Stakeholder Willingness to Pay for Watershed Restoration in Rural Bolivia1

Abstract: Two CVM surveys were administered to 211 urban households and 188 rural farmer‐irrigators in the Comarapa watershed in Bolivia, South America, to estimate stakeholder willingness to pay (WTP) for a proposed upper watershed restoration program. Mean monthly household WTP to improve drinking water was $1.95 (65% of current charges), while mean annual WTP among farmer‐irrigators to improve irrigation water was $17 per hectare (34% of current costs). Aggregated to the entire population of households and farmer‐irrigators total WTP is $77,400 per year, which is 77% of the minimum cost to implement a watershed restoration program.     

COORDINATION OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE AC A CASE STUDY OF LAKE RESTORATION1

ABSTRACT: The potential for joint public and private action for lake restoration is examined using Lake Apopka, Florida, as a case study. Initial calculations indicate that private incentives alone are inadequate to attract investment in a facility to grow and harvest water hyacinths for conversion to methane gas. However, the private externality of water quality improvement associated with harvesting water hyacinths provides a key linkage between the public's water quality objectives and the private gas producer's actions. In order to establish the potential basis for negotiation, the public's willingness-to-pay for environmental services associated with improved water quality is estimated and compared with the estimated subsidy required to induce private action. A conceptual framework is then presented for coordinating actions between private firms and public water management agencies in order to internalize the private externality of water quality improvement while simultaneously achieving the public and private objectives. Results indicate that the subsidization of water hyacinth production and harvesting compares favorably with alternative means of enhancing the water quality of Lake Apopka.     

Resident Motivations and Willingness-to-Pay for Urban Biodiversity Conservation in Guangzhou (China)

The monetary assessment of biodiversity measures the welfare damages brought by biodiversity losses and the cost-benefit analysis of conservation projects in a socio-economic context. The contingent valuation method could include motivational factors to strengthen economic analysis of nature conservation. This study analyzed Guangzhou residents’ motivations and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for an urban biodiversity conservation program in the National Baiyun Mountain Scenic Area (BMSA). The peri-urban natural site, offering refuge to some endemic species, is under increasing development pressures for recreational and residential use. A questionnaire survey was conducted in the Guangzhou metropolitan area during June to October 2007. We interviewed face-to-face 720 stratified sampled households to probe residents’ attitudes towards the city’s environmental issues, motivations for urban nature conservation, and WTP for biodiversity conservation. Principal component analysis identified five motivational factors, including environmental benefit, ecological diversity, nature-culture interaction, landscape-recreation function, and intergenerational sustainability, which illustrated the general economic values of urban nature. Logistic regression was applied to predict the probability of people being willing to pay for the urban biodiversity conservation in BMSA. The significant predictors of WTP included household income and the factor nature-culture interaction. The median WTP estimated RMB149/household (about US$19.5/household) per year and an aggregate of RMB291 million (approximately US$19.5/household) per year and an aggregate of RMB291 million (approximately US38.2 million) annually to support the urban conservation project. Including public motivations into contingent valuation presents a promising approach to conduct cost-benefit analysis of public projects in China.     

Creating False Images: Stream Restoration in an Urban Setting

Stream restoration has become a multibillion dollar business with mixed results as to its efficacy. This case study utilizes pre‐ and post‐monitoring data from restoration projects on an urban stream to assess how well stream conditions, publicly stated project goals, and project implementation align. Our research confirms previous studies showing little communication among academic researchers and restoration practitioners as well as provides further evidence that restoration efforts tend to focus on small‐scale, specific sites without considering broader land use patterns. This study advances our understanding of restoration by documenting that although improving ecological conditions is a stated goal for restoration projects, the implemented measures are not always focused on those issues that are the most ecologically salient. What these projects have accomplished is to protect the built environment and promote positive public perception. We argue that these disconnects among publicized goals for restoration, the implemented features, and actual stream conditions may create a false image of what an ecologically stable stream looks like and therefore perpetuate a false sense of optimism about the feasibility of restoring urban streams.     

Revealing Preferences for Reductions of Public Risks: An Application of the CV Approach

In this paper the contingent valuation method (CVM) is applied to public risk reduction. Theory suggests that the size of the stated willingness to pay (WTP) for risk reduction depends on private activities aimed at reducing the risk level for the individual. The empirical results suggest that considering private averting activities increases the explanatory power of the estimated WTP function significantly. Thus, WTP passes the scope test which proposes that larger reductions from a larger baseline risk should be valued higher than lower risk reductions from a lower baseline risk. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the follow-up response format induces anchoring effects.     

