Evaluation of the water conservation function in the Ili River Delta of Central Asia based on the InVEST model

The Ili River Delta(IRD)is an ecological security barrier for the Lake Balkhash and an important water conservation area in Central Asia.In this study,we selected the IRD as a typical research area,and simulated the water yield and water conservation from 1975 to 2020 using the water yield module of the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs(InVEST)model.We further analyzed the temporal and spatial variations in the water yield and water conservation in the IRD from 1975 to 2020,and investigated the main driving factors(precipitation,potential evapotranspiration,land use/land cover change,and inflow from the Ili River)of the water conservation variation based on the linear regression,piecewise linear regression,and Pearson's correlation coefficient analyses.The results indicated that from 1975 to 2020,the water yield and water conservation in the IRD showed a decreasing trend,and the spatial distribution pattern was"high in the east and low in the west";overall,the water conservation of all land use types decreased slightly.The water conservation volume of grassland was the most reduced,although the area of grassland increased owing to the increased inflow from the Ili River.At the same time,the increased inflow has led to the expansion of wetland areas,the improvement of vegetation growth,and the increase of regional evapotranspiration,thus resulting in an overall reduction in the water conservation.The water conservation depth and precipitation had similar spatial distribution patterns;the change in climate factors was the main reason for the decline in the water conservation function in the delta.The reservoir in the upper reaches of the IRD regulated runoff into the Lake Balkhash,promoted vegetation restoration,and had a positive effect on the water conservation;however,this positive effect cannot offset the negative effect of enhanced evapotranspiration.These results provide a reference for the rational allocation of water resources and ecosystem protection in the IRD.

Evaluation and Quantitative Attribution Analysis of Water Yield Services in the Peak-cluster Depression Basins in Southwest of Guangxi,China

Karst environmental issues have become one of the hot spots in contemporary international geological research. The same problem of water shortage is one of the hot spots of global concern. The peak-cluster depression basins in southwest of Guangxi is an important water connotation and ecological barrier areas in the Pearl River Basin of China. Thus, studying the spatial and temporal variations and the influencing factors of its water yield services is critical to achieve the sustainable development of water resources and ecological environmental protection in this region. As such, this paper uses the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs(InVEST) model to assess the spatial and temporal variabilities of water yield services and its trends in the peak-cluster depression basins in southwest of Guangxi from 2000 to 2020. This work also integrates precipitation(Pre), reference evapotranspiration(ET), temperature(Tem), digital elevation model(DEM), slope, normalized difference vegetation index(NDVI), land use/land cover(LULC) and soil type to reveal the main factors that influence water yield services with the help of Geodetector. Results show that: 1) in time scale,the total annual water yield in the study area show a fluctuating and increasing trend from 2000 to 2020, with a growth rate of 7.3753 × 10^(8)m^(3)/yr, and its multi-year average water yield was 538.07 mm;2) in spatial pattern, with high yield areas mainly distributed in the south of the study area(mainly including Shangsi County, Pingxiang City, Ningming County, Longzhou County and Jingxi County), and low yield areas mainly distributed in Baise City and Nanning City;3) the dominant factor of water yield within karst and non-karst landforms is not necessarily controlled by precipitation, and the explanation degree of DEM factors in karst areas is significantly higher than that in non-karst areas;4) amongst the climatic factors, Pre, ET and Tem are dominant in the spatial pattern of region water yield capacity. among which Pre has the highest explanatory power for the spatial heterogeneity of annual water production, with q values above0.8, and each driver showed a significant interaction on the spatial distribution of water yield, with Pre exhibiting the strongest interaction with LULC.

