Economic science has developed specific methods
to capture the value of environmental assets in monetary units. This value is calculated, sometimes indirectly, by observing individuals’ behavior, such as in
the travel cost method. Other methods, such as contingent valuation, obtain the value of the environmental
asset by directly asking people how much they would
be willing to pay for its use or conservation. This last
method is extremely versatile and has been applied to
value urban planning projects such as the construction
of a by-pass in Barcelona (Riera, 1993), the waterfront
renewal in Valencia (Del Saz et al., 1999) or the conversion of dock land into a leisure area in Castellón
(Del Saz et al., 2000).