nvironmental values , valuation methods , and natural disaster damage assessment

...................................................................................... 5 I. Environmental values and valuation approaches........... 7 1. The economic concept of environmental value .................... 7 2. Willingness-to-pay and willingness-to-accept ...................... 8 3. Classifying environmental values ......................................... 9 4. Valuation approaches.......................................................... 13 II. Valuation techniques: an overview ................................... 15 1. Direct and indirect techniques ............................................ 15 2. The production-function method ........................................ 16 3. Cost-based methods ............................................................ 18 4. The travel-cost method........................................................ 20 5. The hedonic pricing method ............................................... 21 6. The contingent valuation method........................................ 25 7. Environmental value transfer .............................................. 28 III. Natural disasters and environmental values.................. 37 1. The rationale of environmental valuation........................... 37 2. The ECLAC’s manual: classification of the effects of a natural disaster and criteria for evaluating damage ............ 38 3. Natural disasters and environmental values: a tentative taxonomy............................................................................. 39 4. Intersections between environmental values and ECLAC’s damage categories .............................................. 40 5. The choice of environmental valuation method.................. 42 6. Damage for whom? The natural disaster’s relevant market size .......................................................................... 45 7. Time and discounting.......................................................... 47 Environmental values, valuation methods, and natural disaster damage assessment 4 IV. Summary and conclusions ........................................................................................51 References .................................................................................................................................55 Serie Medio ambiente y desarrollo: issues published...................................................59