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Valuing environmental services provided by local stormwater management
Author(s) -
Brent Daniel A.,
Gangadharan Lata,
Lassiter Allison,
Leroux Anke,
Raschky Paul A.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1002/2016wr019776
Subject(s) - amenity , stormwater , willingness to pay , surface runoff , recreation , ecosystem services , business , flash flood , flood myth , nonmarket forces , flooding (psychology) , environmental planning , environmental science , contingent valuation , water resource management , agricultural economics , geography , economics , finance , factor market , law , ecology , archaeology , biology , microeconomics , political science , market economy , ecosystem , psychotherapist , psychology
The management of stormwater runoff via distributed green infrastructures delivers a number of environmental services that go beyond the reduction of flood risk, which has been the focus of conventional stormwater systems. Not all of these services may be equally valued by the public, however. This paper estimates households' willingness to pay (WTP) for improvements in water security, stream health, recreational and amenity values, as well as reduction in flood risk and urban heat island effect. We use data from nearly 1000 personal interviews with residential homeowners in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. Our results suggest that the WTP for the highest levels of all environmental services is A$799 per household per year. WTP is mainly driven by residents valuing improvements in local stream health, exemptions in water restrictions, the prevention of flash flooding, and decreased peak urban temperatures respectively at A$297, A$244, A$104 and A$65 per year. We further conduct a benefit transfer analysis and find that the WTP and compensating surplus are not significantly different between the study areas. Our findings provide additional support that stormwater management via green infrastructures have large nonmarket benefits and that, under certain conditions, benefit values can be transferred to different locations.