The lecture was based on a paper entitled “Shoreline change, seawalls and coastal property values” published by Dr. Di Jin on Ocean and Coastal Management, which introduced the application of Hedonic Models in the economic impacts of shoreline changes. Using data on residences sold between 2000 and 2010 in three coastal towns in Massachusetts, Dr. Di Jin investigated the effects of shoreline change and protective structures (seawalls) on home values. He examined explicitly the effects of hard structural protection in combination with environmental amenities and hazards (distance to a beach, elevation of a property, location in a flood zone), and found out that homeowners paid a premium in housing markets for near shore properties protected by nature (higher elevations or more stable shorelines) or by humans (seawalls). Overall, the benefits of access to ocean amenities dominated the risks of exposures to hazards associated with shoreline change. Dr. Di Jin had a further and warm discussion with COMI students after the lecture on the research design, research methodology and its application prospect in China.
