Abstract:
Economic valuation of wetland ecosystem investigates benefits of wetlands that can be
gained to people. It can help to policy makers and planners to implement development
activities considering different ecosystem services provided by wetlands. One of the global
environmental issues is the depletion of wetlands. Less knowledge about importance and
value of wetland is the main reason. Many studies have focused to identify valuation of
ecosystem services. Most of the studies have focused identify economic values of regulating
services, supporting services and provisioning services but, limited studied have focused
cultural services that provided by wetland. This study attempts to address prominent cultural
ecosystem services and impact of cultural ecosystem services on real estate. A sample size of
the study that selected was thirty six (36) two storey houses within one kilometre radius from
Bellanwila-Attidiya Wetland. Data was gathered from questionnaires and formal and
informal discussions. Primary and secondary data were used to prioritize ecosystem services
and only primary data was used to economic valuation of cultural ecosystem services.
Accordingly, prominent cultural ecosystem was identified by stakeholders. Descriptive and
inferential methods were used to identify economic value of cultural ecosystem services. The
degree of link between independent factors and the sale price of homes has been investigated
using correlation. There were used two types of attributes; structural attributes and locational
attributes. The correlation analysis identified most significant attributes which correlate with
house price. By using the pricing model that incorporates these attributes, a model was
created to predict the price of homes in the future. For this, a multiple liner regression
analysis-based hedonic housing pricing model was created. The results of the study revealed
that, two structural attributes as number of bed rooms and architectural design were
contributed to decide house price of a house and there was not contributed aesthetic
attributes. The study will be important real estate professionals to identify key element that
contribute to house price and same model can be applied another location with another
attributes.
