The landscape benefits of the burial of high voltage power lines: A study in rural areas of Italy

High voltage overhead transmission lines are a type of infrastructure with a major impact on landscape quality. As studies have shown, it is sufficient that a pylon occupies even a modest fraction of a view to cause a marked decline in the aesthetic quality of the landscape. Few studies have tried to make a monetary quantification of the landscape damage caused by high voltage transmission power lines. Those few focused attention on urban areas. In this study, by means of a discrete choice experiment, the willingness to pay of the Italian population to eliminate the landscape impact of high voltage overhead transmission lines has been estimated for the entire national territory with reference to four different landscape contexts (protected mountain and hill areas, protected plain and coastal areas, other non-protected hill and mountain areas, non-protected plain areas). The results obtained have demonstrated that the willingness to pay per kilometre of power line eliminated is higher in the mountain and hill natural parks than in the other areas considered. Using a simulation with a two costs hypothesis, the research shows that the social benefit from burying high voltage power lines would exceed the costs only in limited areas of the country.