Citation:

Papenfus, M., Joe Ebersole, B. Beebe, H. Lesch, B. Rashleigh, AND R. Labiosa. LINKING VALUATION AND FISH POPULATION MODELS FOR ECONOMIC ANALYSIS. Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Grand Rapids, Michigan, May 14 - 20, 2022.

Impact/Purpose:

Research conducted in support of this output will refine and/or develop models, methods, and approaches to improve water quality and watershed and aquifer management for both regulatory and non-regulatory needs of stakeholders. ORD will develop open-source versions of water quality, watershed, and socio-economic models, and provide training and technical support for these models, to enable stakeholders to make effective, science-based water quality decisions. Research results provided by ORD and policy application by OW and the Office of Policy/National Center for Environmental Economics, will expand the capacity of current models to include a variety of water body types (with priorities given to estuaries, the Great Lakes, and coastal waters), improve water quality-economic linkages by supporting and incenting collaborations among biophysical and social scientists, explore market-based incentives, and provide an updated toolkit for use in regulatory and non-regulatory programs.  This presentaton will summarize work to date on linkage of fish population/community models with economic models for scenario analysis, e.g., discrete-choice economic model evaluating willingness-to-pay for changes in salmon populations and recovery status.  

Description:

Protection of water quality and aquatic habitat is a priority for water managers, policy makers, environmental organizations, and private citizens. Planning, prioritization, and policymaking for water quality and aquatic habitat improvements often require consideration of the monetary costs and social benefits that may arise as a consequence of restoration and policy implementations. These benefits may arise directly from meeting targetted endpoints resulting from a program or indirectly as the result of connections  and secondary effects from meeting the targeted goal. Such indirect benefits are also called co-benefits and can represent a large proportion of overall benefits derived from policy actions.  In this presentation, we describe our approach to characterizing and quantifying economic benefits associated with salmon recovery that is linked to targetted water quality and aquatic habitat improvements.  We characterize salmon recovery as a key co-benefit of water quality and habitat restoration programs.  We also highlight key points to creating a conceptual and empirical bridge linking improvements in water quality and habitat to salmon population recovery.   We provide examples within each of these connectionsand identify key gaps and challenges.  While salmon population recovery falls primarily under the purview of the Endangered Species Act, this work highlights the need for coordinated efforts between regulatory bodies that each separately regulate or manage ecological components that are key to salmon recovery.  Without such coordination the likelihood of cost-effective or efficient policy is more difficult.

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