This paper presents a method of quantifying variation in quality in an amenity as a component of an hedonic property amenity valuation. The paper considers the residential land amenity of an ocean view, a situation where there is typically substantial variation in the quality of the view between sites. The method is effectively a scoring system based on three sub-characteristics of the ocean view. It is illustrated by application to a coastal housing subdivision in Western Australia. The results provide an estimate of the increase in the sale price of a site attributable to the quality of the site's ocean view. The method has a potential role in coastal land use management decisions.

This study examined which characteristics of dogs available at a large rehoming organization in the United Kingdom influenced prospective adopters' choices. The revealed preference data used to model "consumer" choice were from the Dogs Trust rehoming web pages. The analysis of the probability of adoption involved a logistic regression model with multiple imputation. The factors that had a significant impact on the adopters' choices were age, size, pedigree status, coat length, behavior (e.g., fearfulness, adjustment issues), friendliness (toward children, dogs, and other pets), and training. This study offers a quantitative analysis of adopters' preferences that could prove to be useful for shelter personnel and researchers interested in the analysis of companion animal markets.

The May 1992 reform of the CAP included a choice for farmers between set‐aside options. This paper examines the question of whether or not this choice feature has exacerbated the slippage problem associated with the set‐aside policy in the context of heterogeneous land quality. A model is developed which provides a basis for determining both a farmer's preferred choice of set‐aside option, and the implications of this choice for output reduction. A numerical application of the model suggests a strong tendency for farmers to choose the less effective option in terms of reducing output.

The Earth’s surface comprises minerals diagnostic of weathering, deposition and erosion. The first continental-scale mineral maps generated from an imaging satellite with spectral bands designed to measure clays, quartz and other minerals were released in 2012 for Australia. Here we show how these satellite mineral maps improve our understanding of weathering, erosional and depositional processes in the context of changing weather, climate and tectonics. The clay composition map shows how kaolinite has developed over tectonically stable continental crust in response to deep weathering during northwardly migrating tropical conditions from 45 to 10 Ma. The same clay composition map, in combination with one sensitive to water content, enables the discrimination of illite from montmorillonite clays that typically develop in large depositional environments over thin (sinking) continental crust such as the Lake Eyre Basin. Cutting across these clay patterns are sandy deserts that developed <10 Ma and are well mapped using another satellite product sensitive to the particle size of silicate minerals. This product can also be used to measure temporal gains/losses of surface clay caused by periodic wind erosion (dust) and rainfall inundation (flood) events. The accuracy and information content of these satellite mineral maps are validated using published data.