Impact of coast reclamation on the non-use value of the radial sand ridge field in Jiangsu,China

The radial sand ridge field of Southern Yellow Sea is the largest intertidal radial sand ridge in the world,endowing abundant biological resources,wetland and unique natural landscape.According to the Jiangsu coastal development plan,around 18104 hm2 area will be reclaimed from the sea before 2020.The reclamation would reduce the biomass of the radial ridge field and decrease the biodiversity and the aesthetic value of natural landscape.This paper quantified the willingness to pay for conservation of the biodiversity and natural landscape through a questionnaire survey over local residents in 2011.We assessed the losses of Non-use value of biodiversity and natural landscape,being 64.07 billion and 8.36~9.31 billion,respectively.It concluded that the loss of natural landscape was significantly higher than that of biodiversity due to land reclamation in this area.Taking the non-use value into the cost-benefit analysis of coastal reclamation,it calculated that the ratio of the benefit was 1.50.The result was lower than the finding in the Preliminary Study of Development Plan on Jiangsu Coastal Reclamation (2.15).It revealed that the previous report had exaggerated the economic benefits of reclamation and ignored the loss of ecological resources.The results of this research would be more reasonable by considering the non-use value of biodiversity and natural landscape.This study can give data support for policy-making on the Jiangsu coastal development and ecological compensation,and provide a reference for similar regional studies.