Abstract Global climate change has led to the deterioration of urban thermal environments, resulting in serious negative impacts on human well-being. As a countermeasure, the public sector has established ad hoc policies, but there are concerns about the financial sustainability of these policies. This study focuses on economic land-use policies for blue–green spaces, using Kobe City as a case study, and evaluates and discusses economic policies such as the Production Green Space Law by quantitatively assessing the combined effects of blue–green spaces. Using Landsat-8 remote-sensing images from the summers of 2014 and 2019, this study retrieved land surface temperatures (LST) by applying the Radiative Transfer Equation method. The results indicated that (1) the area with LST above 32 ℃ in 2019 showed a significant trend of expansion compared with that in 2014. (2) The LST in 2014 was ranked as follows: built-ups, bare land, farmland, water bodies, grassland, and forests. (3) The impact of landscape pattern metrics on LST varied by grid scale, and the correlation was validated at a grid scale of 1200 m. However, the correlation was not significant at a grid scale of 1500 m. (4) The higher the concentration and area of the forests, the better the cooling effect. Regression analysis revealed that water bodies had a mitigating effect on LST. Water bodies and forests exhibited a weak combined warming effect; however, the diminutive regression coefficients suggested that the overall combined effect was not notable. Moreover, the Law on Productive Green Areas is conducive to improving the urban thermal environmental effect, providing the necessary agricultural production support for the city, and improving the well-being of residents.

Abstract This study uses empirical methods to explore the relationship between subway system development and air quality in the Yangtze River Delta. We propose a new variable to measure subway development, ‘subway station density value,’ which can more accurately describe subway development than the traditional ‘line opening’ variable. It eliminates the effects of differences in subway line length, layout, and size of the local subway system. Using this variable, we find that subway development has a significant positive impact on air quality improvement; that is, an increase in the density of subway stations is significantly associated with improved air quality. This finding provides a scientific basis for the relevant authorities to formulate the development and layout of public transport facilities. It strongly responds to previous debates on the relationship between subways and air quality. In addition, we find that urban population size, economic development level, and subway system size play moderating roles in the relationship between subways and air quality. Increasing the availability of subways can significantly improve the air quality in cities with high population sizes and economic development levels. However, as the size of a subway system increases, its effect on air quality improvement may weaken, suggesting that the development of subway systems should not be unthinkingly expanded either. Although our study has valuable findings, we must discuss several limitations further. These include restrictions in the selection of the study population, data availability, and potentially oversimplified criteria for considering the impact of urban differences. Overall, this study not only provides new theoretical and empirical perspectives for understanding and explaining how subway development affects air quality but also indicates the direction for further exploration in future studies.

Abstract This study proposes a practice and discussion for an interdisciplinary approach to policies for the conservation of suburban and peri-urban ecosystems. We highlight the need for evidence-based assessment of the current quality of the targeted nature from perspectives of natural science and problem formulation, and that causes should be investigated from the combined perspectives of social science, economic evaluation, and policy design and evaluation, with an awareness of the possibility of consensus building. In this study, based on the ongoing international trend of ecosystem conservation, an economic analysis was conducted to examine the direction of Satoyama development as a case study of urban and peri-urban ecosystem conservation. The result identified the preference and needs of citizens with regard to Satoyama ecosystems and discussed the consistency between policy targets and citizens’ evaluation.

Although researchers expect the valuation of ecosystems and their services to be used in various decision-making processes, some studies have insisted that the valuation results cannot be fully used in the real world. The so-called “information gap” was highlighted, and some reasons for the gap were raised by researchers. One of them is the lack of local-specific and demand-side information, such as who receives the benefits and to what extent. This study proposes a valuation that includes demand-side information for it to be practically useful for policy decision making, especially for local policymakers. We focus on the headwater conservation service of the forest ecosystem by referring to the case of constructing solar power plants in the Satetsu-gawa river basin in Ichinoseki, Japan. We estimate the size of the area and the number of households affected by deforestation caused by the construction of the plants. Furthermore, the lost value of ecosystem services is assessed in monetary terms to reflect information on the demand side. Based on the results, we present multiple indicators for assessing the impact of constructing the plants and discuss how the valuation can be used by local policymakers as well as how it can close the information gap.

