Estimating the nonmarket economic benefits of beach resource management in southeast Queensland, Australia

Policy makers are assisted by information on the cost and benefits of different beach management options in deciding where public investment is best directed and assessing the relative merits of different available options. This is important in Southeast Queensland, where there are major beach areas at the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, as well as in Moreton Bay adjacent to the city of Brisbane. Stated preference experiments have been conducted with a survey of Brisbane residents to evaluate two key issues. The first was to explore the relative importance of providing public facilities and services at beaches in well populated areas in southeast Queensland, with a choice modelling experiment applied for this purpose. The second was to assess the economic value associated with managing the problem of substantial beach erosion in southeast Queensland, with a contingent valuation experiment conducted to identify if there was community support for remediation actions. The results demonstrate the importance to Brisbane residents of access to and services at beaches, however the heterogeneity in preferences that has been identified combined with the availability of substitute sites would suggest that a focused strategy to beach resource management be adopted.