Poster Abstract Details

Author(s):
Neelam Poudyal, Donald Hodges, John Fenderson, Ward Tarkington, Tim Phelps

Affiliation:
University of Georgia, University of Tennessee, Tennessee Division of Forestry

Presentation Type:
Poster

Topic Area:
Evaluating changes to ecosystem goods and services along urban-rural gradients

Abstract Text:
Existing literature on non-market valuation indicates an ambiguous value of the view of a forest due largely to the fact that these studies relied on inappropriate proxies or poor measures of forest view. The current study attempts to fill this gap by using GIS to measure the actual forest area that is visible from the house, and then employing a hedonic regression model to examine how its value is reflected in residential housing price. A spatial hedonic model of residential housing price was applied to housing sales data in a forested landscape located in the southeastern portion of Cheatham County and the adjacent Scottsboro-Bells Bend area of Davidson County, near Nashville, Tennessee. Results indicate that increasing the size of forest area visible from a house by one acre increased the house price by $30. The findings imply that residents place a significant value on and likely pay a price premium to preserve the view of a forest. Findings from this study could be useful in evaluating viewshed protection policies as a hedge against development pressures that threaten the forested landscapes, and in designing market protocols for scenic view as an ecosystem service. Keywords: forest view, hedonic model, spatial lag, valuation, viewshed analysis.