Improving the Urban Stream Restoration Effort: Identifying Critical Form and Processes Relationships

Stream restoration projects are often based on morphological form or stream type and, as a result, there needs to be a clear tie established between form and function of the stream. An examination of the literature identifies numerous relationships in naturally forming streams that link morphologic form and stream processes. Urban stream restoration designs often work around infrastructure and incorporate bank stabilization and grade control structures. Because of these imposed constraints and highly altered hydrologic and sediment discharge regimens, the design of urban channel projects is rather unclear. In this paper, we examine the state of the art in relationships between form and processes, the strengths and weaknesses of these existing relationships, and the current lack of understanding in applying these relationships in the urban environment. In particular, we identify relationships that are critical to urban stream restoration projects and provide recommendations for future research into how this information can be used to improve urban stream restoration design. It is also suggested that improving the success of urban restoration projects requires further investigation into incorporating process-based methodologies, which can potentially reduce ambiguity in the design and the necessity of using an abundant amount of in-stream structures.     

Residential Preferences for River Network Improvement: An Exploration of Choice Experiments in Zhujiajiao,Shanghai, China

River networks have both ecological and social benefits for urban development. However, river networks have suffered extensive destruction as a result of urbanization and industrialization, especially in China. River restoration is a growth business but suffers poor efficiency due to a lack of social understanding. Assessing the benefits of river system restoration and recognizing public preferences are critical for effective river ecosystem restoration and sustainable river management. This study used a choice experiment with a multinomial logit model and a random parameter logit model to assess respondents’ cognitive preferences regarding attributes of river networks, and their possible sources of heterogeneity. Results showed that riverfront condition was the attribute most preferred by respondents, while stream morphology was the least preferred. Results also illustrated that the current status of each of three river network attributes was not desirable, and respondents would prefer a river network with a “branch pattern,” that is “limpid with no odor,” and “accessible with vegetation.” Estimated willingness to pay was mainly affected by household monthly income, residential location, and whether respondents had household members engaged in a water protection career. The assessment results can provide guidance and a reference for managers, sponsors, and researchers.     

Water Quality Signals from Rural Land Use and Exurbanization in a Mountain Landscape: What's Clear and What's Confounded?

In mountainous landscapes with high climatic and geomorphic variability, how do rural land uses and exurbanization alter hydrology and water quality? We evaluated effects of rural land use and exurbanization on streamflows, suspended sediment concentrations and loads, specific conductance, and summer water temperatures in 12 streams and rivers within the Upper Little Tennessee River basin in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Eleven streams featured low levels of development (>61% forest cover) but differed in land use patterning, basin size, annual precipitation, and watershed morphology. One urban stream, located within the largest town in the basin, provided the high development comparative endpoint. Even low levels of rural development and exurbanization were associated with substantial increases in suspended sediment concentrations, sediment loads, and summer stream temperature daily maxima and diurnal variation. Observed summer temperature increases were much larger than would be expected due to global climate change over the next century. Specific conductance was idiosyncratic among the smaller streams. These water quality changes were not accompanied by streamflow changes that were discernible amid the high natural variation in precipitation and geomorphology. The water quality findings suggest the need for applying the best management practices, including riparian buffers, to even low levels of rural development.     

How “open” are open spaces: evaluating transformation of open space at residential level in Adelaide – a case study

This paper examines the transformation of open space and how it compares to older residential development. A study has been conducted at the residential level because neighbourhoods have been a basic unit of city design throughout the recent history of urban settlements. Furthermore, the neighbourhood is a more humanly relevant scale of urban development. The method adopted for this research was a comparative urbanism by comparing old and new residential areas. This study found that incremental redevelopment of old residential areas through both re-subdivision and intensification of development on existing allotments has resulted in a progressive loss of open space. However, the study also confirmed that the current supplies of open space across all the study areas (old and new residential areas) are relatively similar. The main difference between the open space supply in older and newer residential areas comes down to the ownership of land (i.e. the proportion of public versus private open space). The study demonstrated that older residential areas with large allotments have experienced a significant loss of private open space – originally from 50%, to current levels of 23–30%. The paper concludes that there is a need for a holistic approach to the provision of public and private open spaces to improve the quality of life at a residential level.     

