This powerpoint presentation begins by providing a brief overview of the California Urban Water Conservation Council (CUWCC) and the project background. Methodology includes: the environmental benefits valuation
requires an estimate of both ecological
impacts and related dollar values;
ecological impacts are conceptually well-defined
but extremely difficult to measure
(e.g. fish populations); determine people's preference for
environmental services relative to other
goods and services;
represented by Willingness to Pay (WTP)
for an enhancement, or Willingness to
Accept (WTA) for a degradation of service;
Implicit Methods - look at data on actual
expenditures for travel, value of time
spent, etc.;
Explicit Methods - construct surveys to
elicit WTP or WTA under specific
scenarios; goal is to count externalized
environmental costs that no-one is paying
for - these may be small but they are not
zero;
baseline is current conditions;
use CALFED Record of Decision to define
environmental "list" of services (impacts)
associated with the water column; and,
exception for pumping related air quality. Major findings include the following:
Important Tool for Evaluating
Economic Benefits;
Not Perfect (no model is)
- Difficult to quantify EB;
sets only the LOWEST levels of
avoided Environmental Costs;
Transparent, Scalable, Modifiable; Model introduces necessary simplifications
on complex physical relationships;
likely undervalues the environment
- a little water can have a lot of value;
more benefits needs to be identified;
many data sources are older;
add environmental water transactions and
riparian/wetland habitat restoration;
relationships are too linear; and, at its core, the model provides a useful
accounting framework for relating
water conservation to changes in area
of origin water supply, changes in
area of origin water supply to changes
in environmental services, and
changes in environmental services to
social economic value. Includes figures.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 1.8 MB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 25 |
| Published : | 11/01/2008 |