"Connectedness to nature" refers to an individual's sense of relatedness to nature, and has been extensively employed in analyzing the human-nature relationship. This study examines how connectedness to nature relates to environmental conservation, demonstrating that strong connectedness to nature is correlated with an individual's willingness to pay (WTP) for forest conservation. WTP was measured by conducting a choice experiment focused on Singapore's urban forests. The results indicate that Singaporean residents demonstrating greater connectedness to nature appear to have a higher monetary valuation of urban forests and highlight the importance of biodiversity protection and ecosystems as functions of urban forests. These findings suggest that forest management in urban areas may vary according to the degree of residents' connectedness to nature.

This study focuses on the importance of subjective perceptions in the valuation and conservation of urban green spaces. Because physical attributes of the natural environment are filtered through individuals' perceptions, their self-reporting of the extent of green spaces fluctuates according to their biases. However, the determinant of people's self-reporting of the extent of green spaces within neighborhoods remains unclear. An examination of the relationship between the physical attributes of green spaces and the self-reported extent of green spaces is required to address this uncertainty. Accordingly, two separate studies were conducted by establishing two types of data on green spaces: physical data derived from a Geographical Information System and questionnaire-derived self-reported data. Multiple regression analysis was performed to compare the effects of different types of physical green spaces on the self-reported extent of green spaces. The results indicated that residents' perceptions of same-sized green spaces differed considerably depending on their type. To ascertain the effects of subjective perceptions on economic valuation, a life satisfaction approach was subsequently applied within two separate analyses. In the first analysis, reflecting a normal pattern, the relationship between life satisfaction and the area of green space was examined, and in the second analysis, the self-reported extent of green spaces was used as an intermediate variable between green spaces and life satisfaction. A comparison of the estimated values from the two analyses revealed significant differences, depending on whether self-reported green spaces were used as an intermediate variable. Specifically, values of urban green spaces fluctuated more than those of forests in the case of self-reported green spaces. Although urban planners and experts generally emphasize the physical attributes of green spaces, such as area, these results indicate that it is critical to consider people's perceptions.

Sustainability can be assessed by non-declining inclusive wealth, which refers to man-made capital, human capital, natural capital, and all other types of capital that are sources of human well-being. As the previous studies—including Arrow et al. (J Econ Perspect 18(3):147–172, 2004) and the Inclusive Wealth Report (2012 and 2014)—suggest, total factor productivity (TFP) is one determinant of inclusive wealth, because it is related to the resource allocation mechanism. TFP is one important component of sustainability. When considering the contribution of TFP toward inclusive wealth, attention needs to be paid to the improvement in the usage of human and natural capital as well as the traditional man-made capital. However, in the previous studies, only man-made capital and labor force have been considered. This study extends current measures of sustainability by capturing the efficient utilization of natural resources, giving us inclusive wealth-based TFP. Therefore, in contrast to conventional TFP measures, we consider both human and natural capital in addition to man-made capital. We examine 43 countries and find that a new indicator which asserts countries previously considered sustainable by earlier studies such as Arrow et al. (J Econ Perspect 18(3):147–172, 2004) as no longer sustainable.

This study investigated the effect of valuators' personal history and beliefs on valuation of ecosystem services around Mt. Rokko, which is located near Kobe, a major city in Japan. Special attention was paid to how differences in lifestyle, access to nature, and experiences during childhood influence willingness to pay (WTP) for peri-urban ecosystem conservation. The estimated values (median: 1858 JPY) were relatively higher than in previous case studies including one on the World Heritage forest in the country, but the value was not outlier of the literature. From the simple model estimation, we focused on the effect of individual differences. The full model including information of personal experience with nature revealed differences in WTP among residents. The basic characteristics of age and income were found to have a significant effect. Interestingly, it was also found that certain experiences during childhood had a significant effect on increasing WTP for ecosystem and biodiversity conservation. These findings suggest the importance of considering the diversity of valuators in ecosystem valuation studies under urbanization processes, and it also warns the extinction of experience with nature under on going urbanization for urban ecosystem conservation.

