Oshadhi Samarasinghe

Flood Prone Risk and Amenity Values: A Spatial Hedonic Analysis

This study examines the impact of flood hazard zone location on residential property values. The study utilises data from over 2,000 private residential property sales occurred during 2006 in North Shore City, New Zealand. A spatial autoregressive hedonic model is developed to provide efficient estimates of the marginal effect of flood prone risks on property values. Our results suggest that a property located within a flood hazard zone sells for 4.3% less than an equivalent property located outside the flood hazard zone. Given the median house price, estimated discount associated with flood risks is approximately NZ

A Response to Doole and Marsh ([Doole, G., 2013]) Article: Methodological Limitations in the Evaluation of Policies to Reduce Nitrate Leaching from New Zealand Agriculture

22,000.

Valuing the soil natural capital: a New Zealand case study

A recent paper by Doole and Marsh (2013), questioned the validity of using the New Zealand Forest and Agriculture Regional Model (NZFARM) for New Zealand agri‐environmental policy analysis. We respond to their critique by clearly describing the model structure, explaining the NZFARM parameterisation, calibration, and validation procedure, and presenting estimates from a series of nutrient reduction policy scenarios to highlight the utility of the model. In doing so, we demonstrate that NZFARM generates logical and intuitive results that can be used for robust agri‐environmental policy decision‐making.

Economic Impacts of GHG and Nutrient Reduction Policies in New Zealand: A Tale of Two Catchments

Inherent characteristics of soil and land valuation data are used to examine the relationship between soil characteristics and rural farmland values to value soil natural capital in the 6000u2009km2 Manawatu catchment in New Zealand. The study applies a widely used economic valuation method to determine whether the value of inherent characteristics of soils is reflected in land values. We find empirical evidence that the characteristics used to describe soil natural capital stock, e.g. gravel class, drainage class, potential rooting depth, and profile available water, are reflected in rural land values. Moreover, we find that these characteristics of soil stocks do not behave simply as independent variables but that there are complex relationships between them influencing their value.