Landscape economic valuation by intergrating landscape ecology into landscape economics (case study: Hamedan city)

Landscape is an arrangement with a combination of local ecosystems or land uses which repeated in a similar form in the area. In order to a properly management of the landscape, physical and socio-cultural components are needed to be considered in economic programs. This research has been done for economic valuation of landscape in Hamedan. To evaluate the utility of the landscape the visual indicators that were perceived by people, such as diversity and evenness of the landscape and disconnection and continuity and land use were considered. The contingent valuation method and Logit model were applied for landscape economic valuation. The results show that people prefer the landscape with high diversity. Also the landscape with multiple land uses with small area is desirable for them. The average monthly per household willingness to pay for preserving the landscape is 49,850 Rials. The total value of Hamadan landscape is 92.211 billion and landscape value annually per hectare of Hamadan is 13 million Rials. The results show that the landscape of Hamedan has significant economic value that justifies the need to maintain its value for policy makers and planners.