Grantee Research Project Results
2018 Progress Report: An Integrated Valuation Model Linking Nutrient Reductions to Changing Ecosystem Services in Freshwater Systems
EPA Grant Number: R836168Title: An Integrated Valuation Model Linking Nutrient Reductions to Changing Ecosystem Services in Freshwater Systems
Investigators: Herriges, Joseph A. , Lupi, Frank , Stevenson, R. Jan
Institution: Michigan State University
EPA Project Officer: Packard, Benjamin H
Project Period: September 1, 2016 through August 31, 2020 (Extended to August 31, 2023)
Project Period Covered by this Report: September 1, 2017 through August 31,2018
Project Amount: $799,074
RFA: Water Quality Benefits (2015) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Water
Objective:
The purpose of this research is to estimate the use and non-use values stemming from changes in nutrient loadings to freshwater systems of Michigan (rivers, lakes, and the Great Lakes) and, in doing so, address a number of challenges in the theory and practice of non-market valuation of water resources. Of the project’s three objectives, the first focuses on quantifying changes in water quality stemming from changes in nutrient loadings and developing water quality metrics that can be used to effectively communicate the corresponding changes in ecosystem services. Objective 2 seeks to use these metrics to assess how total willingness-to-pay (TWTP) depends on resource type (streams, lakes, and Great Lakes), location, and the spatial scale of impacts (e.g., lakes/stream segments, HUC10 or HUC8 sub-basins up to HUC4 regions). Objective 3 is concerned with the various approaches used in the literature to apportion TWTP into use and non-use components.
Progress Summary:
The key tasks for the project center on designing and fielding two nonmarket valuation surveys.
The baseline survey will examine how TWTP differs in terms of the resource impacted (Great Lakes versus inland lakes and rivers) and the reported ecosystem service affected (fish biomass, biological condition gradient, etc.). The second survey, on the other hand, will examine how TWTP changes across policy scenarios with different spatial scales, information treatments, and users versus non-user valuations. Our efforts during this reporting period have continued to be focused on the development of the water quality metrics for use in the baseline and follow-up surveys and on the design and implementation of the baseline survey itself. For water quality metrics, we sought to build off of and expanding upon the EPA’s National Water Quality Survey by exploring the use of three water quality metrics to separately convey the impact of water quality changes on (1) recreation involving water contact (e.g., swimming, boating), (2) recreational fishing, and (3) wildlife/naturalness, i.e., the variety and abundance of species in a waterway and the extent to which it has departed from its natural state.
Future Activities:
The three key tasks we will be focusing on over the next year will be analyzing the data from the baseline survey, improving on the water quality metrics, and designing the final survey for implementation in the Fall of 2019. In terms of the water quality metrics, we anticipate expanding on and updating the fish biomass data used in the Fishing Score. The biomass data we have for inland lakes covers most lakes over 10 acres in the state, but we plan to expand the data to all lakes of this size.
Similarly, many of the water quality measures (e.g., total phosphorus, fecal coliform, etc.) are available only for a set of monitoring stations. Our plan in the coming year is to develop models of the index components as a function of naturally varying attributes and human activities on the landscape with data from government and academic surveys. As design for the final survey is advanced, we will identify ecological attributes and indices to model. These models will allow us to estimate ecological conditions and to predict changes induced by nutrient policies in the state for any stream segment, lake, or segment of nearshore zones in the Great Lakes. In this way, the ecological modeling will provide an opportunity to aggregate and disaggregate information by parameter, space, and time to best address design goals for the final survey.
Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 7 publications for this projectProgress 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
- 2022 Progress Report
- 2021 Progress Report
- 2020 Progress Report
- 2019 Progress Report
- 2017 Progress Report
- Original Abstract
1 journal articles for this project