Characterizing a Major Urban Stream Restoration Project: Nine Mile Run (Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania, USA)

Urban stream restoration continues to be used as an ecological management tool, despite uncertainty about the long‐term sustainability and resilience of restored systems. Evaluations of restoration success often focus on specific instream indicators, with limited attention to the wider basin or parallel hydrologic and geomorphic process. A comprehensive understanding of urban stream restoration progress is particularly important for comparisons with nonurban sites as urban streams can provide substantial secondary benefits to urban residents. Here, we utilize a wide range of indicators to retrospectively examine the restoration of Nine Mile Run, a multi‐million dollar stream restoration project in eastern Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania, USA). Examination of available continuous hydrological data illustrates the high cost of failures to incorporate the data into planning and adaptive management. For example, persistent extreme flows drive geomorphic degradation threatening to reverse hydrologic connections created by the restoration and impact the improved instream biotic communities. In addition, human activities associated with restoration efforts suggest a positive feedback as the stream restoration has focused effort on the basin beyond the reach. Ultimately, urban stream restoration remains a potentially useful management tool, but continued improvements in post‐project assessment should include examination of a wider range of indicators.     

RURAL HOUSEHOLD RESPONSE TO WATER CONTAMINATION IN WEST VIRGINIA1

ABSTRACT: About one-third of all West Virginians obtain domestic water from private water wells. In this research, mail and telephone surveys were used to investigate household responses to bacteria, mineral, and organic chemical contamination of domestic water supplies. Of households who were informed of contamination and acknowledged the problem, over 85 percent took action to avoid exposure to water contamination problems. The most common action was to clean and/or repair the water system (55.9 percent of valid surveys). Approximately 45 percent of households made investments of either a water treatment system, a new water source, or correction of contamination source. The average, annual economic cost of rural household actions was $320 for bacteria, $357 for minerals, and $1,090 for organic contamination. These economic costs represent a lower bound estimate for rural household willingness-to-pay (WTP) for a reduction in domestic water contamination from government action. On average, investment actions had lower annual economic costs than noninvestment actions of boiling and hauling water so that households who undertook investment actions in response to water contamination would have a lower WTP for government action to reduce water contamination. When effectiveness of water treatment systems was evaluated, treatment systems which require minimal household maintenance were found to reduce exposure to water contamination to safe levels as households intended when they installed the system. Treatment systems which were commonly ineffective included those which required continual maintenance (e.g., chiorinators) or were not designed to solve the contaminant problem for which they were purchased (e.g., filter systems for bacteria).     

URBANIZATION IMPACT ON WATER QUALITY DURING A FLOOD IN SMALL WATERSHEDS1

ABSTRACT: The impact of various urban land uses on water flow and quality in streams is being studied by monitoring small streams in the Milwaukee urban area. This paper compares the responses of an urban watershed and an agricultural watershed to an autumn rainfall of 2.2 cm. Flow from the urban basin showed a substantially greater response to the rain than that from the rural. Dilution, resulting from the greater quantities of surface runoff in the urban watershed, caused lower concentrations of sodium, chloride, calcium, magnesium, bicarbonate and total dissolved solids in the urban stream. The total quantity of these materials removed per unit drainage area of the urban basin was much greater, however. Road salt was still among the dominant dissolved materials in the urban water chemistry seven months after the last road salting. Sodium was apparently being released from adsorption by clays in the urban basin. Suspended sediment concentrations and total loads were higher in the urban stream.     

Food production in the city: (re)negotiating land,food and property

This paper addresses issues of access to land for food production in Toronto by offering fresh perspectives on urban agriculture in the neo-liberal city of the global north. It examines attempts to scale up urban agriculture that emphasise changing the relationships between land access, property and new collaborative relationships among different stakeholders. These initiatives involve renegotiating access to land for growing food between private property owners and landless growers, concomitant shifts in control over valued resources and commercialisation. These shifts are often based on relations of trust within a sharing economy rather than public battles over political decisions to develop urban agriculture lands. Growing food on private lands in the city is political in challenging taken-for-granted ideas and practices of property and urban agriculture. New approaches offer options for training and income, as well as expanding the land base for urban agriculture. Small-scale farming projects are affirmative political manoeuvres. They challenge urban residents to consider land for food production across the categories of public and private property. We document three approaches that challenge current property relations: temporary use of a development site through “soft” squatting; redesignating suburban backyards for farmer training and community-based and private food production; and garden sharing of private home backyards for urban food production and commercial growing. Such initiatives articulate alternative visions of sustainability and food security that rely on principles of collaboration and a sharing economy that challenge prevailing notions of property ownership and food security.     

