LAUSR

Ulva (U.) prolifera bloom is a severe marine environmental problem in China. This work provides an economic assessment of the damage caused by the U. prolifera bloom from a cost-benefit perspective. The contingent valuation method is applied to elicit residents’ preference for the management of U. prolifera bloom. The results show that the respondents are willing to pay 54.98 CNY per year, on average. Additionally, this paper relates the concept of risk perception, media use, and the theory of planned behavior constructs to understand their impacts on residents’ preferences. The results indicate that attitude is the major factor in predicting willingness to pay, followed by media use. Furthermore, the new relationships between risk perception, media use, and the theory of planned behavior constructs are examined. The results reveal that attitude is affected remarkably by risk perception, and that media use has remarkable influence on risk perception and subjective norms.