Estimating the value of a statistical life in China: A contingent valuation study in six representative cities

The value of a statistical life(VSL)is a crucial tool for monetizing health impacts.To explore the VSL in China,this study examines people’s willingness to pay(WTP)to reduce death risk from air pollution in six representative cities in China based on face-to-face contingent valuation interviews(n=3936)from March 7,2019 to September 30,2019.The results reveal that the WTP varied from CNY 455 to 763 in 2019(USD 66-111),corresponding to a VSL range of CNY 3.79-6.36 million(USD 549395-921940).The VSL in China in 2019 is estimated to be CNY 4.76 million(USD 689659).The statistics indicate that monthly expenditure levels,environmental concerns,risk attitudes,and assumed market acceptance,which have seldom been dis‐cussed in previous studies,significantly impact WTP and VSL.These findings will serve as a reference for ana‐lyzing mortality risk reduction benefits in future research and for policymaking.

Mass Valuation of Unimproved Land Value Case Study: Nairobi County

The purpose of this study is to investigate mass valuation of unimproved land value using machine learning techniques. The study was conducted in Nairobi County. It is one of the 47 Kenyan Counties under the 2010 constitution. A total of 1440 geocoded data points containing the market selling price of vacant land in Nairobi were web scraped from major property listing websites. These data points were adopted as dependent variables given as unit price of vacant land per square meter. The Covariates used in this study were categorized into Accessibility, Environmental, Physical and Socio-Economic Factors. Due to multi-collinearity problem present in the covariates, PLS and PCA methods were adopted to transform the observed features using a set of vectors. These methods resulted in an uncorrelated set of components that were used in training machine learning algorithms. The dependent variable and uncorrelated components derived feature reduction methods were used as training data for training different machine learning regression models namely;Random forest, support vector regression and extreme gradient boosting regression (XGboost regression). PLS performed better than PCA because the former maximizes the covariance between dependent and independent variables while the latter maximizes variance between the independent variables only and ignores the relationship between predictors and response. The first 9 components were identified as significant both by PLS and PCA methods. The spatial distribution of vacant land value within Nairobi County was consistent for all the three machine learning models. It was also noted that the land value pattern was higher in the central business district and the pattern spread northwards and westwards relative to the CBD. A relative low vacant land value pattern was observed on the eastern side of the county and also at the extreme periphery of Nairobi County boundary. From the accuracy metrics of R-squared and MAPE, Random Forest Regression model performed better than XGBoost and SVR models. This confirms the capability of random forest model to predict valid estimates of vacant land value for purposes of property taxation in Nairobi County.

Economic Valuation of Auctioned Tourist Hunting Blocks in Tanzania

Economic valuation of ecosystems is increasingly being recognized as an important exercise to inform sustainable utilization and conservation of natural assets. It helps in planning and establishing fair profit margins that accrue either directly or indirectly from the consumptive and non-consumptive uses of ecosystem goods and services. This paper is based on a study which estimated the economic values of tourist hunting blocks (HBs) in Tanzania using the Analytic Multicriteria Valuation Method (AMUVAM). The study used a sample size of 12 out of 24 vacant hunting blocks which were to be auctioned to potential hunting companies in December 2022. The economic values of HBs were estimated using the time horizon of 10 years (the mean tenure for winning company). The results show that the economic values ranged from USD 6,215,588 to USD 653,470,695 per hunting block and the Existence Value (EV) constituted about 19% of the Total Economic Value (TEV). EV ranged from USD 632,210 to USD 125,147,285. The study underscores the need for decisions to allocate ecosystems, such as HBs, to both direct and indirect uses, to be guided by a though understanding of their values. We further recommend building the capacity of staff charged with the role of managing and allocating uses of these ecosystems to enable them undertake economic valuation of ecosystems using both simple and more robust analytical tools, such as the GIS, relational databases, and worldwide websites based tools, like InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Environmental Services and Tradeoffs), ARIES (Artificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services), and Co$ting Nature.

