An Application of the Life Satisfaction Approach (LSA) to Value the Land Consumption and Ecosystem Services

Land systems combine land use and land cover, considering that their changes have important consequences for the local environment and human well-being and are pervasive factors of regional and global environmental change. More specifically, land consumption (LC), due to the occupation of originally agricultural, natural, or semi-natural areas, implies a progressive loss of key environmental resources and ecosystem services (ESs), reducing the individual well-being. Furthermore, policy makers need data on the benefits of public goods in monetary terms to support well-being-oriented decision-making. This work seeks to demonstrate that life satisfaction approach (LSA) can be applied to a practical assessment goal with the intention to give a monetary value to the LC and consequently to a loss of important ESs. The Italian case study is investigated with the help of a national survey database reporting the subjective well-being index (SWBI) subsequently grouped by regions. The overall intent is to make explicit to the policymakers that biodiversity and ESs are valuable to society and that their further degradation will result in irreversible damages to local communities. Using nationally representative data from the Multi-Purpose Survey on Italian Families in Italy over 2012–2016, results suggest that the national average annual income willingness to accept (WTA) related to consumed land is equal to −0.0827 €/m2 on average, while the social cost for LC and the loss of related ESs affects 0.01% of the Italian GDP per year. Finally, the possibility of estimating and comparing the WTA with the land market values brings the method presented here closer to cost-based estimates overcoming the limitations of contingent valuation methods.