Revitalizing transformed landscapes: Economic valuation of artificial lake shorelines for hydropower generation

IF 4.7 2区环境科学与生态学 Q2 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Environmental Development Pub Date : 2025-02-05 DOI:10.1016/j.envdev.2025.101163

Cristobal Acuña , Rolando Rodríguez , Eduardo Acuña

{"title":"Revitalizing transformed landscapes: Economic valuation of artificial lake shorelines for hydropower generation","authors":"Cristobal Acuña , Rolando Rodríguez , Eduardo Acuña","doi":"10.1016/j.envdev.2025.101163","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The expansion of hydroelectric energy in Chile, renowned for its contribution to energy sustainability, positively impacts socioeconomic development through ecological compensations. Employing the Contingent Valuation Method, the willingness to pay (WTP) for access to these transformed spaces is revealed, indicating a positive economic appreciation and valuation of compensation initiatives. This study highlights the dams’ capacity to enhance community well-being by creating recreational spaces, reflecting strong community support with an average WTP of 2043 Chilean pesos (CLP$) for access to these transformed sites. The data indicate a positive valuation towards compensation initiatives, underscoring the effectiveness of hydroelectric dams in driving local development while preserving the environment. The integration of hydroelectric management with tourism and recreation has promoted a sustainable development model, valuing both natural resources and human capital. In conclusion, this study emphasizes how community-backed ecological compensation strategies, based on a solid perception of ecological and recreational value, can lead to substantial socioeconomic benefits, reinforcing the link between hydroelectric development, socioeconomic progress, and environmental sustainability.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54269,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Development","volume":"54 ","pages":"Article 101163"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Environmental Development","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211464525000296","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

The expansion of hydroelectric energy in Chile, renowned for its contribution to energy sustainability, positively impacts socioeconomic development through ecological compensations. Employing the Contingent Valuation Method, the willingness to pay (WTP) for access to these transformed spaces is revealed, indicating a positive economic appreciation and valuation of compensation initiatives. This study highlights the dams’ capacity to enhance community well-being by creating recreational spaces, reflecting strong community support with an average WTP of 2043 Chilean pesos (CLP$) for access to these transformed sites. The data indicate a positive valuation towards compensation initiatives, underscoring the effectiveness of hydroelectric dams in driving local development while preserving the environment. The integration of hydroelectric management with tourism and recreation has promoted a sustainable development model, valuing both natural resources and human capital. In conclusion, this study emphasizes how community-backed ecological compensation strategies, based on a solid perception of ecological and recreational value, can lead to substantial socioeconomic benefits, reinforcing the link between hydroelectric development, socioeconomic progress, and environmental sustainability.

查看原文本刊更多论文

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Environmental Development Social Sciences-Geography, Planning and Development

CiteScore

8.40

自引率

1.90%

发文量

审稿时长

74 days

期刊介绍： Environmental Development provides a future oriented, pro-active, authoritative source of information and learning for researchers, postgraduate students, policymakers, and managers, and bridges the gap between fundamental research and the application in management and policy practices. It stimulates the exchange and coupling of traditional scientific knowledge on the environment, with the experiential knowledge among decision makers and other stakeholders and also connects natural sciences and social and behavioral sciences. Environmental Development includes and promotes scientific work from the non-western world, and also strengthens the collaboration between the developed and developing world. Further it links environmental research to broader issues of economic and social-cultural developments, and is intended to shorten the delays between research and publication, while ensuring thorough peer review. Environmental Development also creates a forum for transnational communication, discussion and global action. Environmental Development is open to a broad range of disciplines and authors. The journal welcomes, in particular, contributions from a younger generation of researchers, and papers expanding the frontiers of environmental sciences, pointing at new directions and innovative answers. All submissions to Environmental Development are reviewed using the general criteria of quality, originality, precision, importance of topic and insights, clarity of exposition, which are in keeping with the journal''s aims and scope.