Research Progress on Evaluation Frameworks of Regional Ecological Sustainability

As natural ecosystems provide the material basis and fundamental support for regional sustainable devel-opment,the sustainability of natural ecosystems is an important prerequisite and a viable approach for the achievement of regional sustainable development.It is also the final criteria to assess whether sustainable development paradigm is successful.Along with the increasing impacts of human activities on natural ecosystems,the evaluation of regional ecological sustainability has become one of the key issues for research on macro ecology and sustainable development.Based on different unit of indicators,this study firstly groups the evaluation frameworks of regional ecological sus-tainability into three major types:comprehensive index evaluation with dimensionless unit,monetary valuation,and biophysical quantity measurement.We then discuss and compare these types in terms of basic principles,scope of ap-plications,advantages and shortcomings.Finally,drawn on the discussion about characteristics of ecological sustain-ability,we outline the current trend and future directions of regional ecological sustainability evaluation,for instance,transition from sustainable development evaluation to sustainability science,integration of goal-oriented and problem-solving approaches,combination of spatial pattern analysis and ecological sustainability evaluation,and en-hancement of ecological sustainability evaluation at landscape scale.

Seagrass Bed Ecosystem Service Valuation——A Case Research on Hepu Seagrass Bed in Guangxi Province

Seagrass bed ecosystem is a coastal ecosystem with abundant biodiversity and high production. It is also an important system for the sustainable development of human society and economy. Based on the local research, statistical data and prevenient research results, the main services of Hepu seagrass ecosystem were analyzed in the paper, including fishing production, nutrient cycling, scientific research, protecting the coast from eroding, climate regulation, biodiversity, culture, bequest valuation, option valuation and existence valuation and so on. At the same time, we used ecological and economic methods for economic evaluation of seagrass in Hepu of Guangxi, including the market valuation method, contingent valuation method, carbon and tax method, benefit transfer method and expert survey method. The results showed that the total valuation of the Hepu seagrass ecosystem service was about 6.29 × 10^5 Yuan RMB/ha in 2005. Among these services, the indirect using valuation is the main aspect, which was 4.47 x 10^5Yuan RMB/ha in 2005, accounting for 70.97 % of the total valuation. The non-using valuation was 1.54 × 10^5 Yuan RMB/ha in 2005, accounting for 24.52 % of the total valuation. The direct using valuation is the least, which was only 2.84 × 10^4 Yuan RMB/ha in 2005, accounting for 4.51% of the total valuation.

Assessing the Economic Value of Vernacular Architecture of Mountain Regions Using Contingent Valuation

Human pressure on mountain resources poses certain threats to their natural and man-made environment. Although there are many parameters involved, one of the driving forces behind this situation is the emphasis given so far only to the market value of mountain goods and services, ignoring the true social and environmental costs of using mountain resources. Towards this direction, the use of non-market valuation techniques could prove to be beneficial. Bearing in mind the above remarks, the paper presents an application of the Contingent Valuation Method, which aims at estimating the monetary value of a mountain settlement’s vernacular architecture, namely Metsovo. For this purpose, the survey focuses on Metsovo visitors’ willingness to pay a single annual voluntary contribution to an institution that would be founded in order to undertake all necessary actions required to preserve the town’s traditional character. The results are very promising and indicate that vernacular architecture holds a significant economic value that could justify the implementation of appropriate policies towards the protection of vernacular settlements in mountain areas.

Evaluation on Non-use Value of Dianchi Lake Wetland Using CVM

[Objective] This study was to analyze the personal Willingness to Pay （WI-P） on the non-use value of Dianchi lake wetland and the influential factors. [Method] Questionnaire was designed according to the Contingent Valuation Method （CVM） to investigate people of different occupations at different ages, based on which the evaluation on non-use value of Dianchi lake wetland was carried out. And the relationship between WTP and social characteristics were analyzed by using non- parametric estimation. [Result] The average WTP on Dianchi lake wetland is 150.03- 217.66 yuan per person every year, and the total WTP is 626-909 million yuan ev- ery year. Age, education and residence of the respondents have remarkable influ- ence on the VVTP. The influence of education level and residence on option value is significant; bequest value is significantly correlated with age; while there is no significant relationship between existence value and social characteristics. [Conclusion] The evaluation on the non-use value of Dianchi lake wetland is important for the scientific development and utilization of wetland resources.

