Matthew T. Heberling

Estimating the economic value of national parks with count data models using on-site, secondary data: the case of the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.

We estimate an individual travel cost model for Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve (GSD) in Colorado using on-site, secondary data. The purpose of the on-site survey was to help the National Park Service better understand the visitors of GSD; it was not intended for a travel cost model. Variables such as travel cost and income were estimated based on respondents’ Zip Codes. Following approaches found in the literature, a negative binomial model corrected for truncation and endogenous stratification fit the data the best. We estimate a recreational benefit of U.S.

Development of a multidisciplinary approach to assess regional sustainability

89/visitor/year or U.S.

Comparing drinking water treatment costs to source water protection costs using time series analysis

54/visitor/24-h recreational day (in 2002 U.S.

Introduction to the special collection of papers on the San Luis Basin Sustainability Metrics Project: A methodology for evaluating regional sustainability

). Based on the approach presented here, there are other data sets for national parks, preserves, and battlefields where travel cost models could be estimated and used to support National Park Service management decisions.

Environmental economics for watershed restoration.

There are a number of established, scientifically supported metrics of sustainability. Many of the metrics are data-intensive and require extensive effort to collect data and compute the metrics. Moreover, individual metrics do not capture all aspects of a system that are relevant to sustainability. A pilot project was initiated to create an approach to measure, monitor, and maintain prosperity and environmental quality of a regional system. The goal was to produce a straightforward, inexpensive methodology that is simple to use and interpret. This requires historical data be readily accessible, metrics must be applicable to the relevant scale, and results must meet the needs of decision-makers. Because sustainability is a multidimensional concept, the research group consisted of a multidisciplinary team that identified the major components of an environmental system. We selected metrics to capture the multidimensionality of sustainability in environmental systems and included: (1) emergy to capture the quality-normalized flow of energy through the system; (2) ecological footprint to capture the impact of humans on the system; (3) green net regional product to estimate human prosperity and well being within the system; and (4) Fisher information to capture the dynamic order of the system. We were able to compute metrics for a test geographic region using existing datasets. Preliminary analysis indicates that each metric reveals a somewhat different trend. These preliminary findings support the idea that characterization of sustainability requires a multidisciplinary approach and demonstrate the need to measure multiple aspects of an environmental system.

Factors Influencing Farmers’ Adoption of Best Management Practices: A Review and Synthesis

We present a framework to compare water treatment costs to source water protection costs, an important knowledge gap for drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs). This trade-off helps to determine what incentives a DWTP has to invest in natural infrastructure or pollution reduction in the watershed rather than pay for treatment on site. To illustrate, we use daily observations from 2007 to 2011 for the Bob McEwen Water Treatment Plant, Clermont County, Ohio, to understand the relationship between treatment costs and water quality and operational variables (e.g., turbidity, total organic carbon [TOC], pool elevation, and production volume). Part of our contribution to understanding drinking water treatment costs is examining both long-run and short-run relationships using error correction models (ECMs). Treatment costs per 1000 gallons (per 3.79 m3) were based on chemical, pumping, and granular activated carbon costs. Results from the ECM suggest that a 1% decrease in turbidity decreases treatment costs by 0.02% immediately and an additional 0.1% over future days. Using mean values for the plant, a 1% decrease in turbidity leads to

Sustainability: Multi-disciplinary perspectives

1123/year decrease in treatment costs. To compare these costs with source water protection costs, we use a polynomial distributed lag model to link total phosphorus loads, a source water quality parameter affected by land use changes, to turbidity at the plant. We find the costs for source water protection to reduce loads much greater than the reduction in treatment costs during these years. Although we find no incentive to protect source water in our case study, this framework can help DWTPs quantify the trade-offs.

