Methods and Application of Evaluating the Economic Value of the Ecological Environment

The evaluation of the economic value of the ecological environment can provide a vigorous support for protecting the ecological environment. The authors introduce several methods for the evaluation of economic value that are commonly used in the international community and their relevant applications; these include two methods for the evaluation of market value — the averting behavior/preventive expenditure method and the replacement cost/restoration cost method — as well as four methods for the evaluation of non-market value — the contingent valuation method, the choice experiment method, the hedonic price method and the travel cost method; moreover, they also introduce the application of the usually overlooked differential land rent theory in this field. Though these methods are widely applied, many matters need to be noted.At present, domestic research on evaluating the economic value of urban and suburban ecological environments remains extremely scarce. Regarding the preparation of the natural resource balance sheet that China is attempting to compile, only the overall economic value of the ecological environment across the country or in a specific large region is meaningful. The application of the methods for the evaluation of economic value in analyzing these issues can bring about many valuable research achievements. A combination of the mainstream foreign value evaluation methods with the Marxist differential land rent theory is conducive to evaluating the overall economic value of the ecological environment.