Similar to the infrastructure and health applications of WTP,
detached breakwaters can be regarded as an infrastructure for
coastal protection and having the breakwaters to protect commu-nities’ properties enhances quality of life. Since the IEE indicated no
significant environmental impact of the breakwaters but
a screening process in Thailand’s EIA law demanded an EIA to be
completed, the communities considered such EIA “unnecessary”.
Like having to queue up for a doctor in a hospital, the one-year
postponement mentally tortured the coastal people. In this study,
a hypothetical market was to relieve the mental pain by paying to
bypass the EIA system. What the communities were willing to pay
was equated to their mental anguish. Thus, applying WTP to
measure the mental torment was appropriate.