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Recreational Demands for Maintaining Instream Flows: A Contingent Valuation Approach
Author(s) -
Daubert John T.,
Young Robert A.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
american journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.949
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1467-8276
pISSN - 0002-9092
DOI - 10.2307/1241209
Subject(s) - recreation , valuation (finance) , contingent valuation , streams , environmental science , cache , water resource management , arid , marginal value , channelized , recreational use , hydrology (agriculture) , business , willingness to pay , economics , computer science , ecology , microeconomics , computer network , telecommunications , geotechnical engineering , finance , engineering , biology , operating system
Abstract Recreational uses of streams, although nonconsumptive, increasingly conflict with traditional off‐stream uses of water in arid regions. Recreational demands for instream flows have collective good attributes such that the recreationists' preferences may be inadequately reflected in water allocation decisions. The contingent valuation approach was adapted to impute instream flow shadow prices from a sample of recreationists on the Cache la Poudre River in northern Colorado. During periods of relatively low flows, the estimated instream flow marginal value exceeds the marginal value of water in irrigation, suggesting a need for altered water allocation policies.