TY - JOUR
T1 - Renewal of waterways in a dense city creates value for residents
AU - Polyakov, Maksym
AU - Iftekhar, Md Sayed
AU - Fogarty, James
AU - Buurman, Joost
N1 - Funding Information:
An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Australasian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society Annual Conference in Adelaide, South Australia, February 2018, and seminars at the University of Western Australia and the University of Tasmania. The authors thank the participants of the conference and the seminars for numerous comments. This research received funding support from CRC for Water Sensitive Cities of the Commonwealth of Australia (IRP2.2). M. S. Iftekhar acknowledges funding support from the Australian Research Council's Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards grant (ARC DECRA grant number DE180101503).
Funding Information:
An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Australasian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society Annual Conference in Adelaide, South Australia, February 2018, and seminars at the University of Western Australia and the University of Tasmania. The authors thank the participants of the conference and the seminars for numerous comments. This research received funding support from CRC for Water Sensitive Cities of the Commonwealth of Australia (IRP2.2). M. S. Iftekhar acknowledges funding support from the Australian Research Council's Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards grant (ARC DECRA grant number DE180101503 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2022/9
Y1 - 2022/9
N2 - Water sensitive practices can improve water quality and city livability, but the extent to which these practices improve the welfare of residents is not well researched. We contribute to knowledge in this area using Singapore's Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters (ABC Waters) Program as a case study. The program includes the renovation and integration of drains, canals, and reservoirs with the surrounding environment. To investigate impacts, we analyse real estate transactions within 2000 m of 13 canals that were renovated between 2008 and 2016 as part of the ABC Waters program using both a difference-in-differences hedonic price model and a difference-in-differences exact matching model. To test the robustness of the result, we implement a placebo test by shifting the restoration project dates. We find the value of residential flats within 500 m of renovation sites increase by 1.6% (95% CI 1.0–2.2%) after renovation projects. The empirical strategy and the placebo test results support a causal interpretation of the effect of canal renovation projects on flat prices. The uplift in value for flats within 500 m of canal upgrading projects is estimated to be between S$336 and S$504 million. This exceeds the combined costs of all ABC Waters projects and provides evidence that the benefits of urban waterway renewal projects are greater than the costs.
AB - Water sensitive practices can improve water quality and city livability, but the extent to which these practices improve the welfare of residents is not well researched. We contribute to knowledge in this area using Singapore's Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters (ABC Waters) Program as a case study. The program includes the renovation and integration of drains, canals, and reservoirs with the surrounding environment. To investigate impacts, we analyse real estate transactions within 2000 m of 13 canals that were renovated between 2008 and 2016 as part of the ABC Waters program using both a difference-in-differences hedonic price model and a difference-in-differences exact matching model. To test the robustness of the result, we implement a placebo test by shifting the restoration project dates. We find the value of residential flats within 500 m of renovation sites increase by 1.6% (95% CI 1.0–2.2%) after renovation projects. The empirical strategy and the placebo test results support a causal interpretation of the effect of canal renovation projects on flat prices. The uplift in value for flats within 500 m of canal upgrading projects is estimated to be between S$336 and S$504 million. This exceeds the combined costs of all ABC Waters projects and provides evidence that the benefits of urban waterway renewal projects are greater than the costs.
KW - Hedonic Model
KW - Non-market Valuation
KW - Singapore
KW - Water Sensitive Urban Design
KW - Waterways
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85131579053&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2022.107468
DO - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2022.107468
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85131579053
SN - 0921-8009
VL - 199
JO - Ecological Economics
JF - Ecological Economics
M1 - 107468
ER -