Evaluating the visitors and benefits of a recreational area: a cost benefit analysis of the conversion of a brownfield area to a beach in Muggia.

In this paper, we investigate the potential reconversion to recreational uses of a brownfield area on the shoreline of Muggia, a North-East Italy village. We perform a socio-economic assessment of the value to society of such a reconversion compared with alternative scenarios (business as usual, or excavation). We make use of a consistent Cost-Benefit Analysis framework which, to our knowledge, has had limited application in this area of research. We investigate the existing methods to value the benefits of the area, including the “Economic Impact” and analyze why they would not be appropriate to provide normative recommendations. As an alternative, we propose a parsimonious method for valuing the recreational value in a context where available data are minimal. We also investigate with care how ancillary expenditures (typically travel costs associated with the use of the recreational area) and externalities have to be taken into account in the evaluation. Our results strongly support the reconversion of the area to recreational functions.