An Extension of the Theory of Planned Behaviour to Predict Willingness to Pay for the Conservation of Urban Lakes for Mitigating the Urban Heat Island Effect

Urban heat island effect has become a serious environmental problem of Beijing and urban lakes are proved to be effective in mitigating this phenomenon. Urban lakes are proved to be effective in mitigating urban heat island effect, while this effect has long been overlooked. One important reason is that its economic value cannot be easily measured. This paper empirically investigates the Beijing residents' willingness of pay for the benefit of urban lakes in mitigating the urban heat island effects. In addition, the government also willing to promote public participation in environmental issues. To explore the influencing factors of residents' willingness to pay, this study applied an extended framework of the theory of planned behavior by introducing the concept of environmental concern. The estimated mean willingness to pay was 24.44 US dollars per year. In order to improve the prediction power of respondents' pro-environmental behavior, the original framework of the Theory of Planned behavior were extended by adding the factor of environmental concern. The new relation of components show that environmental concern influence respondents’ willingness to pay both directly and indirectly, and the explanatory power of the original prediction model is improved. This research reveal that a majority of residents in Beijing are willing to contribute for the conservation of urban lakes for mitigating urban heat island effect, while environment related information disclosure is necessary for promoting public participation in urban environment management.