Patterns of land use/land cover explain some of
the spatial variability in sensitivity of surface waters to
acidic deposition. Historic changes in land use/land cover
may further explain some of the spatial variability. A map
of land use/land cover changes needs to be compiled before
this relationship can be analyzed....
Natural resources play a crucial role in human society by providing both market value and non-market value. Effective management of these resources is necessary to achieve a balance between economic value and other non-market benefits. Econometric studies focusing on natural resource management help us understand the costs and benefits of...
Forests provide a wide range of timber and non-timber products along with providing a range of ecological services and support for biodiversity. Climate change poses various risks to forest health, as it can disrupt tree growth functions and trigger natural disturbances that increase tree mortality. In recent decades, altered disturbance...
Forests are highly valuable resources providing both timber as well as many non-use values like habitat for various endangered and threatened species, carbon sequestration, and recreation, to name a few. Given that there are 765 million acres of forestland in the United States, almost 60% of which are privately owned,...
This thesis uses a hedonic price model to estimate the value of water for irrigation in Deschutes County, Oregon. The analysis uses a dataset comprising information on 2,274 agricultural parcels across the County. Uniquely, the analysis successfully utilizes assessor-determined real market values in the place of actual land sales. A...
Private forest owners face an increasing risk of economic damage from extreme wildfires as the climate becomes warmer and drier. This thesis empirically estimates the influence of climate on private forest owners’ management decisions using plot-level data in the Pacific states of the U.S. Econometric models are specified where the...
Using summertime housing transactions data of 3,309 parcels from multiple years in Eugene-Springfield, OR, we present a hedonic price model to estimate the influence of the urban heat island (UHI) effect on housing prices in this metropolitan area. By taking advantage of the inherent random nature of summertime weather observations,...
Efficient and effective climate policies require cost estimates supported by empirical analysis at multiple spatial scales. Fine-scale spatial analysis of climate impacts for rural land markets represents a gap in the current climate change economics literature. In this dissertation I estimate relationships between climate, risk and parcel-level land values for...
Climate change affects the choice of land-use not only through its direct effect on the productive potential of land, but also through human actions that alter the landscape. In this dissertation, I estimate current climate's effect on the economic net returns to alternative land-use systems in the United States. Then...
Private forest landowners can adapt to climate change by altering their timing and intensity of harvests, by changing thinning or fertilizing activities, and by altering the tree species growing on their land. The well-being of humans is closely tied to the ecosystem services that forests provide as both market and...
