The distance decay of willingness to pay and the spatial distribution of benefits and costs for the ecological restoration of an urban branch stream in Ulsan, South Korea

This study investigates the spatial distribution of economic benefits and costs of an ecological restoration project for an urban branch stream, namely Yeocheon-Cheon in Nam-Gu, Ulsan metropolitan city, South Korea. A contingent valuation method with the one and one-half bounded dichotomous choice model was applied, and a spike model was employed to address zero-WTP responses. First, benefits of the project were not limited to the project site jurisdiction (Nam-Gu) but extended to the whole metropolitan city. Second, the significant negative coefficient of the distance variable indicates the distance decay of WTP for the project. Third, respondents who visited the site showed a significantly higher willingness to pay for the project. Finally, the project was economically profitable and socially desirable from the benefit-cost perspective. However, the cost allocation between jurisdictions was fiscally nonequivalent in terms of the spatial benefit distribution.