Economic Valuation of Environmental Services： Increasing the Effectiveness of PES Schemes in Developing Countries？

Payments for ecosystem service （PES） schemes have spread all over developing countries in the last 20 years or so. PES schemes often have high opportunity costs in terms of foregone uses of goods and services offered by the environment. It is within this scope that economic evaluation of environmental goods and services plays a role. In this paper we surveyed articles and studies that report application of economic environmental valuation procedures in PES schemes. Special attention was paid to data collection and analysis, to theoretical robustness of its procedures and to the aggregation of estimated value. We also scrutinize how these estimates had been incorporated into PES schemes, in particularly in the assessment phase of these schemes. Empirical data from Brazil and other Latin American countries were used, particularly those in the Amazon Basis. Our results reveal a frequent overestimation of the values of ecosystem services calculated through the use of economic valuation methods. Values have been estimated by production function methods （opportunity cost, preventive expenditures, recovering cost or dose-response methods）. As a consequence, estimated values reflect much more willingness to accept compensation by supplier and rarely willingness to pay by consumer of these ecosystem services. Besides this distance between supply and demand, application of valuation methods did not account for problems such as uncertainty, risks, and lack of information. All these limitations have led to wrong decision-making.

IPT＇s Quick ＆ Dirty Economic Valuation Method： An Empirical Test on Three Cases

The assessment of economic potential of technological innovation projects and its valuation are key aspects in negotiations among universities, research institutes, and companies. Among the reasons for this, it can be quoted portfolio prioritization, which involves several different economic, social, and environmental impacts aspects and industrial productivity. The standard of economic potential is an important reference in the project selection process. For technology transfer, the valuation of technologies consists in a relevant task to support intellectual property （IP） negotiations. However, in dynamic environments, negotiations for the commercial exploitation and payment of IP resulting from research projects require quick answers, due to several aspects like tight deadlines to sign contracts. Moreover, technology valuation is one of the most complex activities related to the technology transfer. Due to these challenges faced by Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnol6gicas do Estado de S~,o Paulo （IPT--Institute For Technological Research） in its participation in Brazilian Association of Industrial Innovation （EMBRAPII, acronym in Brazilian Portuguese）, authors developed an expedite technology valuation method, based on concepts of discounted cash flow （DCF） associated with Gompertz curve adaptations as a way to support universities and research institutes in negotiations with enterprises. This method has been regularly applied on negotiations between 1PT and companies. This paper will present cases of metallurgical companies. The results obtained confirm the validity of the method in supporting the definition of the payable amounts for commercial exploitation of technologies, enabling the application of this method as an alternative to some methods found in the literature and eventually employed by universities and research institutes in Brazil. For future research, authors recommend comparative studies between Gompertz curve and other methods, such as the Pearl curve, using the same variables of our method.

Financial Statement Valuations in Italian Accounting Thought Between the 19th and the 20th Century： From ＂Exchange Value＂ to ＂Historical Cost＂

The main subject of this paper is the theory of financial statement valuations observed in its historical development. More notably, regarding the subject, the research is concerned with some theoretical concepts developed by the Italian doctrine in a very specific age, namely, between the 19th and the 20th century, which in fact, devoid of any accounting regulation. This paper analyzes in particular the shift from the exchange value rule to the historical cost method and tries to explain the reasons of such a development. In the second half of the 19th century, some of the best Italian scholars, who were faced with the need to properly develop the problem of accounting valuations, thought that it was appropriate to rely on concepts that belonged to similar sciences, such as economics and real estate appraisal, by blindly borrowing the theory of value from the former and the theory of valuations from the latter. During that age, everything hinged around the concept of exchange value. At the dawn of the 20th century, the Italian accounting doctrine began to wonder about a subject that was crucial to the financial statement theory： the informative purposes underlying the financial statements. At the same time, the first principle took shape, which might be called as the ＂finalistic principle of value＂. It is still the basis of the theory of financial accounting measurements, for which different evaluative criteria must be applied to different informative purposes. Thus, an alternative criterion to that of the exchange value makes its appearance on the scene of the accounting valuations, notably the historical cost. The introduction of the historical cost criteria and above all the relinquishment of the combination of the ＂economic cost＂ in favor of that of the ＂manufacturing cost＂ allow the Italian accounting to get rid of the theories of economics and real estate appraisal, thus, becoming independent regarding the financial statement valuations.

