Resident Perception and Willingness to Pay for the Restoration and Revitalization of Urban Rivers

River revitalization, also called river restoration, has been implemented globally to restore urban river ecosystems that would benefit both the environment and local residents in various ways. The Hong Kong government has been attempting to revitalize local urban rivers; however, the perception and value of river restoration have not been assessed. With the application of a contingent valuation method, a questionnaire survey was designed to capture the attitude, place attachment, and willingness to pay (WTP) of Hong Kong residents in the context of urban rivers and river revitalization, and a proposed scenario for revitalization is given. The relationships among WTP, attitude and place attachment were explored through regression analysis. A total of 400 questionnaire samples were collected from Hong Kong residents, and over 75% of respondents were willing to pay for the proposed scenario. The results from regression analysis indicated that attitude, place dependence, place identity, and place social bonding positively influenced WTP and WTP bid amounts. In contrast, the place effect was unexpectedly found to be negatively correlated with WTP. Implications were drawn from these results, and recommendations were made concerning the features to be restored and conserved in future river revitalization work and the need to provide quality urban nature-based spaces for citizens.