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    Valuing drought impact mitigation on ecosystem services in a Mediterranean country


    Farizo, Begoña A., Sevilla-Callejo, Miguel, Soliño, Mario, Vicente-Serrano, Sergio M., López-Moreno, Juan I., Lázaro-Alquézar, Angelina, Murphy, Conor, Grainger, Sam, Conradt, Tobias, Jin, Hongxiao and Boincean, Boris (2024) Valuing drought impact mitigation on ecosystem services in a Mediterranean country. Journal of Arid Environments, 225. p. 105277. ISSN 01401963

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    Abstract

    Drought is a complex natural hazard increasing in frequency, duration, and severity worldwide. Although droughts cause both market and non-market impacts, the latter suffers from a dearth of economic studies quantifying their magnitude. In this paper, we investigated how droughts affect selected ecosystem services expected to result in welfare losses in Spain. This study is aimed at quantifying and simulating societal losses given the expected potential increase in drought severity in the coming decades. We estimated a Discrete Choice Latent Class Model by which we distinguished three broad classes of individuals. The common behavior across all classes is that people consistently choose to avoid the negative effects of droughts. However, there are substantial differences among the three classes; while class 1 chooses options regardless of cost, even when selecting the most expensive ones, the other two classes account for the size of the payment. Moreover, health and water use restrictions have been decisive factors in individuals’ choices. We have also observed that the perception of climate change is related to individual decisions. We quantified the enormous damage drought causes to societal well-being. Policymakers should take this information into account when addressing the increasing likelihood of extreme weather events.
    Item Type: Article
    Keywords: Choice experiment; Climate change perception; Drought impacts; Economic valuation; Latent class model; Strategic behavior;
    Academic Unit: Faculty of Social Sciences > Geography
    Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Institutes > Irish Climate Analysis and Research Units, ICARUS
    Item ID: 19497
    Identification Number: 10.1016/j.jaridenv.2024.105277
    Depositing User: Conor Murphy
    Date Deposited: 17 Feb 2025 15:13
    Journal or Publication Title: Journal of Arid Environments
    Publisher: Elsevier
    Refereed: Yes
    Related URLs:
    URI: https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/id/eprint/19497
    Use Licence: This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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