Forest ecosystem services are fundamental for human life. To protect and increase forest ecosystem services, the driving factors underlying changes in forest ecosystem service values must be determined to properly implement forest resource management planning. This study examines the driving factors that affect changes in forest ecosystem service values by focusing on regional forest characteristics using a dataset of 47 prefectures in Japan for 2000, 2007, and 2012. We applied two approaches: a contingent valuation method for estimating the forest ecosystem service value per area and a decomposition analysis for identifying the main driving factors of changes in the value of forest ecosystem services. The results indicate that the value of forest ecosystem services has increased due to the expansion of forest area from 2000 to 2007. However, factors related to forest management and ecosystem service value per area have contributed to a decrease in the value of ecosystem services from 2000 to 2007 and from 2007 to 2012, respectively.

The World Development Indicators (WDI) database provides historical trends of the Genuine Savings (GS) indicator, going back more than 40 years for about 200 countries. The indicator accounts for subsoil mineral depletion and global warming as environmental degradation. The major shortcoming of existing studies is that they have only considered present and past values of GS. This paper describes an approach to provide future paths of GS until the end of the current century by applying an integrated assessment model (IAM). To cover various mineral resources as well as their environmental impacts, we combine an originally developed mineral resource model and an existing detailed environmental impact assessment model with an existing, orthodox IAM. To be consistent with the WDI, we include data for subsoil resource depletion. Moreover, while applying the IAM, we consider a wider coverage of environmental impact categories compared to WDI. Our findings indicate that, after 2030, GS are positive, thus indicating sustainability in many geographical regions, except Latin America. The results also show that the critical factor that pushes down Gross Savings to GS is the environmental external cost from human appropriation of net primary productivity via land use and changes in land use.

We construct a regional comprehensive wealth as an indicator of sustainability in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. Of particular interest is the change in wealth before and after a natural disaster, since the index could serve as a benchmark of investment into post-disaster reconstruction. We first discuss an optimum spatial unit of wealth accounting and sustainability analysis. The resultant regional wealth index had already been slightly declining during the 2000s due to stagnant investment into capital assets, oil capital loss, and budget deficit burden, until a natural disaster made the region significantly unsustainable. This wealth trend also differs from what emerges from the figures in Inclusive Wealth Report 2012. Including population decrease makes the wealth per capita look better, whose interpretation warrants caution due to the neglected forward-looking demographic change in a developed nation.

We propose a new avenue for studying income comparisons effects, namely hypothetical discrete choice experiments in which respondents are presented with alternative combinations of hypothetical monthly income amounts, both for themselves and certain reference persons. With this experimental method we can avoid the problems associated with researcher-imposed reference persons’ incomes that are found in most of the happiness studies testing comparison effects. This approach allows investigation of the differences in comparison effects across types of reference groups as well as respondents’ individual characteristics, including specific comparison benchmarks, which are the main open questions in the literature. Some results from our original, large-scale, Internet-based survey are provided.

自然資本を含めた包括的な富が減らないことが持続可能性の必要条件であることが理論的に明らかにされたことを受け，近年，それを実際に計測した「新国富」が持続可能性指標として注目されている．本稿では，これまでの政策・理論・実証研究上の背景をレビューし，一例として水を自然資本に組み入れる際の課題を検討する．今後の研究課題として，世代内衡平性，人口減少の影響，集計の空間的範囲，シャドー価格の推計などを指摘する．

Since the March 11 earthquake, Japanese households have been facing a trade-off problem between decreasing dependency on nuclear power generation and avoiding an increase in electricity rates. We analyze this inner conflict quantitatively, adopting two economic-psychological approaches: First, we note that the trade-off causes cognitive dissonance after making a choice that results in a wider desirability gap between the chosen and rejected alternatives. Second, the consumer surplus improves by 11.2% with a no-choice option for suspending judgment in the presence of cognitive dissonance. Third, individual characteristics such as gender and annual household income are significantly correlated with both cognitive dissonance and a preference for the no-choice option. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

This paper investigates the effects of a change in environmental abatement technology on the accumulation of capital stock and on the global environment in a two-country overlapping-generations model. Among other issues, we focus on a situation where abatement improves in only one country. With comparative static analysis, we derive the sufficient and necessary condition in the initial steady states for unilateral improvement in abatement technology to improve the two-country global environment. In addition, we examine the effects of changes in several technologies on capital stock and on the global environment.