Public support for ecosystem restoration in the Hudson River Valley,USA

We applied the Theory of Planned Behavior to help understand the relationships between environmental beliefs, support for ecosystem restoration actions, and willingness to pay (WTP) for restoration and protection goals in the Hudson River estuary, New York State, USA. We conducted a mail survey with 3,000 randomly-chosen local residents of the Hudson River estuary in the fall of 1999. As hypothesized, the broad ecosystem restoration goals of the Hudson River Estuary Action Plan were more strongly supported than the corresponding specific implementation actions. We found that beliefs and past behavior were better explanatory variables than sociodemographic characteristics for explaining people's support for ecosystem restoration actions and WTP for restoration and protection goals. Because ecosystem restoration goals appear to be more generally acceptable than specific restoration actions, proponents of restoration programs should not become complacent about the need for active public outreach and involvement even if initial restoration program discussions have been low in controversy. Efforts to assess and foster support for ecosystem restoration should be targeted toward audiences identified on the basis of beliefs and past behaviors rather than on sociodemographic characteristics.     

DETERMINING NUTRIENT EXPORT COEFFICIENTS AND SOURCE LOADING UNCERTAINTY USING IN‐STREAM MONITORING DATA1

ABSTRACT: Over a three‐year period, flow and nutrients were monitored at 13 sites in the upper North Bosque River watershed in Texas. Drainage areas above sampling sites differed in percent of dairy waste application fields, forage fields, wood/range, and urban land area. A multiple regression approach was used to develop total phosphorus (TP) and total nitrogen (TN) export coefficients for the major land uses in these heterogeneous drainage areas. The largest export coefficients were associated with dairy waste application fields followed by urban, forage fields, and wood/range. An empirical model was then established to assess nutrient contribution by major sources using developed export coefficients and point source loadings from municipal wastewater treatment. This model was verified by comparison of estimated loadings to measured in‐stream data. Monte Carlo simulation techniques were applied to provide an uncertainty analysis for nutrient loads by source, based on the variance associated with each export coefficient. The largest sources of nutrients contributing to the upper North Bosque River were associated with dairy waste application fields and forage fields, while the greatest relative uncertainty in source contribution was associated with loadings from urban and wood/range land uses.     

Buy Me a River: Purchasing Water Rights to Restore River Flows in the Western USA

In recent decades, public and private environmental entities have been purchasing or leasing water rights across the Western United States (U.S.) in efforts to restore river flows and aquatic ecosystems. The need to pay for flow restoration arises from the fact that state governments did not begin to reserve water for instream purposes until the 1970s, long after water rights had become over‐appropriated and flows were substantially depleted in most rivers. As a consequence, flow depletion has become the leading cause of fish endangerment in the U.S., including the imperilment of two‐thirds of all native fish species in the Colorado River system. This paper takes stock of the progress made in buying water for the environment, specifically by reviewing and analyzing more than 50 transactions executed by public and private entities and the sources of funding underpinning these transactions. We conclude that nongovernmental actors — such as environmental organizations and state water trusts — are integral to regional efforts to restore river flows; these nongovernmental actors executed more than two‐thirds of the transactions we documented. However, we also conclude that the long‐term success of these nongovernmental actors depends upon the availability of sustained public funding that enables them to build capacity and engage in the large number of transactions needed to restore flows across each state.     

APPLICATION OF A MULTIPURPOSE UNEQUAL PROBABILITY STREAM SURVEY IN THE MID‐ATLANTIC COASTAL PLAIN1

ABSTRACT: A stratified, spatially balanced sample with unequal probability selection was used to design a multipurpose survey of headwater streams in the Mid‐Atlantic Coastal Plain. Objectives for the survey include unbiased estimates of regional stream conditions, and adequate coverage of unusual but significant environmental settings to support empirical modeling of the factors affecting those conditions. The design and field application of the survey are discussed in light of these multiple objectives. A probability (random) sample of 175 first‐order nontidal streams was selected for synoptic sampling of water chemistry and benthic and riparian ecology during late winter and spring 2000. Twenty‐five streams were selected within each of seven hydrogeologic subre‐gions (strata) that were delineated on the basis of physiography and surficial geology. In each subregion, unequal inclusion probabilities were used to provide an approximately even distribution of streams along a gradient of forested to developed (agricultural or urban) land in the contributing watershed. Alternate streams were also selected. Alternates were included in groups of five in each subregion when field reconnaissance demonstrated that primary streams were inaccessible or otherwise unusable. Despite the rejection and replacement of a considerable number of primary streams during reconnaissance (up to 40 percent in one subregion), the desired land use distribution was maintained within each hydrogeologic subregion without sacrificing the probabilistic design.     

