Measuring And Mapping The Recreational Value Of Coastal Habitat In South Fujian Province

Recreation and tourism are not only important parts of the national economy,but also contributing significantly to people’s quality of life and their physical and mental health.Nature-based tourism is an important and fastest-growing part of tourism.With the acceleration of the industrialization and urbanization of coastal cities and the continuous exploitation of coastal resources,the scope of coastal habitats has reduced dramatically.Thus,the rational allocation of natural resources has become increasingly important.It is essential to quantify the value of non-market resources by establishing an effective and credible assessment model that provides decision-making reference for local governments.This will enable the decision-makers to analyze the importance of coastal resources,trade-off between different coastal ecosystem services and establish a reasonable coastal ecological restoration and compensation method to maximize the effectiveness of environmental protection of coastal ecosystems.To evaluate the recreational value of the coastal habitats in the southern coast of Fujian Province,we used Individual Travel Cost Method(ITCM)and Benefit Transfer Method(BTM).The purpose of this study is to quantify the recreational value and distribute it in different area of the coastal zone,such as the land,inter-tidal zone and the water.So as to strengthen the effective protection of coastal ecosystems,and to enhance the sustainable development and utilization of coastal habitats.The main conclusions are as follows:1)In this study,we used ITCM to establish the demand function of the typical coastal habitat in southern Fujian by collecting a large number of samples with different characteristics.The result of the research shows that the need of tourists at various sites are affected by travel expenses,characteristics of tourism sites(development level,environmental quality,tourism experience)and demographic characteristics of tourists(tourist income,gender,age,education level).2)We utilized the demand function established to assess the recreational value of the typical coastal habitat in southern Fujian in terms of consumer surplus.The result shows that the average consumer surplus of the eight typical coastal habitats in southern Fujian is between 178.36 RMB per trip and 493.65 RMB per trip.The Eastern Beach of Xiamen Island has the highest average consumer surplus and the lowest is Zhangjiang Estuary Mangrove Reserve.The recreational value of the coastal habitat for each year is between 1.09 billion RMB and 25.19 billion RMB.The highest is the Eastern Beach of Xiamen Island,and the lowest is the Quanzhou Bay Estuary Mangrove Reserve.The main factors affecting the average consumer surplus are the development level of tourism attractions,the development level of economy,and the income of tourists.3)Using the BTM,we established a benefit transfer model for each counties in Southern Fujian and transferred the average consumer surplus from representative samples to the other counties.Taking cluster analysis based on the regional tourism income,the number of regionl scenic spots and disposable income per capita,we divided each county into several groups.Then we built benefit transfer models for each group,compared the credibility and validity of models built by different ways through validity tests,and evaluated the recreational value of each county.4)Through the investigation of the coastal habitats in Fujian Province,we collected the marine spatial planning information of the coastal zone and established a GIS layer.On this basis,we assigned the assessment of coastal recreational value of coastal counties in South Fujian province to inter-tidal and non-intertidal zones.