本研究は、設楽ダムを事例に、公共事業をめぐる関係者間の利害対立の構造を分析し、社会的合意形成を阻害する要因を考察するとともに、全国のダム検証に係る「関係地方公共団体からなる検討の場」の取組みの意義と限界を明らかにすることを目的にしている。本研究では、まずダムの必要性をめぐって開発主体である国や県と反対派住民の主張が対立する中心的論点について、行政が提示した将来の水需要量の数値に問題があることを示した。そして、ダム建設についての利害対立を調整する制度や手段について、設楽ダムのような直轄ダム事業の検証に係る審議会は事業者と関係公共団体が中心に行うのに対して、補助ダム事業の検証は地域ごとに多様な利害関係者と制度設計の下で審議を行うという違いがあり、両者を比較しながら、ダム検証についての現状制度の不十分性を指摘した。

This study measures various indicators for sustainability in this century for four scenarios of SRES (Special Report on Emissions Scenarios) published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to provide a comparable assessment of the scenarios. We assessed the scenarios using a model of Ramsey-type mainframe with cost models for fuel and non-fuel mineral resources, biomass and foods, and an environmental externality. The existing studies have not assessed these SRES scenarios for sustainability, but only for climate change and its policy under the scenarios using CO2 emissions and shadow prices as indicators. The significant contributions of this paper are an assessment of the scenarios using the measured future paths of various sustainability indicators and revealing that the SRES-B1 scenario is the most favorable from a sustainability perspective. The findings of this study contribute to further empirical analysis of the economics of sustainability and climate policy assessments. © 2013 Taylor & Francis.

We propose a new avenue for studying income comparisons effects, namely hypothetical discrete choice experiments in which respondents are presented with alternative combinations of hypothetical monthly income amounts, both for themselves and certain reference persons. With this experimental method we can avoid the problems associated with researcher-imposed reference persons' incomes that are found in most of the happiness studies testing comparison effects. This approach allows investigation of the differences in comparison effects across types of reference groups as well as respondents' individual characteristics, including specific comparison benchmarks, which are the main open questions in the literature. Some results from our original, large-scale, Internet-based survey are provided. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) described mainstreaming climate change mitigation into development choices in its Fourth Assessment Report, chapter 12 of Working Group III. It also pointed out that "few macro-indicators include measures of progress with respect to climate change" despite the needs for the inclusion. This paper tackled this point in the following ways by applying an integrated assessment model. First, this study applied shadow prices and production, endogenously obtained from the model, instead of using market prices and statistical data used in preceding studies in the economics literature. Second, this study measured forecasts of genuine saving (GS) and wealth globally up to the year 2100, while preceding studies were constrained to past and current savings and wealth. Third, this study examined changes in GS and wealth in different future scenarios on IPCC SRES (Special Report on Emissions Scenarios) with CO 2 emissions constraints. Finally, the authors adopted a GS estimation methodology of shadow prices in imperfect economies by Kenneth Arrow and Partha Dasgupta, instead of that of perfect economies by Kirk Hamilton et al., on which the authors had based previous studies. This makes the indicator consistent with changes of wealth. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

This paper presents a numerical examination of sustainability from the perspective of 'genuine savings', using a dataset provided by the World Bank. Unlike previously-used criteria of sustainability that focus on observed paths of genuine savings rates, we consider future sustainability by simulating future paths of genuine savings. This analysis shows that some countries that had been classified as being sustainable by previous studies, using observed paths, are in fact, not sustainable from the perspective of future sustainability. We provide information on capital components which should be targeted by policy makers in order to maintain future sustainability. Copyright © 2012 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Theoretical and empirical studies have been conducted on the genuine saving (GS) based on neoclassical economic theory to assess sustainable development (SD). However, only market prices and statistical national accounts have been used in empirical studies due to limited data availability. The data availability limits to measure GS only in the past and current, causing a wide gap with theoretical results. In this paper, we propose computing GS using an integrated assessment model (IAM) as connected to the mainframe model of macroeconomy. This enables us to use shadow prices, rather than market prices, obtained through an IAM, which ensures substantial consistency among variables. An example would be endogenous capital-output ratio and the rate of TFP. Also, our indicator of GS is more comprehensive in that they now account for various resources, environmental degradation, and land use. Our simulation results, with a particular focus on GS with population change (GSn) and with technological change as well (GSnt), show a sustainable future for up to the end of the century thanks to declining population in the latter half of the century and technological progress, although GS without accounting for population and technology tend to be negative, driven by, among others, capital depreciation and net primary productivity degraded by land use. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

