.5] + β 4 I(1.5,2] + β 5 I(2,2.5] Omit dummy for block > 2.5 miles from NWR
20
NE Results 3 miles to NWR, 10 miles to UA 3 miles to NWR, 8 miles to UA 3 miles to NWR, 5 miles to UA Distance -0.0430*-0.0744***-0.141*** (0.0219)(0.0274)(0.0457) Distance^2 0.0132**0.0209***0.0360*** (0.00639)(0.00802)(0.0132) Observations14,55110,7754,660 R-Squared.66.63.68
21
NE Results: Categorical Distance 3 miles to NWR, 10 miles to UA 3 miles to NWR, 8 miles to UA 3 miles to NWR, 5 miles to UA ≤ 0.5 miles 0.02320.0365*0.0976*** (0.0186)(0.0214)(0.0364) 0.5 to 1.0 miles -0.0115-0.0203-0.00491 (0.0159)(0.0183)(0.0294) 1.0 to 1.5 miles -0.0185-0.0151-0.0110 (0.0144)(0.0169)(0.0285) 1.5 to 2.0 miles 0.00430-0.006970.00919 (0.0128)(0.0150)(0.0242) 2.0 to 2.5 miles -0.00986-0.0180-0.00562 (0.0105)(0.0125)(0.0193)
22
SE Results 3 miles to NWR, 10 miles to UA 3 miles to NWR, 8 miles to UA 3 miles to NWR, 5 miles to UA Distance -0.171***-0.186***-0.221*** (0.0248)(0.0287)(0.0449) Distance^2 0.0442***0.0518***0.0569*** (0.00692)(0.00793)(0.0124) Observations18,13413,9266,970 R-Squared.57.64.61
23
SE Results: Categorical Distance 3 miles to NWR, 10 miles to UA 3 miles to NWR, 8 miles to UA 3 miles to NWR, 5 miles to UA ≤ 0.5 miles 0.0874***0.0686***0.101*** (0.0206)(0.0239)(0.0350) 0.5 to 1.0 miles 0.0171-0.008620.0377 (0.0171)(0.0202)(0.0294) 1.0 to 1.5 miles -0.00851-0.0420**-0.0352 (0.0146)(0.0168)(0.0250) 1.5 to 2.0 miles -0.0193-0.0375***-0.0339 (0.0123)(0.0143)(0.0210) 2.0 to 2.5 miles -0.00501-0.0191-0.0231 (0.0103)(0.0120)(0.0181)
24
NE Results: Illustrative Marginal Effects Assume value of $250,000 Categorical model (3 miles to NWR, 8 miles to UA) : Adjacent houses are valued $9,125 higher than those 2.5 - 3.0 miles away. Continuous Model (3 miles to NWR, 8 miles to UA) : Moving house from 0.25 to 1.25 miles decreases value by $10,775
25
Summary NWRs appear to provide amenity values as expected Amenity impact is highly localized (≤0.5 miles). Census track or even block-group data may not be refined enough to identify impacts. Access to block-level data important. Amenity value tends to be higher for homes closer to densely populated area
26
Policy Implications Programmatic approach to benefits estimation Transactions data not available and case-study approach can be difficult for agencies to apply broadly in their programs Additional tax revenue from (particular) NWR Calculate average capitalized value across all homes Using average acres per home, find average increase in tax revenue per acre
27
Policy Implications: Total Capitalized Value for Homes within 8 miles NE: Total Capitalized Benefits of $55 million across 9 NWRs Annual tax revenue increase of $69 per acre SE: Total Capitalized Benefits of $100 million across 21 NWRs Annual tax revenue increase of $40 per acre
28
Thank You Questions? Comments?
Similar presentations
© 2025 SlidePlayer.com. Inc.
All rights reserved.