Dr. Neil Adrian Powe


 Centre for Research in Environmental Appraisal and Management (CREAM)
School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape (SAPL)

University of Newcastle upon Tyne

PRESENT POST      

Senior Lecturer

School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape

University of Newcastle

NE2 7RU

0191-222-7570

n.a.powe@ncl.ac.uk

Lecturing in the use of statistics and geographical information systems in planning, rural planning and research methods.

PREVIOUS ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT

Research associate:

Department of Town and Country Planning,  University of Newcastle upon Tyne

 

Research associate:

Department of Agricultural Economics and Food Marketing, University of Newcastle upon Tyne

MOST RECENT EDUCATION

PhD Research Student, received July 2000          

School of Environmental Sciences,  University of East Anglia

PhD title:

Using contingent valuation to value nested goods: A case of the Broadland flood alleviation scheme

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Rural settlements and sustainability :  has focused mainly on market towns; providing a better understanding of their functional roles (housing, services and employment), challenges and prospects. Research has recently focused on the service implications on housing development, population change (in-migration and growth) and we are currently turning our attention to issues of employment.

 

Environmental economics: Although also working on other areas of environmental economics, have specialising in questionnaire based stated preference research. Methodological issues considered include: scope and ordering effects, sensitivity to deliberation, adoption of mixed methodological approaches, comparison with real payments and public acceptability.  Policy areas include, water supply, biodiversity, local disamenties, wetlands, service provision and heritage.

Methods used have been both quantitative and qualitative in nature including: questionnaire surveys, statistical analysis, geographical information systems, diary, in-depth interview and focus group analysis.

COMPLETED RESEARCH REPORTS

The following list illustrates the research reports resulting from contracts and grants on which Neil Powe has worked. This illustrates the wide range of issues and policies analysed, and the variety of organisations that have commissioned work.

 Rural Settlements and Sustainability

Powe, N.A. (2005) Evaluation of Trading Conditions in Morpeth, commissioned by Morpeth for Castle Morpeth Borough Council and Morpeth & District Chamber of Trade.

Powe, N.A. and Shaw, T. (2005) Public consultation on future regeneration proposals in the Ellington, Cresswell, Lynemouth and Linton area, commissioned by Northumbria Leisure.

Powe, N.A. and Marcus, R.J. (2004) Community Caretaker: monitoring and evaluation, commissioned by Countryside Agency and North York Moors National Park Authority.

Powe, N.A.. and Shaw, T. (2003) Northumberland National Park Authority landscape assessment: visitor survey, commissioned by Northumberland National Park Authority.

Powe, N.A., Willis, K.G. and Garrod, G.D. (2000) Assessing future prospects for the agricultural and rural economy in the North York Moors Land Management Initiative Area: The Farm and rural Community Scheme, report to Countryside Agency.

Powe, N.A. Benson, J.F., Shaw, T. and Willis, K.G. (1994) Holy Island Management Plan Visitor Survey 1994, Report to Northumberland County Council.

Environmental Economics

Powe, N.A. and Willis, K.G. (2004) Monetarising community benefits, Chapter 13 in SQW, Evaluation of the Impact of Community Engagement in the North East Community Forests, commissioned by North East Community Forests

Contributor to ESRC Tilting at Windmills: The Attitude-Behaviour Gap in Renewable Energy Conflicts.

Willis, K.G., Powe, N.A. and Garrod, G.D. (2003) Valuing the benefits of improved street lighting in rural areas, commissioned by Department for Transport.

Powe, N.A. and Garrod, G.D. (2003) Water supply and environmental trade-offs: A study of customer views and preferences using focus groups, Report to Southern Water.

Powe, N.A. and Willis, K.G. (2002) Assessing the improvement in health and reduced economic cost of pollution due to tree absorption, Report to the Forestry Commission.

Hanley, N., Willis, K.G., Powe, N.A. and Anderson, M. (2002) Valuing the Benefits of Biodiversity in Forests, Report to the Forestry Commission.

Powe, N.A., Garrod, G.D. and Willis, K.G. (2002) Environmental valuation of the Bewl to Darwell Tranfer Scheme, Report to Southern Water and South East Water

Garrod, G.D., Powe, N.A. and Willis, K.G. (2000) Environmental valuation of the Hardham artificial recharge, Report to Southern Water.

Turner, K., Brouwer, R. Powe, N.A., Bateman, J. Langford, I., Ledoux, L., Voisey, H. (1999) Ecological-economic analysis of wetland management options in the Norfolk Broads, Final report of the UK case study in ECOWET, EU Framework IV project, Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE), School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ.