Nature of Valuational Consciousness in Good Life

I make an attempt in the paper to argue in favor of the person-centered view of good life, where becoming a good person involves seeking to qualitatively transform oneself into a worthy human being. I maintain that becoming fully a person and respecting others as persons are achievements that are not assured for all of us. Thus, for the purpose I prepare the ground for an account of good life that rests on valuational consciousness. I propose that one may ascribe valuational consciousness to a person who is a value-sensitive rational being striving to attain a kind of inner transparency. Evidently, to say that a person has valuational consciousness is to stress the values, which are built into personal consciousness. The life of a person, whether that of truth, courage, nobility, justice, kindness, is a life marked by ego transcending personal consciousness that reaches out to humanity at large. And such a repository of values enables a human being to attain the ideal of good life. The ideal of good life, I contend, consists of attaining the higher order posture of selflessness--a posture of inner transparency. It is to shake off the egocentric partiality that characterizes our usual attitudinal stance towards one another.

Business valuation methods selection that based on the life cycle

Based on modem financial markets becoming more and more perfect, in company stock, bonds, represented by the investment banking has permeated all aspects of life. Business valuation is the core of value management.However, companies in different stages of development have a certain stage characteristics, and therefore from the features and characteristics of the different stages of business valuation methods and the factors that affect the value of different businesses created to start, can provide investors assess the business value of new ideas.

Real Estate Evaluation in Germany

The real estate market is at risk to produce economic bubbles, which produce heavy financial losses while bursting. To flatten these bubbles, Germany tried since the 1960s a way of thorough analysis and high transparency of the real estate market as a public task. The experts from different professions in the local market effectively are included in a honorary form. The competition between the experts and also between the experts and the public institution is intentionally maintained.

Measuring Recreational Value of World Heritage Sites Based on Contingent Valuation Method:A Case Study of Jiuzhaigou

World heritage possesses various kinds of use value and non-use value. Measuring the recreational value of world heritage sites is a key issue in the heritage tourism. This paper employs Contingent Valuation Method (CVM), which is an evaluation instrument on the basis of tourists′ attitude and preference, to measure the recreational value of Jiuzhaigou, one of the World Natural Heritage sites in China, and analyzes the biases in the survey. The results show that: 1) In 2009, Jiuzhaigou′s recreational value was 3.46×108 yuan (RMB), and the per capita Willingness to Pay (WTP) was 137.31 yuan by CVM. Compared with the results of other methods, this result is significantly low. 2) Among the factors that influence Jiuzhaigou tourists′ WTP, psychological perception factors have the greatest effect while demographic and socio-economic characteristics have a small effect on WTP. 3) The virtuality in CVM creates biases both from CVM itself and in the procedures that CVM was implemented. The former includes hypothetical bias, information bias, protest response bias, and strategic bias; and the latter includes the questionnaire design, population and sample definition, sampling and data processing. The paper analyses those biases and illustrates their potential in-fluences on the accuracy of CVM measurement. 4) Although there are various defects in CVM measurement, it is still an effective valuation method.

Valuation of forest carbon sinks in China within the framework of the system of national accounts

To better promote forest resource management and strengthen the development of forest carbon sink marketization, this paper studied the accounting of forest carbon sinks from 2003 to 2008 based on a system of national accounts （SNA） and data from the latest forest resources inventory in China. The study calculated the value of forest carbon stocks at a total of RMB 817.13 × 10^9 yuan in 2003 and RMB 839.93×10^9 yuan in 2008, with an average annual increase of 0.55 % from an increase in physical carbon sinks. The total value of forest carbon sinks in 2003 and 2008 was RMB 26.73×10^9 yuan and RMB 29.77×10^9 yuan, respectively, with an average annual growth of 2.18 %. From 2003 to 2008, both stock and flow value of forest carbon sinks increased, but the total net flow value of carbon sinks decreased. The growth rate for the environmentally adjusted Gross Domestic Product （eaGDP） for China＇s forest carbon sinks was 17.23 %, outstripping the average growth rate of 9.5 % for the GDP during the same period. The study alsoindicates that China＇s forest carbon sinks affects the GDP in the range of 0.25-0.26 %, and its economic potential is not relatively huge.

