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The Economic Value of Recreation and Water Quality on Cape Cod
Citation:
Merrill, N., M. Mazzotta, K. Mulvaney, AND S. Lyon. The Economic Value of Recreation and Water Quality on Cape Cod. Presented at OneCape Summit, Harwich, MA, August 16 - 17, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
Water quality is important to recreation and can affect its availability and experience. This presentation explains a number of projects that are ongoing to quantify recreation and value its importance to people on Cape Cod, Barnstable County, MA.
Description:
A team of social scientists at the US EPA’s Atlantic Ecology Division have been working to quantify the economic value of recreation and how it may be affected by water quality. As part of this effort, we have conducted a number of studies on Cape Cod related to recreation including a study of visitation to the Three Bays estuary, an economic valuation of the town of Barnstable’s major beaches, as well as a few studies more broadly applicable to the Cape and New England. This presentation will give a motivation and overview of the studies, summary of recent results, and preview of what is on the horizon.