Valuing acid mine drainage remediation in West Virginia: benefit transfer with preference calibration

This paper introduces a collection of four articles describing the San Luis Basin Sustainability Metrics Project. The Project developed a methodology for evaluating regional sustainability. This introduction provides the necessary background information for the project, description of the region, overview of the methods, and summary of the results. Although there are a multitude of scientifically based sustainability metrics, many are data intensive, difficult to calculate, and fail to capture all aspects of a system. We wanted to see if we could develop an approach that decision-makers could use to understand if their system was moving toward or away from sustainability. The goal was to produce a scientifically defensible, but straightforward and inexpensive methodology to measure and monitor environmental quality within a regional system. We initiated an interdisciplinary pilot project in the San Luis Basin, south-central Colorado, to test the methodology. The objectives were: 1) determine the applicability of using existing datasets to estimate metrics of sustainability at a regional scale; 2) calculate metrics through time from 1980 to 2005; and 3) compare and contrast the results to determine if the system was moving toward or away from sustainability. The sustainability metrics, chosen to represent major components of the system, were: 1) Ecological Footprint to capture the impact and human burden on the system; 2) Green Net Regional Product to represent economic welfare; 3) Emergy to capture the quality-normalized flow of energy through the system; and 4) Fisher information to capture the overall dynamic order and to look for possible regime changes. The methodology, data, and results of each metric are presented in the remaining four papers of the special collection. Based on the results of each metric and our criteria for understanding the sustainability trends, we find that the San Luis Basin is moving away from sustainability. Although we understand there are strengths and limitations of the methodology, we argue that each metric identifies changes to major components of the system.

The Effects of Source Water Quality on Drinking Water Treatment Costs: A Review and Synthesis of Empirical Literature

Preface About the Editors Contributors Abbreviations Introduction to Economic Jargon and Decision Tools Hale W. Thurston, Matthew T. Heberling, and Alyse Schrecongost A Closer Look at Valuation Methods and Their Uses Hale W. Thurston, Matthew T. Heberling, and Alyse Schrecongost Valuing the Restoration of Acidic Streams in the Appalachian Region: A Stated Choice Method Alan R. Collins, Randall S. Rosenberger, and Jerald J. Fletcher Using Hedonic Modeling to Value AMD Remediation in the Cheat River Watershed James M. Williamson and Hale W. Thurston Using Benefit Transfer to Value Acid Mine Drainage Remediation in West Virginia James M. Williamson, Hale W. Thurston, and Matthew T. Heberling Economics of Ecosystem Management for the Catawba River Basin Randall A. Kramer, Jonathan I. Eisen-Hecht, and Gene E. Vaughan Estimating Willingness to Pay for Aquatic Resource Improvements Using Benefits Transfer Robert J. Johnston and Elena Y. Besedin Using Conceptual Models to Communicate Environmental Changes Matthew T. Heberling, George Van Houtven, Stephen Beaulieu, Randall J. F. Bruins, Evan Hansen, Anne Sergeant, and Hale W. Thurston Local Economic Benefits of Restoring Deckers Creek:A Preliminary Analysis Alyse Schrecongost and Evan Hansen Glossary Index

Exploring Nontraditional Participation as an Approach to Make Water Quality Trading Markets More Effective

Best management practices (BMPs) for reducing agricultural non-point source pollution are widely available. However, agriculture remains a major global contributor to degradation of waters because farmers often do not adopt BMPs. To improve water quality, it is necessary to understand the factors that influence BMP adoption by farmers. We review the findings of BMP adoption studies from both developed and developing countries, published after (or otherwise not included in) two major literature reviews from 2007 and 2008. We summarize the study locations, scales, and BMPs studied; the analytical methods used; the factors evaluated; and the directionality of each factors influence on BMP adoption. We then present a conceptual framework for BMP adoption decisions that emphasizes the importance of scale, the tailoring or targeting of information and incentives, and the importance of expected farm profits. We suggest that future research directions should focus on study scale, on measuring and modeling of adoption as a continuous process, and on incorporation of social norms and uncertainty into decision-making. More research is needed on uses of social media and market recognition approaches (such as certificate schemes and consumer labeling) to influence BMP adoption.