Regional Economic Impacts from Timber Check Dam Construction—A Comparison with Concrete Check Dam Construction, Part II: The Question of Premium Vouchers

Abstract

The regional economic impacts of the construction of timber and concrete check dams in Akita prefecture, Japan, were compared. When functions are appropriately unified, a concrete check dam is cheaper to build than a timber one; the difference in construction costs can be used by the government to issue premium vouchers as a regional promotion measure. To evaluate the effect of this, we extended the latest input–output table for Akita Prefecture to include timber and concrete check dam construction sectors. Concrete check dam construction with premium-voucher issuance had a total effect of 46,064,000 yen (economic impact ratio: 1.49; increased employment: 4.68 people). It also had an indirect economic impact on the plywood sector, since plywood was used as formwork, and issuing premium vouchers had a ripple effect on many industries in the region. However, timber check-dam construction had a total effect of 57,706,000 yen (economic impact ratio: 1.86; increased employment: 5.11 people) and a larger effect on the timber, logs, and silviculture sectors. Therefore, despite higher initial costs, timber check dam construction has the greater economic and employment impact on a region through its large ripple effects on the forestry and wood industries.

Life Cycle Regional Economic Impacts of Bridge Repair Using Cross-Laminated Timber Floor Slabs: A Case Study in Akita Prefecture, Japan

“…A previous study that compared the economic impact of framework construction with mass timber frames, including CLT and framework construction with concrete, showed that the construction cost with mass timber was higher, but the economic impact on the region was larger [26]. In addition, previous studies [24,25] that compared a timber check dam with a concrete check dam using lumber for the frame showed that the construction cost of the timber check dam is higher than that of the concrete check dam, but the economic impact on the regional economy is larger. These results are consistent with those of the present study.…”

“…Therefore, we developed an extended input-output table, as shown in Figure 4. Thus, we utilized the method used by Huzita et al [25] and divided the lumber and wood products sector into timber, plywood and glued laminated timber, wooden chips, and miscellaneous wooden products sectors, and the forestry sector into silviculture, logs, and special forest products (including hunting) sectors. In addition, a 113-sector extended table was prepared by adding NWP CLT construction, WP CLT construction, or RC construction sectors.…”

“…However, this aspect has not been considered in previous studies [22,23]. Conversely, other previous studies [24][25][26] have shown that, despite its associated high construction costs, the use of timber has a positive impact on the regional economy for timber check dams [24,25] and high-rise mass timber buildings [26]. Therefore, it is important to quantitatively clarify the impact of using CLT floor slabs on the regional economy.…”

“…To study the effect of civil engineering structures using CLT floor slabs on the regional economy, it is necessary to estimate the long-term effects over the life cycle of the structure, including maintenance and disposal, instead of only estimating the effect for a single year at the time of construction. However, previous studies on timber check dams [24,25] and high-rise mass timber buildings [26] only examined the economic impacts during construction and not the long-term effects, including maintenance and disposal. Therefore, studies on the estimation of the regional economic impacts of timber use, including CLT, in civil engineering and architecture over its entire life cycle are lacking.…”