We can often find organic foods or foods with no chemical fertilizers in the supermarket. Japanese people pay attention to food safety, and want to get information about its quality. The purpose of the paper is to reveal Japanese consumers' preferences for agricultural spinach as fresh foods and preference heterogeneity among them. When they purchase it, what attribute they emphasize? Are they sensitive to price or quality of it? We assumed that their preferences are divided into few groups. Thus, we try to confirm this by using choice experiments (CE). The results revealed that there are economic benefits of organic products and local consumption of locally produced foods. On the other hand, the results indicated that there is a significant heterogeneity among Japanese consumers' preferences for agricultural spinach as fresh foods. © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.

Recently, with the social requirement, traceability systems come into use for recognition of thehistory or origin of the food product. However, there remain important problems: what and how muchinformation should be supplied to consumers. Some people argue that the information should beoffered as much and detailed as possible. Others suggest that because a deluge of information is notdesirable, we should sort out or summarize the information and then provide to consumers.
In this paper, for inquiring the desirable quantity of information with traceability systems, weanalyze the consumers' ability of processing information by using discrete choice models. Throughthe experiment by increasing the quantity of information, two interesting results are obtained. First, we identify the point at which the effect of information overload occurs. The result shows thatinformation entropy indexes are lowest at 6 attributes and become higher at more than 6 attributes.
These imply that information overload effect appears around 6 attributes. Second, "knowledge" and"product involvement" are found to be dep ressant factors of information overload. People who havehigh knowledge or high involvement have relatively low entropy index.
From these findings, we can argue that to provide too much information to consumers isproblematic because it makes consumers confuse. To avoid this, we should select what is importantinformation for them. It is also important to offer an appropriate education and enlightenment inorder to heighten their knowledge and involvement.

With the recent diffusion of broadband (BB) services, Internet protocol (IP) telephony is expected to spread significantly in Japan. This article investigates the demand for IP telephony by using conjoint analysis. Projecting IP telephony demand also contributes to Japanese info-communication policy discussions. Two points are made. First, IP telephony is still currently considered an optional supplement or an add-on service option of high-speed BB Internet access services in Japan rather than a close substitute of existing plain old telephone service (POTS). At this point, we find little evidence that many households will promptly forsake their fixed line service for IP telephony. Second, we conclude that the key condition for the proliferation of IP telephony is the complete guarantee of quality of service (QoS), including voice quality, number portability, fax usage and emergency access, comparable to or exceeding that of existing POTS.

This study aims to examine whether Japanese consumers show a preference for particular types of food certification, particularly the organic Japanese Agricultural Standards (JAS) label, and how important certification of food products is compared to their freshness and source. Organic JAS certification is a certification system with government-backed legal foundations. To consider these issues, we conducted a willingness to pay (WTP) survey for vegetables (spinach) as food products with a choice experiment (CE). The vegetables presented in the CE had four attributes: freshness, source, price, and certification. As a result, we found that Japanese consumers valued food certifications and had a WTP for them, including the JAS label. On the other hand, certification was a smaller factor than freshness and source in vegetable purchasing criteria. Freshness was the most important factor for Japanese consumers.

This paper applies conjoint analysis to consumer preferences of Japan's broadband services such as ADSL, CATV Internet, and FTTH. The stated preference method has advantages in analyzing innovative and qualitatively changing services from a long-term point of view. We make two points. First, we find that the actual availability of FTTH has an effect on consumers' stated preferences: consequently, the WTP for 1 Mbps is about \32 ($0.29) for users with access to FTTH, while it is about \45 ($0.41) for those without access to FTTH. Second, we show that stated preference and revealed preference may vary for a certain population: consequently, the WTP for 1 Mbps is about \32 ($0.29) based on the former, while it is about \20 ($0.18) based on the latter.