Liu, X.; Pan, G. C.; Wang, Y. B.; Yu, X.; Hu, X. K.; Zhang, H., and Tang, C., 2016. Public attitudes on funding oil pollution cleanup in the Chinese Bohai Sea.

The loss in value of coastal resources due to oil spills is difficult to determine as the degraded areas are typically neither bought nor sold and have no transaction history. We used a questionnaire by Liu et al. (2009) and Choice Experiments (CEs) methodology to place values on coastal resources including coastal water, beaches, and sea birds in the Chinese Bohai Sea. Survey results showed that during spill response actions, coastal water, and beaches were of equal concern to Chinese households while sea birds were of somewhat less concern. Respondents with higher education and fewer children and those with relatively greater household income were more likely to state they were willing to pay for oil spill cleanup costs. Age of respondent was negatively correlated to willingness to pay for cleanup. We also compared valuations of coastal resources with studies conducted in North America and Europe making it possible to test the consistency of coastal resource valuation across continents.