Michael Burton

Biosolids are a solid byproduct of municipal wastewater treatment systems. Conventionally, because of their nutrient and carbon content, most biosolids have been applied to agricultural lands in Australia. However, growing concerns over methane emissions, ongoing management and transportation costs and contaminants of emerging concern, such as per‐ and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and microplastics, are calling conventional approaches into question. Water utilities are therefore exploring alternative options and new infrastructure investments to manage biosolids, considering wide‐ranging financial, environmental and social outcomes. We survey 3135 Australian residents and use an anchored best–worst scaling experiment to elicit public preferences for alternative biosolids management strategies. Results suggest the public is generally supportive of all biosolids management approaches, but that the reuse of biosolids to build roads, to create energy and for construction is most preferred. Using latent class analysis, we also uncover significant preference heterogeneity and some polarisation, especially for the use of biosolids in the food system. Together, our results emphasise the importance of developing effective soft infrastructure, like policy and engagement processes, to build public confidence and support the implementation of new hard infrastructure to improve biosolids management outcomes.

Various policy interventions can be implemented to motivate individuals to adopt pro-environmental landscaping behaviours. Here we compare the influence of economic incentives and social norms on urban landowners’ adoption of native gardens. First, we model the relationship between social norms and landowners’ actual land-use decisions. We then estimate adoption intention under different support programs using a choice experiment, also considering social norms. We find social norms can play a significant role in the adoption of native gardens, comparable to relatively expensive financial incentives. Therefore, social norms may enhance the performance of incentives to increase rates of land conservation.

The remote and iconic Kimberley region, in northern Western Australia, is a contested landscape with growing pressure for different types of land use and development. The region has high biodiversity values and impressive scenery that provide attractive recreation experiences for visitors. We estimate the value of domestic recreation to the region using a travel cost model. Analysis includes two approaches for accounting for multi‐destination trips (MDTs) given travel to remote sites are more likely to include these than shorter trips, and four specifications for the value of travel time. We estimate a total consumer surplus of A$110.34 million annually and find that adjusting travel costs for MDTs using stated survey information produces a better fitting model than using revealed travel information. These findings highlight both the importance of estimating recreation values for use in land use planning in the Kimberley and for improving the travel cost method for remote sites where per‐trip travel costs are high.

This study estimates transient and persistent technical efficiencies (TEs) using a generalized true random-effects (GTRE) model. We estimate the GTRE model using maximum likelihood and Bayesian estimation methods, then compare it to three simpler models nested within it to evaluate the robustness of our estimates. We use a panel data set of 945 observations collected from 344 rice farming households in Vietnam’s Mekong River Delta. The results indicate that the GTRE model is more appropriate than the restricted models for understanding heterogeneity and inefficiency in rice production. The mean estimate of overall technical efficiency is 0.71 on average, with transient rather than persistent inefficiency being the dominant component. This suggests that rice farmers could increase output substantially and would benefit from policies that pay more attention to addressing short-term inefficiency issues.

Increasing the area of drought‐tolerant native vegetation in urban parks is a potential strategy to adapt to growing water scarcity under climate change. With a case study in Perth, Australia, we undertake benefit–cost analyses to understand the potential impacts of modifying urban park landscape designs away from conventions dominated by watered grass towards alternatives with more native vegetation. Considering the costs of establishing and maintaining alternative designs alone, we find that local governments can save money by reducing the extent of watered grass cover in parks. Incorporating nonmarket benefits into the analyses provides evidence of positive community net benefits from making changes to conventional park designs. We show that an alternative park design featuring a mix of 60% native vegetation and 40% watered grass delivers the highest net benefits for both new park development and retrofits to existing parks. These findings suggest it is time to rethink urban park design norms in Australia to better align landscaping choices with community preferences under a changing climate.

Food safety is an issue of growing concern in many developing countries. Threats to food safety in Vietnam include contamination with toxic chemicals, microbiological hazards and adulterated food. To determine Vietnamese consumers' willingness to pay for food safety of pork and vegetables, a discrete choice experiment was employed in the cities of Hanoi and Haiphong. Principal factor analysis and mixed logit models reveal that urban consumers are, on average, willing to pay considerable price premiums for food safety attributes. On average, consumers are willing to pay a price premium of 244% for vegetables produced with the safe application of pesticides, 70% premium for pork processed in certified abattoirs that assure pork safety and 67% price premium for pork if the convenience attribute is satisfied. Regarding vegetables, there is considerable heterogeneity in the extent to which consumers are willing to pay for growth‐hormone‐free vegetables, depending on their education, and in perceptions towards food safety risks resulting from chemical hazards and foodborne illness in Vietnam. For pork, if consumers believe that contaminated food could cause life‐threatening risks for people, they are willing to pay up to 102% more than the current market price for hormone‐free and drug‐free pork. The factor representing consumers' trust in food safety influences their WTP for traceability and clean water attributes. Moreover, consumer's self‐health evaluation influenced their WTP for pork traceability. Almost all consumers prefer the convenience of being able to purchase vegetables and pork nearby.

The world is more urbanized now than ever before and maintaining some form of amenity from natural or modified ecosystems in the urban context is an increasingly significant challenge. This is not aided by the somewhat amorphous definition of amenity itself. This article introduces a framework for conceptualizing the amenity of urban waterways and provides empirical evidence about the relative weight of the different determinants of waterway amenity. We use best‐worst scaling to examine how households rate the relative importance of the amenity attributes along with data about how households rate their “connection” to waterways. Comparisons of preferences are made across four cities in Australia, all ranked in the top 10 most liveable cities in the World in 2021. The study also captures the relative importance of how “experts” in the field perceive these attributes. We find evidence that public preferences are not always aligned with those of experts and uncover significant heterogeneity within household respondents. To illustrate one way to cater for this heterogeneity in urban planning we report the results of a total unduplicated reach and frequency analysis as a means of identifying an efficacious portfolio of interventions. Accordingly, the study provides useful insights for waterway managers seeking to improve the allocation of resources and generate the most efficient amenity outcomes.