Valoración económica ambiental del recurso aire en el sector urbano del cantón Riobamba

Abstract

The objective of this research was the Environmental Economic Assessment (EEA) of the air resource in the urban sector of the city of Riobamba applying the Contingent Assessment method (CAM), also determining the Willingness to Pay (WTP), in the first instance an environmental baseline of the resource based on technical information available both in reports of air quality monitoring of the Municipality of Canton and of investigations carried out, later the study areas were delimited taking as a reference the points where the monitoring stations of the city, the first located in the North near the station of the Association of Municipalities of Ecuador (AME) and the second in the center in La Merced market where the Contingent Assessment was applied, which was the application of surveys directed at the inhabitants of the sectors in order to collect necessary information to determine a value of the air resource, with all the information collected and generated, an exhaustive statistical analysis and processing of the data was carried out using the SPSS and Statgraphics software. It was determined that the inhabitants of the North sector had a willingness to pay of $ 0.94 and the inhabitants of the central sector $ 0.86 through annual contributions, also, it was made the projection of the willingness to pay for the year 2023 of $ 1.36 in the northern sector and in the downtown sector of $ 1.24, highlighting the environmental awareness of the inhabitants and the importance of maintaining the air resource. It is also concluded that the Contingent Assessment Method (CAM) is adequate to determine the willingness to pay for the urban population of Riobamba, finally, this work will serve the Municipality for decision-making, actions, and programs in the field of conservation and protection of the air resource.