Stuart E. Hamilton

Integrating Lidar, GIS, and Hedonic Price Modeling to Measure Amenity Values in Urban Beach Residential Property Markets

Hedonic property price models have been used extensively in the economics literature to measure the value households place on locating properties close to a given resource, such as a beach, river, or lake. This proximity premium consists of two components. First, property owners derive benefit from living close to the resource for access purposes. Second, they also derive benefit from the view of the resource. Critical to the analyses is the identification and measurement of these two components. We augment previous research by providing more accurate and objective measures of access and view for urban beach residential properties. Using GIS, we calculate the distance from each property to the nearest designated public access point. Using lidar data, we calculate the ocean view from each property. These measures are then integrated into a hedonic property price model to disentangle and estimate households’ willingness to pay for beach access and view.

Ecuador’s mangrove forest carbon stocks: A spatiotemporal analysis of living carbon holdings and their depletion since the advent of commercial aquaculture

In this paper we estimate the living carbon lost from Ecuador’s mangrove forests since the advent of export-focused shrimp aquaculture. We use remote sensing techniques to delineate the extent of mangroves and aquaculture at approximately decadal periods since the arrival of aquaculture in each Ecuadorian estuary. We then spatiotemporally calculate the carbon values of the mangrove forests and estimate the amount of carbon lost due to direct displacement by aquaculture. Additionally, we calculate the new carbon stocks generated due to mangrove reforestation or afforestation. This research introduces time and LUCC (land use / land cover change) into the tropical forest carbon literature and examines forest carbon loss at a higher spatiotemporal resolution than in many earlier analyses. We find that 80 percent, or 7,014,517 t of the living carbon lost in Ecuadorian mangrove forests can be attributed to direct displacement of mangrove forests by shrimp aquaculture. We also find that IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) compliant carbon grids within Ecuador’s estuaries overestimate living carbon levels in estuaries where substantial LUCC has occurred. By approaching the mangrove forest carbon loss question from a LUCC perspective, these findings allow for tropical nations and other intervention agents to prioritize and target a limited set of land transitions that likely drive the majority of carbon losses. This singular cause of transition has implications for programs that attempt to offset or limit future forest carbon losses and place value on forest carbon or other forest good and services.

Examining the relationship between international aid and mangrove deforestation in coastal Ecuador from 1970 to 2006

Since the early 1970s, coastal Ecuador has experienced significant mangrove deforestation, largely attributed to shrimp aquaculture. However, the area of mangrove lost has not been definitively quantified, and several different and conflicting estimates exist in the literature. Furthermore, it has been proposed that development aid has been the primary financial support for aquaculture projects that contribute to mangrove deforestation – and the resultant environmental, ecological, and socioeconomic degradation. We utilize Geographic Information Systems, remotely sensed satellite imagery, aerial photography, and topographic maps to quantify annual and total mangrove loss in five Ecuadorian estuaries. We then use the AidData database to statistically evaluate the relationship between international aid and mangrove deforestation in Ecuadors coastal provinces from 1970 to 2006.

Estimating a Payment Vehicle for Financing Nourishment of Residential Beaches using a Spatial-Lag Hedonic Property Price Model

Beach nourishment projects are common methods for coastal states to protect beaches and property from the natural erosive process. However, while the beneficiaries of beach nourishment tend to be local property owners and recreators, projects are typically funded at the state level. Based on the benefit principle, as local residents receive more of the erosion protection benefits of the nourishment projects, we estimate a value capture tax, designed to levy the financing burden in a manner that approximates the distribution of benefits. The benefits of nourishment projects to coastal property owners are estimated using the results from a spatial-lag hedonic model that controls for viewshed effects.

Global carbon stocks and potential emissions due to mangrove deforestation from 2000 to 2012

Mangrove forests store high densities of organic carbon, which, when coupled with high rates of deforestation, means that mangroves have the potential to contribute substantially to carbon emissions. Consequently, mangroves are strong candidates for inclusion in nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and payments for ecosystem services (PES) programmes that financially incentivize the conservation of forested carbon stocks. This study quantifies annual mangrove carbon stocks from 2000 to 2012 at the global, national and sub-national levels, and global carbon emissions resulting from deforestation over the same time period. Globally, mangroves stored 4.19 Pg of carbon in 2012, with Indonesia, Brazil, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea accounting for more than 50% of the global stock. 2.96 Pg of the global carbon stock is contained within the soil and 1.23 Pg in the living biomass. Two percent of global mangrove carbon was lost between 2000 and 2012, equivalent to a maximum potential of 316,996,250 t of CO2 emissions.Annual mangrove carbon stocks are quantified (2000–2012) at global, national and sub-national levels, together with global carbon emissions resulting from deforestation. Two percent of global mangrove carbon was lost between 2000 and 2012.

