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Quantifying recreation use values from removing dams and restoring free‐flowing rivers: A contingent behavior travel cost demand model for the Lower Snake River
Author(s) -
Loomis John
Publication year - 2002
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 - 10.1029/2000wr000136
Subject(s) - recreation , environmental science , visitor pattern , counterfactual thinking , hydrology (agriculture) , cost–benefit analysis , water resource management , geography , engineering , computer science , ecology , philosophy , geotechnical engineering , biology , programming language , epistemology
A travel cost demand model that uses intended trips if dams are removed and the river restored is presented as a tool for evaluating the potential recreation benefits in this counterfactual but increasingly policy relevant analysis of dam removal. The model is applied to the Lower Snake River in Washington using data from mail surveys of households in the Pacific Northwest region. Five years after dam removal, about 1.5 million visitor days are estimated, with this number growing to 2.5 million annually during years 20–100. Using the travel cost method model estimate of the value of river recreation, if the four dams are removed and the 225 km river is restored, the annualized benefits at a 6.875% discount rate would be $310 million. This gain in river recreation exceeds the loss of reservoir recreation but is about $60 million less than the total costs of the dam removal alternative. The analysis suggests this extension of the standard travel cost method may be suitable for evaluating the gain in river recreation associated with restoration of river systems from dam removal or associated with dam relicensing conditions.