Integration of Satellite Imagery and Forest Inventory in Mapping Dominant and Associated Species at a Regional Scale

To achieve the overall objective of restoring natural environment and sustainable resource usability, each forest management practice effect needs to be predicted using a simulation model. Previous simulation efforts were typically confined to public land. Comprehensive forest management practices entail incorporating interactions between public and private land. To make inclusion of private land into management planning feasible at the regional scale, this study uses a new method of combining Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data with remotely sensed forest group data to retrieve detailed species composition and age information for the Missouri Ozark Highlands. Remote sensed forest group and land form data inferred from topography were integrated to produce distinct combinations (ecotypes). Forest types and size classes were assigned to ecotypes based on their proportions in the FIA data. Then tree species and tree age determined from FIA subplots stratified by forest type and size class were assigned to pixels for the entire study area. The resulting species composition map can improve simulation model performance in that it has spatially explicit and continuous information of dominant and associated species, and tree ages that are unavailable from either satellite imagery or forest inventory data. In addition, the resulting species map revealed that public land and private land in Ozark Highlands differ in species composition and stand size. Shortleaf pine is a co-dominant species in public land, whereas it becomes a minor species in private land. Public forest is older than private forest. Both public and private forests have deviated from historical forest condition in terms of species composition. Based on possible reasons causing the deviation discussed in this study, corresponding management avenues that can assist in restoring natural environment were recommended.     

MODELING NITROGEN TRANSPORT IN THE IPSWICH RIVER BASIN,MASSACHUSETTS, USING A HYDROLOGICAL SIMULATION PROGRAM IN FORTRAN (HSPF)1

ABSTRACT: Increased riverine nitrogen (N) fluxes have been strongly correlated with land use changes and are now one of the largest pollution problems in the coastal region of the United States. In the present study, the Hydrological Simulation Program‐FORTRAN (HSPF) is used to simulate transport of N in the Ipswich River basin in Massachusetts and to evaluate the effect of future land use scenarios on the water quality of the river. Model results show that under a land use change scenario constructed with restrictions from environmental protection laws, where 44 percent of the forest in the basin was converted to urban land, stream nitrate concentrations increased by about 30 percent of the present values. When an extreme land use scenario was used, and 100 percent of the forest was converted to urban land, concentrations doubled in comparison to present values. Model simulations also showed that present stream nitrate concentrations might be four times greater than they were prior to urbanization. While pervious lands with high density residential land use generated runoff with the highest N concentrations in HSPF simulations, the results suggested that denitrification in the riparian zone and wetlands coupled with the hydrology of the basin are likely to control the magnitude of nitrate loads to the aquatic system. The simulation results showed that HSPF can predict the general patterns of inorganic N concentrations in the Ipswich River and tributaries. Nevertheless, HSPF has some difficulty simulating the extreme variability of the observed data throughout the main stem and tributaries, probably because of limitations in the representation of wetlands and riparian zones in the model, where N processes such as denitrification seem to play a major role in controlling the transport of N from the terrestrial system to the river reaches.     

Urban Land Use,Channel Incision,and Water Table Decline Along Coastal Plain Streams,North Carolina1

Abstract: This study evaluates the effects of urban land use on stream channels and riparian ground‐water levels along low‐order Inner Coastal Plain streams in North Carolina. Six sites with stream catchments of similar size (1.19‐3.46 km²) within the Tar River Basin were selected across an urban land use gradient, as quantified by a range of catchment total impervious area (TIA; 3.8‐36.7%). Stream stage and ground‐water levels within three floodplain monitoring wells were measured manually and using pressure transducers from May 2006‐June 2007. Channel incision ratio (CIR), the ratio of bank height to bankfull height, was also measured at each monitoring site and along stream reaches within the study area (12 urban and 12 rural sites). Riparian ground‐water levels were inversely related to catchment TIA (%). As TIA (%) and stormwater runoff increased, the degree of stream channel incision increased and riparian ground‐water tables declined. In urban floodplains (>15% TIA), the median ground‐water level was 0.84 m deeper than for the rural settings (<15% TIA). This has resulted in a shift to drier conditions in the urban riparian zones, particularly during the summer months. CIR was found to be a reliable surface indicator of “riparian hydrologic drought” in these settings.