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Modeling of Water Quality Benefits
Citation:
Doley, T., C. Griffiths, B. Rashleigh, J. Corona, AND M. Trombley. Modeling of Water Quality Benefits. International Environmental Modeling and Software Society, Fort Collins, CO, June 24 - 28, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
The water quality benefits modeling platform replaces ad hoc approaches, and expands benefits coverage to the national scale.
Description:
For its Clean Water Act programs, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has historically had difficulty quantitatively demonstrating that benefits justify costs. The focus of past analyses has been on use/recreation values of freshwater rivers and lakes, with limited ability to value non-use. Recently, three offices within EPA have worked together to develop a national water quality benefits modeling framework to support improved quantification of the economic benefits of EPA regulations. The approach combines water quality data or modeling outputs into a water quality index, which is then combined with a valuation model and spatial distribution and demographic data to estimate total benefits. The modeling platform replaces ad hoc approaches, and expands benefits coverage to the national scale. We present an example application for water quality improvements for lakes in the U.S. state of Missouri.