Grantee Research Project Results

Valuing Water Quality Improvements in Midwestern Ecosystems: SpatialVariability, Validity and Extent of the Market for Total Value

EPA Grant Number: R836166
Title: Valuing Water Quality Improvements in Midwestern Ecosystems: SpatialVariability, Validity and Extent of the Market for Total Value
Investigators: Keiser, David A , Kling, Catherine L. , Phaneuf, Daniel J. , Zhao, Jinhua , Vossler, Christian , Finlay, Jacques C
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 Amount: $800,000
RFA: Water Quality Benefits (2015) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Water

Description:

To achieve these objectives our team will develop an alternative framework to the traditional water quality ladder to translate changes in nutrient loadings in rivers and streams to changes in ecological services that can be readily understood by the public, use this new framework to underpin a large stated preference survey to elicit total values (including nonuse values) for water quality changes in the Midwest, use real payment experiments to assess the validity of estimated values, and use the values in an Integrated Assessment Model framework for policy analysis.

Objective:

(a) Develop organizational and conceptual frameworks for integrating the project’s hydrological, ecological, and economic models at common spatial and temporal scales; (b) develop and quantify a spatially scalable ecological services production function linking ambient nutrient and sediment concentrations to ecological outputs; (c) investigate the mechanisms through which water quality enters household preferences and creates economic value, as mediated by the ecological services production function and the spatial distribution of quality outcomes; (d) 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; (e) conduct real payment field experiments to establish the validity of our stated preference estimates of willingness to pay, and (f) produce an Integrated Assessment Model 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.

Expected Results:

The results of this project will provide fundamental insight into how the public understands and values the attainment of water quality criteria, how spatial scope and scale can be incorporated into water resource valuation in an ecosystem services framework, and how upstream and downstream benefits relate to one another. These insights will directly inform cost benefit analysis of state and federal programs as well as support efforts to improve their design.

Publications and Presentations:

Publications have been submitted on this project: View all 26 publications for this project

Journal Articles:

Journal Articles have been submitted on this project: View all 7 journal articles for this project

Supplemental Keywords:

Nonmarket valuation, ecosystem services, stated preference, nonuse value

Progress and Final Reports:

The 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.