Estimating changes in recreational fishing participation from national water quality policies

Journal of Environmental Management, 1991

The general focus of this paper is the regional estimation of marginal benefits of targeted water pollution abatement to instream uses. Benefit estimates are derived from actual consumer choices of recreational fishing activities and the implied expenditures for various levels of water quality. The methodology is applied to measuring the benefits accruing to recreational anglers in Indiana from the abatement of pollutants that are by-products of agricultural crop production.

Water Resources Research, 1987

With the advent of Executive Order 12291, policymakers involved in water quality regulation are increasingly interested in assessing the benefits of their programs. Several methods for valuing water quality improvements using recreational demand models have been developed by economists, most of which depend on observing recreationists visiting an array of sites with varying water quality and costs of access. In this paper, three general types of models are described: systems of demands, discrete choice models, and the hedonic travel cost approach; the latter two models are demonstrated using a common data set on water quality and swimming behavior in the Boston area. The models are contrasted and their relative usefulness in answering policy questions explored.

2003

We estimate the economic benefits of water quality improvements for recreational users of lakes, rivers and coastlines in six northeastern states. The benefits are measured using separate travel cost random utility maximization models for fishing, boating, swimming, and viewing. All models are for day-trip recreation. The models are estimated using data from the 1994 National Survey of Recreation and the Environment and from water quality modeling simulations of the National Water Pollution Control Assessment Model. We consider several scenarios for water quality improvements and estimate annual benefits in the region due the Clean Water Act to be near $100 million per year.

Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 1984

The estimation of the value of recreation benefits resulting from improved water quality is required for many purposes. In particular, the Water Pollution Control Act of 1980 requires the consideration of the reasonableness of costs of reducing water pollution in relation to benefits to be derived from establishing effluent standards (Clean Water Act of 1977). Recreation is often the most important benefit resulting from water quality improvement. Current methods used to calculate recreation benefits are either not site specific or are expensive and controversial. This paper presents a relatively simple, inexpensive, and less controversial method of calculating site-specific recreation benefits resulting from improved water quality. It does this by producing an upper bound estimate which often is adequate for the relevant decision. The upper bound estimates is based on two assumptions: 1) there are alternative equivalent substitute sites for the newly augmented water quality site, and 2) the new augmented recreation opportunities at the site will be used to their maximum supply capacity. Clearly, if an upper bound benefit estimate in a cost-benefit ratio does not produce a favorable ratio, no other benefit estimate will. In cases where this estimate produces an ambiguous result resort must be had to other more precise methods of estimation.

… Handbook on Non- …, 2011

2005 Tampa, FL July 17-20, 2005, 2005

The United States Department of Agriculture has initiated the Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) to quantify the environmental benefits of conservation practices at the national scale. This paper provides an overview of the analytical approach being used in the CEAP national assessment to estimate off-site water quality benefits. For the assessment, a sampling and modeling approach is used. The farm-scale model Agricultural Policy/Environmental EXtender (APEX) is used to simulate conservation practices for cultivated cropland. Farmer surveys conducted on a subset of National Resource Inventory sample points provide information on current farming activities and conservation practices for APEX. Output from APEX will be input into the watershed scale model, Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT)

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2006

This paper develops and applies a structural bioeconomic model of a coastal recreational fishery. We combine a dynamic fish population model, a statistical model of angler catch rates, and a recreation demand model to estimate the value of water quality changes for the Atlantic Coast summer flounder fishery. The model predicts that improving water quality conditions in Maryland's coastal bays alone would have relatively small impacts on the fishery as a whole. However, water quality improvements throughout the range of the species could lead to substantial increases in fish abundance and associated benefits to recreational anglers from increased catch rates. We also estimate an alternative version of the catch function, with no direct measure of fish abundance included, and we compare results from this “reduced form” approach to results from our structural model.

1983

Journal of Environmental Management, 2010

The implementation of the European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires nationally generalizable estimates of the benefits of protecting inland and coastal waters. As an alternative to benefit transfers and meta-analyses, we utilize national recreation inventory data combined with water quality data to model recreation participation and estimate the benefits of water quality improvements.

2016

Benefit estimates of water pollution control policies rely heavily on water quality indices. Since the 1970s, these measures of water quality have been used extensively in stated preference surveys to estimate willingness to pay for water quality that is suitable for recreational use. However, there is little empirical evidence of how well these indices correspond to observed recreational behavior. This paper utilizes a unique micro-dataset of individual household recreational use and water quality in a revealed preference framework to explore how well several major water quality indices explain water-based recreational use.