 BOOKS AND PEER REVIEWED INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL ARTICLES:

Subject to agreement with the sponsor, nearly all of the projects listed above have also generated articles which have been published in refereed academic journals, testifying to the rigor of the analysis and originality of the appraisal and evaluation techniques adopted in the research.  Other articles have come from internally-funded research. Recently two books have been published which provide a good summary of our research.

Rural Settlements and Sustainability

Powe, N.A. and Hart, T. (2008) Market towns: understanding and maintaining functionality, Town Planning Review, 79(4), 1-14.  

Powe, N.A. and Gunn, S. (2008) Housing development in market towns: making a success of ‘local service centres’?, Town Planning Review, 78(6), 795-818.  

Powe, N.A., Hart T., Shaw T. (2007) Market Towns: Roles, Challenges and Prospects, London, Routledge  

Powe, N.A. (2006) Understanding urban attitudes towards country towns: considering their potential as visitor attractions, Journal of Retail and Leisure Property, 5(4), 255-269.  

Richardson, R. and Powe, N.A. (2004) Service implications of population growth in market towns, Planning Practice and Research, 19(4), 363-373.  

Powe, N.A. and Shaw, T. (2004) Exploring the current and future role of market towns in servicing their hinterlands: a case study of Alnwick in the North East of England, Journal of Rural Studies, 20(4), 405-418.

Powe, N.A. and Shaw, T. (2003) Market town centres: exploring the service role through visitor surveys, Planning Practice and Research, 18(1): 37-50.

Willis, K.G. and Powe, N.A. (1995) Planning decisions on waste disposal sites, Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 22: 93-107.

Powe, N.A. and Whitby, M.C. (1994) Economics of settlement size in rural settlement planning, Town Planning Review, 65:415-434.

Powe, N.A. and Whitby, M.C. (1993) Settlement costs revisited, Local Government Studies, 20(1):24-33.

Environmental Economics

Powe, N.A. (2007) Redesigning Environmental Valuation: Mixing Methods within Stated Preference Techniques, Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA, US, Edward Elgar.

Powe, N.A., Willis, K.G. and Garrod, G.D. (2006) Difficulties in valuing street light improvement: trust, surprise and bound effects, Applied Economics, 38(4), 371-383.

Willis, K.G., Powe, N.A. and Garrod, G.D. (2005) Estimating the value of improved street lighting: a factor analytical discrete choice approach, Urban Studies, 42(12), 1-15.

Powe, N.A., Garrod, G.D. and McMahon, P.L. (2005) Mixing methods within stated preference environmental valuation: choice experiments and post-questionnaire qualitative analysis, Ecological Economics,52: 513-526.

Powe, N.A., Garrod, G.D., McMahon, P.L. and Willis, K.G. (2004) Assessing customer preferences for water supply options using mixed methodology choice experiments, Water Policy, 6, 427-441.

Powe, N.A., Wadsworth, W.A., Garrod, G.D. and McMahon, P.L. (2004) Putting action into biodiversity planning: assessing preferences towards funding, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 47(2), 287-301.

Powe, N.A. and Willis, K.G. (2004) Mortality and morbidity benefits of air pollution (SO2 and PM10) absorption attributable to woodland in Britain, Journal of Environmental Management, 70, 119-128.

Powe, N.A. and Bateman, I.J. (2004) Investigating insensitivity to scope: A split-sample test of perceived scheme realism, Land Economics, 80(2), 258-271.

Powe, N.A. and Bateman, I.J. (2003) Ordering effects in nested ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ contingent valuation designs, Ecological Economics, 45(2), 255-270.

Willis, K.G., McMahon, P.L., Garrod, G.D. and Powe, N.A.  (2001) Water companies service performance and environmental trade-offs. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 45(3), 363-379. 

Brouwer, R., Powe, N.A., Turner, R.K., Langford, I.H. and Bateman, I.J. (1999) Public attitudes to contingent valuation and public consultation, Environmental Values, 8:325-347.

Powe, N.A. and Willis, K.G. (1998) Industrial location and residential disamenity: a case study of the chemical industry in Castleford, England, Journal of Environmental Management, 53:17-29.

Willis, K.G. and Powe, N.A. (1998) Contingent valuation and real economic commitments: A private good experiment, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 41(5):611-619.

Powe, N.A., Garrod, G.D., Brunsdon, C.F., Willis, K.G. (1997) Using a geographic information system to estimate an hedonic price model of the benefits of woodland access, Forestry, 70(2):139-149.

Powe, N.A. and Willis, K.G. (1996) Benefits received by visitors to heritage sites: a case study of Warkworth Castle, Leisure Studies, 15:259-275.

Powe, N.A., Garrod, G.D. and Willis, K.G. (1995) Valuation of urban amenities using a hedonic price model, Journal of Property Research, 12:137-147.