Estimation of conservation value of myrtle(Myrtus communis)using a contingent valuation method:a case study in a Dooreh forest area,Lorestan Province,Iran

Background： Around 2000 plant species occur naturally in Lorestan Province of which 250 species are medicinal and myrtle is one of them. Myrtle is a shrub whose leaves and fruits have medicinal value and thus, if managed and harvested properly, could produce sustained economic benefits. In recent years, however, over half of the myrtle site areas was destroyed, due to inappropriate management and excessive harvesting practices. Thus, coming up with a practical harvesting approach along with identifying those factors damaging the sites, seems to be very crucial. Methods： In our investigation, we calculated the conservation value per hectare of myrtle in the Dooreh forest area in Lorestan Province. Using the Contingent Valuation （CV） and Double Bounded Dichotomous Choice （DBDC） methods, we determined the willingness to pay （VVTP） for myrtle conservation. The VVTP was estimated with a Iogit model for which indices were obtained based on a maximum precision criterion. Results： The results showed that 86.67 per cent of people were willing to pay for the conservation of these myrtle sites. Average monthly WTP per family was calculated as $0.79. The annual conservation value in terms of WTP for the preservation of the myrtle sites in Dooreh was estimated as $102,525. Among the variables of the model presented, education had a positive impact, while the amount proposed for payment and family size had a negative impact on the WTP. Conclusions： Our estimate of the value of myrtle conservation should provide justification for policy makers and decision making bodies of natural resources to implement policies in order to conserve the natural sites of this species more effectively.

Economic Valuation of Health Impact of PM_(10) Pollution in Beijing from 2001 to 2006

In light of the practical need for research to inform policy in Beijing,this study evaluates the economic cost of the impact of PM 10 pollution in Beijing from 2001 to 2006,taking health as the main impact,and mortality as the main outcome.Based on the literature review,this study adopts relatively conservative parameters as the basis for calculating the health impacts.It concludes that nearly 30%of mortality among registered residents above age 30 in Beijing can be attributed to PM 10 pollution,and that the economic cost equals 0.8%-1.2%of the city's GDP over the same period.This is lower than the results of previous studies,but still high enough to warrant a commitment to solve the city's air pollution problem.

Effect and satisfaction of outpatient services by precision valuation reservation registration

BACKGROUND Due to improvements in living standards,people are now paying more attention to their health.In China,more patients choose to go to large or well-known hospitals,which leads to constant crowding of outpatient clinics in these hospitals.AIM To establish precision valuation reservation registration aimed at shortening waiting time,improving patient experience and promoting the satisfaction of outpatients and medical staff.METHODS On the basis of the implementation of a conventional appointment system,more reasonable time intervals were set for different doctors by evaluating the actual capacity of each doctor to receive patients,and appointment times were made more accurate through intervention.The change in consultation waiting time of patients was then compared.Correlations between the consultation waiting time of patients and the satisfaction of patients or satisfaction of medical staff were analyzed.RESULTS After precision valuation reservation registration,the average consultation waiting time of patients reduced from 18.47 min to 10.11 min(t=8.90,P<0.001).The satisfaction score of patients increased from 91.33 to 96.27(t=-8.62,P<0.001),and the satisfaction score of medical staff increased from 90.51 to 96.04(t=-10.50,P<0.001).The consultation waiting time of patients was negatively correlated with their satisfaction scores(γ=-0.89,P<0.001).The consultation waiting time of patients was also negatively correlated with medical staff satisfaction scores(γ=-0.96,P<0.001).CONCLUSION Precision valuation reservation registration significantly shortened outpatient waiting times and improve the satisfaction of not only patients but also medical staff.This approach played an important role in improving outpatient services,provided a model that is supported by relevant evidence and could continuously improve the quality of management.Precision valuation reservation registration is worth promoting and applying in the clinic.