4.4.1.1 Survey Design: Social Acceptance
For the social acceptance part, qualitative questions were added after the
prestructured questionnaire due to limited time and resources. The questionnaires
include questions stakeholders’ viewpoints on potential social effects of offshore
aquaculture, existing fishing industry, OTEC and tourism. The potential social
effects include the effects on health, quality of living environment, economic and
material well-being, culture, family and community and institutional legal political
equality.
4.4.1.2 Survey Design: Choice Experiment
The choice experiment survey follows the standard five steps, that is, selecting
desired attributes, defining levels, choosing the experimental design, constructing
choice cards and measuring the preferences. This part of the survey contains
questions on respondents’ attitudes, 12 choice sets of different levels of attributes
and follow-up questions. The attributes describe the potential impacts of the platform
on employment and the environment as well as two levels of mitigation and
conservation options. The two experimental designs are Design 1 with only aquaculture facilities and Design 2 with aquaculture facilities, renewable energy and
leisure facilities (see Annex). There are two environmental impact mitigation levels,
acceptable level and optimal level. The acceptable level means the mitigation
options will have an acceptable reduction on environmental impacts. The optimal
level means the mitigation options will have optimal mitigation options, conservation programs and high visitor satisfaction. For residents, a local tax increase
(absolute value per year) is proposed as a payment vehicle. It takes the form of a
willingness to pay to avoid environmental damage. This attribute has five levels:
(a) 0 euros per year (status quo), (b) 10 euros per year, (c) 20 euros per year, (d) 30
euros per year and (e) 40 euros per year. For tourists, the payment vehicle is a daily
tourist tax, that is, an increase of the cost of their holiday in Liuqiu Island per day.
The levels for tourist tax were set to (a) 0 euros per day (status quo), (b) 2 euros per
day, (c) 4 euros per day, (d) 6 euros per day and (e) 8 euros per day.
4.4.1.3 Data Description
Sample sizes for pilot and full survey are presented in Table 4.2.
All the participants fulfilled the social acceptance part, but not all the participants
finished the choice experiment part. Therefore, the sample size of the pilot survey for
social acceptance study is different from that of the choice experiment study.
70
W. Chen et al.
For the social acceptance part, qualitative questions were added after the
prestructured questionnaire due to limited time and resources. The questionnaires
include questions stakeholders’ viewpoints on potential social effects of offshore
aquaculture, existing fishing industry, OTEC and tourism. The potential social
effects include the effects on health, quality of living environment, economic and
material well-being, culture, family and community and institutional legal political
equality.
4.4.1.2 Survey Design: Choice Experiment
The choice experiment survey follows the standard five steps, that is, selecting
desired attributes, defining levels, choosing the experimental design, constructing
choice cards and measuring the preferences. This part of the survey contains
questions on respondents’ attitudes, 12 choice sets of different levels of attributes
and follow-up questions. The attributes describe the potential impacts of the platform
on employment and the environment as well as two levels of mitigation and
conservation options. The two experimental designs are Design 1 with only aquaculture facilities and Design 2 with aquaculture facilities, renewable energy and
leisure facilities (see Annex). There are two environmental impact mitigation levels,
acceptable level and optimal level. The acceptable level means the mitigation
options will have an acceptable reduction on environmental impacts. The optimal
level means the mitigation options will have optimal mitigation options, conservation programs and high visitor satisfaction. For residents, a local tax increase
(absolute value per year) is proposed as a payment vehicle. It takes the form of a
willingness to pay to avoid environmental damage. This attribute has five levels:
(a) 0 euros per year (status quo), (b) 10 euros per year, (c) 20 euros per year, (d) 30
euros per year and (e) 40 euros per year. For tourists, the payment vehicle is a daily
tourist tax, that is, an increase of the cost of their holiday in Liuqiu Island per day.
The levels for tourist tax were set to (a) 0 euros per day (status quo), (b) 2 euros per
day, (c) 4 euros per day, (d) 6 euros per day and (e) 8 euros per day.
4.4.1.3 Data Description
Sample sizes for pilot and full survey are presented in Table 4.2.
All the participants fulfilled the social acceptance part, but not all the participants
finished the choice experiment part. Therefore, the sample size of the pilot survey for
social acceptance study is different from that of the choice experiment study.
70
W. Chen et al.