E3S Web of Conferences 53, 03033 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/20185303033 ICAEER 2018 Is There A Quick Path For Valuation Of Ecosystem Services?-A Comparative Study In Xiu River, China Tongyang Wei, and Yong Yang Agricultural Information Institute of CAAS,Beijing,China Abstract. This paper uses the valuation of Xiu River Hydrological Regulating services in Jiangxi province, China as a case study to compare 3 methods to value the ecosystem services, i.e improved contingent valuation method, choice based conjoint analysis and special benefit transfer method. Willingness to pay is estimated by using Logit and Clogit with contrasting controls for non-protests residents. This study discusses the implications of these findings and direction for related future researches into the ecosystem services valuation in China. Appropriate methods should be used for different valuation proposes, rather than blindly using special benefit transfer method just for its convenience. China should construct Ecosystem services value table based on Chinese case studies. cases of comparison between benefit transfer method and 1 Introduction other valuation methods. Most of the comparative cases are value-comparison cases. There are few studies that In the past 30 years, China’s economy has developed compare different valuation methods in terms of their rapidly, with natural resources excessive consumption applicability, practice, rationale, and accuracy of and destruction. In recent years, Chinese government has evaluation. paid more and more attentions on natural resources From the perspective of methodology, application, development and protection, which leads to increasing implementation and accuracy, different valuation demand of ecosystem services valuation. Assessment of methods have their own advantages and disadvantages. ecosystem services in China can be traced back to We attempt to use different methods to evaluate the value 1982([1]).Case studies of ecosystem services assessment of the same case, and try to further analyze different are also increasing rapidly, but most scholars prefer to methods from the perspective of evaluation principle, use special benefit transfer methods for convenience. evaluation application process, trial scope, convenience, (Special benefit transfer starts from the result of paper and accuracy. Based on the demand and special usage entitled the value of the world’s ecosystem services and background, a case study conducted in Xiu River. More natural capital, written by Costanza, printed on nature precisely, we address the following questions,(1) Present 1997([2])). Gaodi Xie, a Chinese scholar, updates the and discuss ecosystem services valuation methods used table in the mentioned above paper. The updated table is in china;(2)Present and discuss the results of different called Chinese terrestrial ecosystem unit area Ecosystem methods including CVM, Special BTM, choice-based services value table ([3, 4]). Chinese scholars use the conjoint analysis(CBC); (3) Give some feasible value of this table to evaluate ecosystem services. It is proposals on improving methods and usage in China. effective to raise public’s awareness, but it is not good for policy decision-making, and the results and accuracy need to be considered. 2 Case study site The comparative studies of valuation methods include comparison of direct market method and statement Xiu River is located in the northwest of Jiangxi province preference method, comparison of revealing preference and belongs to Poyang Lake water system. It is one of method and stated preference method, comparison of the five major rivers in Jiangxi province and the mother different stated preference method, comparison of benefit river of Jiujiang people. Xiu River originates from transfer method(BTM) and stated preference method. Tonggu County, which flows through Xiushui County, Most of the comparative studies of the statement Wuning County and Yongxiu County, and has been preference method are the comparison between intercepted by Zhelin Reservoir at Zhenlin town Yongxiu contingent valuation method (CVM) and choice County. As the largest adjustment Xiu River reservoir, experiment method (CE). The comparative studies of Zhelin Reservoir has the characteristics of good water CVM and the joint analysis method do not show obvious quantity abundant, strong regulation and others. The regularity in the valuation difference. There are fewer water quality stays between first Class and second Class, which is better than that of Yangtze River. Jiujiang urban © The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). E3S Web of Conferences 53, 03033 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/20185303033 ICAEER 2018 district is located at downstream Xiushui basin, with seriousness of the respondents to answer questions and municipal water from the Yangtze River. In order to get provides a reference for the reliability of data. more safety water, Jiujiang municipality plans to drink 1080 questionnaires were conducted at Dean County, the Xiushui water form Zhelin Reservoir as the Xingzi County, Jiujiang County and Jiujiang urban municipal water replace Yangtze water. district. The method of Stratified Random Sampling was adopted in the questionnaire distribution. Before formal investigation, a pilot study of 32 respondents is 3 Methods conducted. According to the pre-survey, we determine First of all, we learned about the actual situation of water the underlying value (CNY per household per month), use in Jiujiang and Zhelin Lake through group discussion 2,5,10,15,20,30. There are two major types of elicitation with local residents and government. And three methods techniques used in this CVM study, namely, are used including contingent valuation method, Single-bounded dichotomous choice (DC)with choice choice-based conjoint analysis method and special options ”Yes”, ”No”, ”Not sure”, payment card. These benefit transfer method in this study. contingent two techniques combined into a new special valuation method and choice-based conjoint analysis are double-bounded dichotomous choice method, which is based on the fieldwork survey. Special benefit transfer closer to real market. According to the choices, we method is based on the results of other studies and land transfer the payment card to three different use conditions. single-bounded DC, using double-bounded DC Logit model to analyze. 3.1Contingent valuation method 3.2Choice based conjoint analysis We conducted a survey on services benefit areas in June 2013. The questionnaire consists of five parts. The first According to the pre-survey, we determine the part is project overview survey area conditions. The underlying value (CNY per household per month), 20, 10, second part includes conditions of drinking water source, 0. On the basis of pre-investigation and Orthogonal identifications of ecosystem services provide by Xiu Design from SPSS, we identify four selections, including River, family awareness of source water quality, maintaining the status selection. Water quality ranges environmental awareness and whether from chronic from First Class to Second Class, and water supply diseases patient’s family. The third part is respondents’ stability are different. See Table 1 for details. With clogit willingness to pay question, consists of CVM and CBC. model analyzing the CBC data, we get the results of CBC. The fourth part is basic information of respondents, The results of CBC are compared with the results of including age, sex, job, education, revenue, Hukou and CVM, and verify with elicitation technique of the CVM whether long-term residence. The fifth part is at the same time. investigator assessment section, which assesses the Table 1. Different scenario sets Attributes Scenario A Scenario B Scenario C Scenario D Quality Increased to class Maintaining class Ⅱ Increased to class Maintaining class Ⅰwater water Ⅰwater Ⅱwater Quantity Stable Unstable Stable Unstable Payment(CNY per 20 10 10 0 month per household) factor include water quality and quantity coefficient, 3.3Special benefit transfer method biomass factor coefficient, socio-economic factor coefficient, payment preferences coefficient, ability to This section consists of two small parts, including pay coefficient. Through researches and consultation transfer Xiegaodi method and transfer costanza method. with relevant experts, the Xiu River water quality and Different with previous special BTM case studies, in this quantity correction coefficient is defined as 2.4. We use study, we add more factors, such as social economic farmland ecosystem biomass factor instead of Xiu river factor, biomass factor coefficient, payment preferences ecosystem biomass factor because of the data availability. coefficient, water quality and quantity factor coefficient, Thus biomass factor coefficient is 1.51. According to the GDP factor and purchasing power parity. formula, the payment preferences coefficient is 0.76 obtained by formula. Ability to pay is defined as the ratio 3.3.1Transfer Xie gaodi’s Method of per capita GDP in Jiujiang and national per capita GDP. Ability to pay coefficient is 0.59.We adjust According to equivalent value per unit area of ecosystem national equivalent value through adjustment factors, and services in china by Xiegaodi and Xiu River adjustment get Xiu River equivalent table. factors, we get equivalent value per unit area of