Grantee Research Project Results
2017 Progress Report: Valuing Water Quality Improvements in Midwestern Ecosystems: SpatialVariability, Validity and Extent of the Market for Total Value
EPA Grant Number: R836166Title: Valuing Water Quality Improvements in Midwestern Ecosystems: SpatialVariability, Validity and Extent of the Market for Total Value
Investigators: Kling, Catherine L. , Keiser, David A , Finlay, Jacques C , Phaneuf, Daniel J. , Dolph, Christine L , Vossler, Christian , Zhao, Jinhua
Current Investigators: Keiser, David A , Kling, Catherine L. , Phaneuf, Daniel J. , Zhao, Jinhua , Vossler, Christian , Finlay, Jacques C
Institution: Iowa State University , University of Minnesota , University of Wisconsin - Madison , Michigan State University , University of Tennessee
Current Institution: University of Massachusetts Amherst , Iowa State University , Michigan State University , University of Tennessee , University of Wisconsin - Madison , University of Minnesota
EPA Project Officer: Packard, Benjamin H
Project Period: April 1, 2016 through March 31, 2021 (Extended to March 31, 2023)
Project Period Covered by this Report: April 1, 2017 through March 31,2018
Project Amount: $800,000
RFA: Water Quality Benefits (2015) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Water
Objective:
Objective 1: Develop organizational and conceptual frameworks for integrating the project’s hydrological, ecological, and economic models at common spatial and temporal scales, with compatible model inputs and outputs.
Objective 2: Develop and quantify a spatially scalable ecological services production function linking ambient water quality (e.g. nutrient concentrations) to ecological outputs.
Objective 3: Investigate the mechanisms through which water quality enters households’ preferences and creates economic value, as mediated by the ecological services production function and the spatial distribution of quality outcomes.
Objective 4: Field a large state-of-the-art, spatially scalable stated and revealed preference survey to estimate willingness to pay for changes in nutrient-sensitive aquatic ecosystem services.
Objective 5: Conduct real payment field experiments to establish the validity of our stated preference estimates of willingness to pay.
Objective 6: Produce an Integrated Assessment Model (IAM) to estimate the economic benefits of counterfactual policy scenarios, whereby changes in pollution loads at points in space are mapped to changes in ambient water quality across the landscape, and ultimately to changes in ecosystem services and human values.
Progress Summary:
Progress towards objective 1 includes the completion of the organizational and conceptual framework for the team to work towards integration and development of the IAM. While refinements will continue until the project is completed, this objective is largely accomplished.
Progress towards objective 2 has likewise been excellent with the ecology team having researched the biological condition gradient and developed written descriptions associated each major BCG level for specific characterizations of stream and large river conditions. Likewise, an extensive data set has been compiled on about 31000 stream locations in the study region. This data set is an important research product in its own right.
Progress towards objective 3 has been good. A draft paper has been presented to an audience of ecologists and economists that contains a simple model depicting the relationship between consumer preferences and ecological goods. This work will help the research team identify what nonmarket values can be elicited from revealed and stated preference data. It will also provide insight to the research community to avoid double counting and/or under counting of values.
Progress towards objective 4 is likewise good. Significant progress has been made on the description and refinement of the good to be valued. This is a critical step in the ultimate implementation of the survey.
Progress towards objective 5 has been minimal, as expected. The development and implementation of a field experiment will occur largely after the complete development of the primary stated preference instrument.
Progress towards objective six has been good. The research team has completed four manuscripts reporting on the development and findings from integrated assessment models at relatively small spatial scales. In addition, progress on development of the IAM using the SWAT model for the full study area (the Upper Mississippi River Basin) has made good progress. That model should be ready for integration with ecological production functions relating the biological condition gradient to model inputs soon.
Future Activities:
The next major step is to hold focus groups to refine the survey instrument. In conjunction with that activity will be development of the full survey instrument itself. The team will follow best practices in survey development including the use of focus groups as well as a pilot study to fully test the instrument at small scale before full-fledged implementation. Review from stated preference and water quality experts will also be undertaken. The team goal is to implement these components in 2019 and with the full survey being deployed in that calendar year as well.
At the same time as survey refinement and deployment progresses, the portion of the team working on the hydrologic and ecological components of the integrated assessment model will be working to finalize those components of the IAM. This requires additional work on the production function development and the SWAT model (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) to finalize procedures to generate linkages between the nutrient modeling with SWAT and the biological condition gradient levels used in SWAT.
Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 26 publications for this projectSupplemental Keywords:
water quality, non-market valuation, stated preference survey, biological condition gradient, integrated assessment modelRelevant Websites:
Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, Iowa State University, Resource and Environmental Policy Division Exit
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.
Project Research Results
- Final Report
- 2021 Progress Report
- 2020 Progress Report
- 2019 Progress Report
- 2018 Progress Report
- 2016 Progress Report
- Original Abstract
7 journal articles for this project