Livelihood responses to mangrove deforestation in the northern provinces of Ecuador

Los bosques de manglares en todo el mundo estan en riesgo. Ecuador no escapa a esta tendencia, como lo demuestran los altos niveles de deforestacion de manglares presentes en casi todas sus regiones. Este articulo esta compuesto por: una revision de los estudios sobre manglares ecuatorianos, un analisis de teledeteccion de las areas de manglares presentes y pasadas, y por la investigacion etnografica realizada en los principales estuarios del norte de Ecuador para dilucidar el papel de los manglares para la subsistencia de sus comunidades costeras. Se propone adoptar un enfoque macro-micro con el fin de examinar la problematica global de los manglares, para luego discutir la situacion a escala micro de los manglares en el Ecuador y, finalmente, proceder a analizar perfiles de estuarios especificos. Todas las regiones de manglares mas importantes del norte de Ecuador son examinados con particular enfasis en las tendencias de deforestacion-reforestacion y en los factores especificos que producen y responden a dichas tendencias. Asimismo, se presentan las estrategias de subsistencia originadas como respuesta a estas tendencias en las comunidades afectadas. La investigacion se basa en las estimaciones mas actuales, asi como en cifras historicas de la extension de bosques de manglar.

Disentangling Access and View Amenities in Access-Restricted Coastal Residential Communities

In coastal communities with uniform flood risk, amenity value is comprised of two components – view and access. Having controlled for view, it is assumed that any residual amenity value represents the benefit derived from accessing the beach for leisure/recreational purposes. However, as properties closer to the beach typically have improved viewsheds, the two amenities are highly correlated, and disentangling view and access is problematical. A spatial autoregressive hedonic model captures ease of beach access via a network distance parameter that varies independently from property viewshed, collinearity effects are mitigated, and access and view can be disentangled.

The Carbon Holdings of Northern Ecuador's Mangrove Forests

Within a geographic information systems environment, we combine field measures of mangrove tree diameter, mangrove species distribution, and mangrove tree density with remotely sensed measures of mangrove location and mangrove canopy cover to estimate the mangrove carbon holdings of northern Ecuador. We find that the four northern estuaries of Ecuador contain approximately 7,742,999 t (±15.47 percent) of standing carbon. Of particularly high carbon holdings are the Rhizophora mangle–dominated mangrove stands found in and around the Cayapas-Mataje Ecological Reserve in northern Esmeraldas Province, Ecuador, and certain stands of Rhizophora mangle in and around the Isla Corazón y Fragata Wildlife Refuge in central Manabí Province, Ecuador. Our field-driven mangrove carbon estimate is higher than all but one of the comparison models evaluated. We find that basic latitudinal mangrove carbon models performed at least as well, if not better, than the more complex species-based allometric models in predicting standing carbon levels. In addition, we find that improved results occur when multiple models are combined as opposed to relying on any one single model for mangrove carbon estimates. The high level of carbon contained in these mangrove forests, combined with the future atmospheric carbon sequestration potential they offer, makes it a necessity that they are included in any future payment for ecosystem services strategy aimed at using forest systems to offset CO2 emissions and mitigate predicted CO2-driven temperature increases.

EOF analysis of morphological response to hurricane ivan

Hurricane Ivan, a Category-3 hurricane, came ashore near Gulf Shores, Alabama, on September 16, 2004. Santa Rosa Island, Florida, was within the Northeast quadrant of the storm and subject to surge heights in excess of 3 m. As a result the area suffered significant sediment loss (>200 m m) and widespread overwash and breaching. Morphological changes were quantified by comparing LIDAR images collected before and after landfall. In general, the morphological changes exhibited an alongshore variation at a range of scales (<1 km), consistent with the variation in foredune height prior to the storm. Using multivariate statistics it is found that this variation not only depends on the height of the foredune (relative to the surge elevation) but also on the alongshore extent of the dune and the presence and relative location of the secondary dunes. This alongshore variation will affect the recovery of the dunes, reinforcing the observed patterns.

Remote Sensing of Mangrove Forests: Current Techniques and Existing Databases

This chapter examines the major global remotely sensed mangrove databases that have become accessible since the year 2000. By doing so, we summarize the significant methodological differences between each product and provide a best estimate of post-2000 mangrove cover at the global level. We then review remotely sensed mangrove area findings in-depth for all nations in the Western Hemisphere and Oceania with mangrove holdings in the top 20 nations globally and then summarize the findings for all nations in the Western Hemisphere and Oceania with mangrove holding in the top fifty nations globally. In addition to reporting the mangrove area quantified by each national remotely sensed database, we assess the temporal domain, the spatial resolution, the instruments used, the techniques applied, the validation performed, and the error statistics reported for each national mangrove estimate. We then compare the national remotely sensed mangrove area estimates provided with each other and with the global estimates for each nation and then arrive at a post-2000 best estimate of mangrove cover for each country. Next, we review the common remote sensing techniques and instruments used to map and monitor mangrove forests throughout this chapter. Finally, we assess the future requirements of the mangrove community considering what the remote sensing community can realistically deliver. We find that national remote sensing estimates of mangrove forest area align well with the global remotely sensed measures of mangrove forest area and can, in general, be used with confidence to manage and monitor mangrove forests.